10 days of music and animation at Anim'est 2015

10 days of music and animation at Anim'est 2015

For the tenth consecutive year, Bucharest becomes the capital of animation in the early days of October, as Anim’est Animation Film Festival prepares for an intense anniversary edition in which the music features prominently alongside the generous selection of exceptional animated films.

"Anim'est means tradition" is the slogan of the 2015, a concept outlined by 10 short films created during the intensive workshop Animation Worksheep, which reached its 5th edition this spring. The 10 participants at the workshop, young animators from Romania and Moldova, guided by our trainers Dan Panaitescu and Sergiu Negulici are the authors of this year’s spots. They portray 10 visual and musical duels among 10 characters inspired by 10 traditional super heroes who represent 10 different musical styles and who all come together to sing and shout the news about the Anim'est jubilee edition.

"A while ago we thought about making a musical edition and the idea took shape as we were approaching the anniversary edition. This year we will have at least one concert per evening and we ar proud of our collaboration with several artists who, perhaps for the first time, have created non-anachronistic Romanian music", says Vlad Ilicevici, the executive director of the festival.

Friday, October 2^nd, starting at 20:00, the series of musical events will begin on the stage of Cinema Studio with the extraordinary recital by Alexander Bălănescu, one of the most renowned musicians of Romanian origin of the last few decades, and the artist who created the original music for The Magic Mountain, the docudrama directed by Anca Damian that will be screened in the official opening of the festival.

Another highlight of this year’s festival is the performance of Rodion G.A. – the originator of Romanian new wave and electronic rock music, who has been creating music ever since the seventies, with three albums in the UK. He will accompany the screening of Delta Space Mission in the official closing of the festival (Saturday, October 10^th, 20.30 at Cinema Elvire Popesco), the first science-fiction feature film made in Romania, a continuation of the series created by Victor Antonescu and his team.

Creepy Animation Night, the night of bizarre and horror animation that will take place Friday, October 9th, at Cinema Patria, from 23.00, brings along an unusual performance of the guys from Dirty Granny Tales, a band with an innovative musical style, dark theatrical music. The band came together in Athens in 2005. The Greeks come to Bucharest in order to bring down the house with their show Didi's Son, a hybrid of music, video animation and puppetry.

A number of local and foreign artists will climb on the stage at Journey Pub (25, George Enescu Street), during several nights of the festival. The series of concerts starts with The Nuggers, a band of garage rock & roll founded in 2010 by five boys who enjoy singing about "booze, women and nonsense", they will be followed by Tonstartssbandht, the American psych boogie pop duo formed in 2007 who will perform for the first time in Bucharest in the Singing Exhibition#7, an event in partnership with The Full Half publishing house; Minus (Daniel Stanciu), one of the best know improvisation Romanian artists and a graduate of the famous Red Bull Music Academy; DJ Vasile (Lucian Stan) & Matze (Cristian Stanciu), two of the pioneers of Romanian electronic music; Semiosis - the Alexander Seidiu and Serban Ilicevici duo, als known as the first post-rock band in Romania; The Bridges, a Brit Pop band with indie influences established in 2010, as well as The Pixels, an electro/alternative/rap band and one of the most valuable musical acts in recent years, made up of Andreas Aron, Catalin Rule, Tudor D Popescu, Liviu Iancu and Irina Creangă.

Animusic Night, which brings our audience the Video & Advertising competition, also makes a comeback on the festival agenda. The screening will take place at Journey Pub, on Thursday, October 8^th, starting at 22.00. A record number of over 100 videos have entered this year’s competition, the final selection comprises famous artists like Prodigy, James, Stromae, Laibach, David Gilmour, Obituary and The Ciocârlia Brass Band. After the screening, the audience will have the chance to enjoy a concert held by Nightlosers, the band founded in Cluj, in 1994, and known for their music that combines blues with elements of authentic folklore.

The theme of this year’s edition is not only reflected in the series of concerts and performances, but also in several feature films that combine music and animation in an original way. Five of the most iconic films in the history of animation will be screened at the festival this year: from Alan Parker's Pink Floyd: the Wall (1982) to the more recent Sita Sings the Blues (2008) directed by Nina Paley and awarded the Best Film award at Annecy, going through the now classic films like American Pop (dir. Ralph Bakshi, 1981) and Heavy Metal (dir. Gerald Potterton, 1981) and ending with The Point or Oblio, as it is better known to the local audience, directed in 1971 by Fred Wolf and narrated by Ringo Starr.

The tenth edition of Anim’est International Animation Film Festival will take place between October 2nd and October 11th 2015 at Cinema Studio, Cinema Elvira Popescu, Re: Animation Hub and Journey Pub. The festival programme is available online, on the festival website.

A ticket for one screening costs 13 lei. The audience can enjoy the concerts at Journey Pub free of charge. The information concerning tickets for special events or screenings is also available on the festival website.

Anim’est International Animation Film Festival is a member of the pan-European Cartoon Network, it is organized by Este'n'est Association, with the support of the National Cinematography Centre, the Ministry of Culture, the Bucharest Centre for Cultural Projects - ARCUB, the National Cultural Fund Administration and the Romanian Cinematographers Union.

Institutional partners: the United States Embassy, the Romanian Cultural Institute, Japan Foundation, the French Institute, the Royal Norwegian Embassy, the Portugal Embassy, the Czech Centre, the Polish Institute, the Wallonia-Brussels Delegation, the Hungarian Institute.

Partners: Groupama Insurance, Aqua Carpatica, Jameson, KFC, Pizza Hut, SeniorHyper, HBO, Domeniile Samburesti, F64, Noumax, Journey Pub, AVIS, Flanco, Idilis, Accenture.

Media partners: DIGI 24, DIGI Film, UTV, DIGI Play, Days and Nights, Tanănana, Ring Newspaper, Cinemagia, Metropolis Newspaper, cinemarx.ro, AaRC.ro, Mediafax, SUB25, animationmagazine.eu, Vice.

Monitoring Partner: mediaTRUST.