21 short films in the Romanian competition at 2012 Anim'est

Like every year, the festival is dedicating two special sections to Romanian films and those in the Balkans. Next month, 35 short films will compete for two trophies.

In the Balkanimation competition, 14 films from Greece, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia and Romania are fighting for the trophy. Among them is Abeyance (d. Eleni Miltsi), an animation with heavy topics as existence and death, awarded this year at the national competition of the Athens Animafest, the largest festival of its kind in Greece, or Zasto slonovi? / Why Elephants? (d. Marko Meštrović), a film about simple questions with complex answers, which premiered a few months ago at the international competition of Zagreb Animafest.

Romanian animation had a good year, judging by the section dedicated to it: no less than 21 titles were selected for the national competition. Two of the animators who competed last year in this section are returning - Andra Berilă, with Cloudman and Török Tihamer with Playground. Codrin Iftodi, the famous Outrageously Disco's editor, competes with Mobilfonul / The Mobilphone, and The Little Dark by Victor Ionescu is present in both sections.

A traditional section of the festival's program, the National Competition, is designed to provide an overview of contemporary animated film produced in Romania. Anim'est's mission to revive and promote the Romanian film animation is noticeable due to the growing number of films that enter the competition every year and to the Romanian animators' performance (awards at international festivals, participations). In addition, three students from the first Animation Worksheep are present in this year's Romanian competition: Ana-Cătălina Dobrescu, Codrin Iftodi and Gabriela Mateescu.

The Student, Romanian and Balkanimation competitions will be judged this year by Ülo  Pikkov, the Estonian animator whose film, Body Memory,  received the 2011 Anim'est trophy, Liz Harkman, managing director of Encounters festival in Bristol and critic Andrei Gorzo.

In the 2012 Anim'est there will be a special program consisting of all films made by Ülo Pikkov, followed by their presentations. Spectators will have the opportunity to re /examine Body Memory.