Animest.17 celebrates Portuguese animation

Browse the full festival schedule and buy tickets online on www.animest.ro! 

Every year, your Animest tickets come with a bonus: getting to explore another country through their animated films. In 2022, we’re headed to sunny Portugal! Between October 7-16, prepare to be transported to distant shores, to be moved by fado music and scent port wine on the breeze. Together, we will enjoy the incredible animation culture that Portuguese artists have developed and understand why they won over 500 important awards in the past 20 years. The special section dedicated to our guest country was curated by Fernando Galrito, the artistic director of the MONSTRA Animation Film Festival in Lisbon and one of our many Portuguese guests this year. Prepare to also meet representatives of our guest studio, BAP Animation Studio, and of our guest animation school, Universidade Lusófona.

Check out the complete festival program and get your tickets on the Eventbook platform.

Portuguese animation speaks to the soul

Fernando Galrito, MONSTRA Lisboa Animation Film Festival artistic director, has put together an effervescent sampler of Portuguese animation, a journey through time starting with earlier works, from the ‘80s and ‘90s (the first to win international awards), all the way to present day. Intrinsically connected to the Portuguese culture and soul, the two feature films and 18 shorts developed by the animators and directors in this selection are memorable thanks to their stylistic diversity and original storytelling.

Among the latest offerings of this rich animation culture is Nayola (directed by José Miguel Ribeiro), a feature film included in the Animest.17 International Competition, the story of three generations of women in Angola, over a quarter century of harrowing civil war. Family ties and our relationship to the past also inspired Nuno Beato to create My Grandfather’s Demons, where a young woman reconnects with her roots by returning to her childhood home after her grandfather passes away. Nuno is coming to Bucharest to present his film at its first screening in Romania. Both feature films in this year’s Portuguese selection had their international premieres at the Annecy Festival, to enthusiastic critical acclaim.

“The program includes films from different directors and techniques. Opening with a master of the Portuguese animation, Abi Feijó, with Fado Lusitano, that summarizes, in part, Portuguese history, it continues with films of great directors, such as José Miguel Ribeiro, Pedro Serrazina, Pedro Brito, Nuno Beato, our veteran master, José Xavier, and my first professional film, still made in 16 mm, Evasion-Invasion, among others.

This retrospective is a homage to the women animators and directors receiving awards around the world, such as Regina Pessoa, Monica Santos, Alice Guimarães, and Joana Imaginário, and also a celebration of films from the new generation, already enjoying great recognition, created by Vasco Sá, David Doutel, and the recent winner at Cannes, young João Gonzalez.

All these films were already programmed by MONSTRA Festival with great success and I hope you like them too… we love them,” said Fernando Galrito, who will also be part of this year’s jury for the Animest international feature film competition.

Multiple Portuguese cinematographers are coming to Animest.17. Among them is internationally-acclaimed Abi Feijó, who will sit on the international short film competition jury. The artist will also facilitate a masterclass featuring Portuguese films screened in Romania for the first time.

BAP Animation Studio, Animest.17’s guest Portuguese studio

BAP, one of the most prolific production companies in Portugal, was founded by a group of artists, former schoolmates. These days, the studio’s portfolio is an impressive collection of films presented and awarded at the world’s major film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Locarno, Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, Clermont-Ferrand, and Annecy. This year, Animest audiences will savour six of BAP’s most popular short films, presented in Bucharest by Vasco Sá, one of the founders of the studio, and David Doutel, his collaborator since 2011 – two artists representative of Portuguese animation today.

Postcards from Portugal – Universidade Lusófona presents some of their best student shorts

Pedro Serrazina, award-winning director, senior digital animation lecturer at Universidade Lusófona, and animation researcher, describes the Lusófona selection thus:

“The Digital Animation courses at Universidade Lusófona, both Bachelor and Master degrees, are designed to offer a huge variety of animation techniques and outcomes: from traditional approaches (2D drawing, paint on glass, sand, cut-out, puppet and stop motion animation...), to digital tools, including motion capture; from basic exercises, to author short films. The course units allow the opportunity to explore a wide variety of animation skills, while simultaneously encouraging the students to develop conceptual frameworks that anticipate the challenges of the professional experience.

Because we believe the animation industry requires not only proficient animators, but also creative and conceptually-aware individuals, this screening reflects the multifaceted approach of the animation courses at Universidade Lusófona: mapping a path that combines simple, but sophisticated exercises, in both technical and character development, with accomplished, prize-winning short films that confirm a development of skills, but also of minds.” 

The Lusófona student films’ results in international festivals speak for themselves. 22 of them – shorts produced between 2014 and 2021 – will be presented at Animest by Pedro Serrazina, who is traveling to Bucharest. Students who’d like to meet Serrazina should register for the masterclass he will offer, Animated Space: Moving image, place and identity.

The complete festival schedule is live on www.animest.ro. Purchase your Animest.17 passes and tickets to get access to screenings and special events alike, at https://eventbook.ro/festival/animest!   

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Animest Festival is a project organized by the Animest Association and co-financed through the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme, Romanian Film Centre, and Romanian Cultural Institute. 

Animest.17 is co-financed by the Municipality of Bucharest through ARCUB, as part of the ‘București afectiv’ 2022 program. For detailed information on the ARCUB funding programs, please access www.arcub.ro.

Partners: Groupama Insurance, McDonald’s, Domeniile Sâmburești, Kafune, Studioset, ArtHub, Urban DADA, Arthur Publishing House, LEGO Certified Stores, Ogilvy

Institutional partners: the Goethe Institute, the French Institute, the Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Centre Bucharest, the Cervantes Institute, The Embassy of Japan in Romania, Japan Foundation, The ‘I.L. Caragiale’ National University of Theatre and Film 

Media partners: Rock FM, AGERPRES, Itsy Bitsy, Radio România Cultural, IQads, Smark, Vice, Zile și Nopți, Ziarul Metropolis, Films in Frame, Observator Cultural, Film Menu, Movie News, LiterNet, Sunt Părinte, Cinefilia, Proanimație.ro, Cinefan, All About Romanian Cinema – aac.ro, AIVImedia.hub, Munteanu

Media monitoring partner: MediaTRUST