Animac, International Animation Film Festival of Catalonia, has announced the list of titles selected for several of its official sections — Shorts, Future Talent, Little Animac, and Talent.cat — which will be screened in this 27th festival to be held onsite in Lleida, Spain from February 23-26 and online through the Filmin platform March 3-12. The selection includes Oscar-nominated NFB short The Flying Sailor (Shorts 1), by Canadian directors Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis.
This year, the official section for the Shorts track showcasing the best and most recent animated short films from around the world, presents 40 films from 22 different countries over five sessions. In addition to The Flying Sailor, notable titles in this section include stop-motion short Salvation Has No Name (Shorts 2) directed by Joseph Wallace (U.K./France/Czech Republic); Amarradas (Shorts 2), the Goya-nominated film by Carmen Córdoba that explores the link between a mother and daughter (Spain); Sierra (Shorts 4) by Sander Joon, which enters a surreal world of car racing (Estonia); and O Homem do Lixo / The Garbage Man (Shorts 4) by Laura Gonçalves, which tells the story of a man who endured a hard life with humor and imagination (Portugal).
Amok (Shorts 3) by Balázs Turai (Hungary/Romania), winner of the Cristal Award at the Annecy festival, will also screen, as will Babičino seksualno življenje / Granny’s Sexual Life (Shorts 3), by Urška Djukić and Émilie Pigeard (Slovenia/France), nominated for the César Award. The first of these is a short with no dialog in which the protagonist faces his inner demons after losing his fiancée and his good looks in a freak accident, while the second goes on a journey back to the youth of a grandmother to show Slovenian women in the first half of the 20th century.
The section for narrative and visual experiments within the official Shorts section, Shorts 5 White Cube, will feature the films The Hour Coat by Amy Kravitz (U.S.); Backflip by Nikita Diakur (Germany/France); Boca by Frederic Amat (Spain); and Intermission by Réka Bucsi (Hungary), among others.
The section Future Talent, dedicated to shorts from animation schools around the world, this year has three sessions with a total of 37 shorts selected from 14 countries, notably À bicyclette by Océane Lavergne, Benjamin Langagne, Lucas Durot, Pierre Cilluffo, Marine Beuvain and Kerrian Detay; Slouch by Michael Bohnenstingl; and Oscar-nominated An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It by Lachlan Pendragon.
Little Animac, the section of the festival aimed squarely at the very young and their families, has programmed 48 films from 18 countries in six different sessions. The aim of Little Animac is to introduce children to the world of animation and its various techniques while encouraging their curiosity and taste for cinema.
The films screened will include the series of micro shorts Našeprasátko (Little Animac 1 Short & Sweet) by Jaromír Plachý, creator of the adventure videogame Botanicula; The Smeds and the Smoos (Little Animac 2) by Daniel Snaddon and Samantha Cutler, the tenth adaptation of a book by the writer Julia Donaldson from Magic Light Pictures; and Operación Frankenstein (Little Animac 3) by José María Fernández de Vega, a film with a surprising ending, far from the classic tale.
Other notable films in this kids & family section include Les astres immobiles (Little Animac 4) by Noémi Gruner and Séléna Picque, a story that spotlights the life of Chenghua and her parents’ difficulties, and La joya del pantano (Little Animac 5) by Camilo Ayala Nieto.
The films included in the official sections Shorts, Future Talent and Little Animac are eligible for the festival’s audience award.
The Talent.cat section , which brings together animation films from students in Catalan-speaking territories, this year has the participation of 14 schools which have submitted 16 films: Let’s Dance, Beyond the Fringe, La Cucharada, Half-Dog, Pank con chocolate, Sweet Side, Jidai (次代), Era del presente, Ventanas, Pieces of Us, Chimborazo, Sully, Sunburned, Vestigis, Proceso Mental and Papirola. The winning film will be selected by a jury of professionals.
“It should be noted that, although Animac is the oldest festival, it is also the youngest because it welcomes all these creations by students from different schools in Catalonia,” says festival director Carolina López.
Organized by Lleida City Council Animac 2023 celebrates the creativity of Latin American animation under the motto “LatAm Boom!”, highlighting defining features of the region such as cultural richness, the search for local stories and aesthetics, diversity, magic realism and political and social commitment.
This showcase will feature the best of animated cinema with monographic and retrospective sessions, as well as a handpicked selection of recently created short and feature films from around the world, exhibitions, talks and masterclasses for lovers of animation. The entire program will soon be announced in a press conference in Lleida, and can also be consulted on the official website of the event.
Visit animac.cat for more information.
