Animest is back on the big screen and in the homes of animation lovers all over Romania

Animest International Animation Film Festival is back on the big and small screen! Animest no. 15 will take place from 9 to 15 November, in a hybrid edition adapted to the new global context. For the first time in the history of this event, the film included in the official selection will be available to viewers from all over Romania, through the new version of animest.ro, which includes access to an online platform during the festival. The films of the 2020 edition, be they the newest productions or archive films – including a special focus on Romanian animation, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year – will be screened at Cinema Elvire Popesco (Bucharest), as well as online, via the streaming platform of the festival. The schedule of the 2020 edition will be soon available on the festival website. 

Cinema industry has been seriously affected this year, the pandemic brought a huge crisis, with film events cancelled, postponed or adapted to the new situation. Animest joins the festivals working on a new solution for the new times we are living, and offers animation lovers a new formula of watching films and taking part in film-related events. An ample selection of over 380 films will be presented, most of them premiering in Romania, both short and feature films that will be available both at the cinema in any home in Romania. The projects dedicated to the animation industry, meetings with the filmmakers, exhibitions and special events which are already part of the Animest tradition will be included in this year’s edition, most of them adapted to the online streaming. 

The narrative proposed by the visual campaign of last year has a sequel adapted to 2020. The Animest sheep took heart last year, regaining its place in the local cultural landscape. This year, the festival trailer, directed and animated by artist Paul Mureșan, contextualizes the global situation affecting the cultural events in general and film events in particular, and brings new characters that the Animest mascot manages to tame through the power of animation.

 “2020 is a special year for everybody. We have tried hard to think of all sorts of unfathomable things. We were made to think of our impact in the world. We got to think of our role in the community, to think of toilet paper and… death. And death precisely is the topic that I had in mind when working on the trailer of the 15th edition of Animest. In a way or another, we are all in a bus stop, waiting for something uncertain that is supposed to arrive, if ever. Yet we are not alone, Death is also there, waiting in the same bus stop, busy with its own business, of course. Out attitude towards Death could have an impact on the destination of the bus that will take us next. In the meantime, let us just watch a great selection of animated films which talk about us and about the big bus stop where all of us are waiting together.” (Paul Mureșan)

The indoor events that are part of Animest this year will take part in Bucharest strictly following the protection and distancing rules which will be valid in November. The technical details of the online version of the festival will soon be revealed, once the festival programme is online and the tickets are available for purchase.

Stay tuned!