Anim'est Chișinău 2012

The second edition of the Anim’est International Animation Film Festival in Chișinău will be held from 1-4 November at the Odeon Cinema. Organizers promise a new cinematic feast, which will not lack in absolute premieres and special screenings. Creepy Animation Night, the night of unconventional and bizarre animated shorts dubbed with audio-visual live acts will awaken viewers’ imagination and senses in The Republic of Moldova.

The first edition, the 2011 Anim'est Chișinău, gathered over 3,500 people during the four days of screenings and events. 135 films from 28 countries were screened during the special edition organized by the most important film festival in Bucharest and the moldovan spectators enjoyed the Creepy Animation Night’s experience.

The first edition of the festival in Chișinău had very good success and reactions from spectators that encouraged the organizers to continue with the project this year.

A brief statement of Laurențiu Brătan, president of the ESTENEST Association: "It is a very pleasant experience to see the enthusiasm with which the audience in Chișinău comes to the festival. We want very much to organize this festival for years to come! "

The 2012 Anim'est Chișinău includes a special retrospective dedicated to one of the great masters of Japanese and world-wide animation: Hayao Miyazaki. With a career spanning over 50 years, Miyazaki is an internationally appreciated animator, his films being clear evidence of overflowing and amazing imagination. His movies’ success has drawn the Japanese animator some comparisons to Walt Disney, Nick Park and Robert Zemeckis.

Miyazaki began his animator career in 1961, when he joined Toei Animation Studios. He worked on an adaptation of Treasure Island intitled Dobutsu Takarajima and on a TV series inspired by Heidi. He made his first appearance as a director in 1978 and has made a success with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. In 1985, he lays the foundation for Ghibli studios. One of his most acclaimed animations remains Spirited Away, which broke all box office records in Japan and won many awards, including the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2002 and the Oscar for best animated film in 2003. Another appreciated film was Howl’s Moving Castle, with a world premiere in Venice, and one of the most successful films in Japan.

The Chișinău moviegoers will also be able to enjoy Ponyo, Animation of the Year at the 32nd Japanese Film Academy Awards and Porco Rosso, a professional pilot’s adventures of the '20s, who was turned into a pig after a curse; or My Neighbour Totoro, the story of two sisters who move in with their father in what appears to be a haunted house. The two meet the Forest Spirit and find out that not all spirits are scary.