The 15th edition of Weird Market, the International Animation, Video Games and New Media Market, has announced the 38 short films from 21 countries selected to compete in its WFest festival. A total of 10 domestic and 28 international works will be screened in Valencia, Spain between September 26 and October 1 at the Filmoteca Valenciana, with some of the filmmakers and their technical and creative teams in attendance.
In addition, the creation of a new section (Weird Talent) has been announced, and the 12 companies that will participate in the recruitment day have been confirmed.
The WFest festival, a key part of Weird Market, has selected a total of 10 works for its domestic competition in 2023. Some of them will already be known to the festival audience, such as All Is Lost by Goya nominees Carla Pereira and Juanfran Jacinto, which was screened at the festival last year.
Local talent makes its mark with five Valencian productions: Interns by Marina Donderis, Nuria Poveda and Marina Cortón; Motelli, a Hopeless Cat by Ben Fernández; Wooden Mirror by Sergi Sánchez (co-production with Italy); All Good by Diana Acién Manzorro; and the above-mentioned All Is Lost.
The list is completed by Conej Steps Out by Pablo Río, Humbug Manor by Juan Carlos Mostaza, Sandwich Cat by David Fidalgo (winner of the Audience Award at the SXSW Festival), To Bird or Not to Bird by Martín Romero and White Noise by Yuri Rojo.
The international competition will comprise 28 short films from countries as diverse as Hungary, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, Colombia, Ecuador, Portugal, Israel, Japan, South Korea and beyond. The selection showcases a variety of works and techniques; while traditional 2D predominates, productions created in 3D, stop motion or mixed techniques offer an aesthetic snapshot of the current global animation scene.
Themes related to current events are intertwined with productions that take inspiration from other artforms, as in the case of La Notte by Martina Generali (Italy), which is based on Antonio Vivaldi’s concerto of the same name.
The selection combines emerging artists with renowned animators such as Owen Klatte (U.S.), who after working on major titles such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach presents his first independent short film, Of Wood. Another outstanding name is Oscar-nominated Koji Yamamura from Japan, producer of The House of Loss, directed by Jinkyu Jeon.
Other works include the Oscar-nominated Ice Merchants by Portuguese director João Gonzalez and It’s Nice in Here by Robert-Jonathan Koeyers, which participated in the Cannes Festival, and other shorts selected for leading festivals worldwide such as Toronto, Edinburgh, Annecy or Clermont-Ferrand, as well as Spanish pre-selection festivals for the Academy Awards such as Zinebi, Huesca or Sitges.
In 2023, the cinematographic program of the event is expanded with a new section called Weird Talent. This non-competitive screening is made up of domestic short films that are part of the market and whose directors are considered by the organizers as names worth “keeping on the radar,” in the words of José Luis Farias, director of Weird Market.
Weird Talent includes a total of seven works from emerging creators, students and filmmakers with a proven teaching career. The screening session on Saturday afternoon at La Beneficència will show Cats by José Garnelo, A Booger’s Nightmare by Dani Blanc, Boxfox by Aurora González Segura, Cade Heleny by Esther Viral, Line 23 by Concha Alonso Valdivieso, Carnivorous Women by Mar Torres Gómez and The Sun Thief, a production of L’Idem Creative Arts School made by a group of students as a final project.
As part of Weird Market’s mission to explore each and every one of the creative and production processes of animation and video games, the recruitment day held every year promotes job creation and facilitates meetings between companies and professionals. In 2023, a total of 12 international studios, through their headhunters, will conduct hundreds of interviews to complete their teams.
The companies that have confirmed their attendance during the morning of Thursday, September 28t are:
- 3 Doubles Producciones
- Admirable Films
- Hampa Studio
- Aupa Studio
- TV ON Producciones
- Wise Blue Studios
- El Ranchito
- The Glow Animation Studio
- Blu Studio
- Illusorium
- Alba Sotorra
- Studio Kimchi
Candidates interested in taking part in this activity and arrange a job interview must complete registration before September 12 or until full capacity is reached.
The 15th edition of Weird Market is co-organized by the Valencian Institute of Culture, attached to the First Vice-Presidency and Department of Culture and Sports of the Generalitat Valenciana. It also has the main sponsorship of the City Council of Valencia and the Provincial Council of Valencia; the participation of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the IVAM (Valencian Institute of Modern Art), À Punt, HP, and Tenerife Film Commission, among others.
More programming and ticketing information and complete film selections available at weirdmarket.es.
