Română
Top Romanian and Balkan animation
For yet another year, the best Romanian and Balkan animated short films are competing for the Anim’est awards, as part of the traditional competitions, one dedicated to Romanian film, and another, Balkanimation, to Balkan film. Jury members Sorin Botoşeneanu (Romania), Michiel Snijders (Netherlands), and Géza M Tóth (Hungary) will be deciding the Award winners for Best Romanian Film, offered by Coolbazaar, and Best Balkanimation film, offered by ToonBoom.
On its fifth edition, Anim’est International Animation Film Festival carries on its mission to promote and encourage Romanian film, with a National Competition of 13 Romanian films made in 2010 by a young generation of animators who promise to invigorate national animation. The competition brings forward filmmakers who have already made an impression at Anim’est, which reaffirms their performances at the previous editions, as well as directors like Cecilia Felméri, competing with her delightful mockumentary Matyas, Matyas (short film also selected in the competition for Romanian Film Days at the Transylvania International Film Festival in Cluj-Napoca); or Liviu Bărbulescu, director of the funny short film Summer `99 Mega-Hits ( co-directed with Alina Manolache); as well as the „nobodies” who promise to become somebody on the Romanian and international festival landscape: Bogdan Mihăilescu, attending the competition with a unique period movie: Grand Café; Călin Pop, director of the sci-fi Black Fantastic; Veronica Solomon, director of the surprising and ingenious How to Deal with Nonsense, the short film also representing Romania in the Balkanimation competition. Anim’est will screen the Romanian films on Wednesday, October 13th, from 7 p.m., at Scala Cinema.
Scheduled for Thursday, October 14th, from 8 p.m., at Union Cinema, the 13 films selected this year in the Balkan short film competition are coming from 8 countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Romania, Slovenia and Canada – the co-producer of the Bosnian film Once upon a many time). Ivan Ramadan, winner of the UIP Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival, as well as European Film Academy nominee in 2008 for Tolerantia, is the director of one film the director and selection maker of Anim’est, Mihai Mitrică, particularly recommends for this year’s festival edition: Wondermilk (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2010), a story about water fireflies, coloured cows, small wood houses, an enchanted river and a world populated by bizarre characters. Mihai Mitrică also recommends a few remarkably creative films like Gulliver (dir. Zdenko Basic, Croatia, 2009), a sci-fi reinterpretation of the famous Gulliver’s Travels or Silence of the Sea (dir. Vjekoslav Živković, Croatia 2010), the touching story of several fishermen who find themselves out at sea, caught in a storm, at the end of an awfully unlucky day.
The Romanian and Balkan guests attending the festival will debate, share their experiences on making film in a region where animated film production is still not in the spotlight and will suggest solutions to change this situation at the Round Tables opened for all public and press, held at Union Cinema – dedicated to the condition of Romanian animated film, on Thursday, October 14th, from 12 a.m., and to that of the other countries in the region – on Friday, October 15th, from 2 p.m.