Animest.20 White Nights: Once-in-a-Lifetime Travel through the Trippy, Creepy and Erotica Universes

Animest.20 is ON even after the lights go out! Intrepid film explorers will be guided by a detailed festival itinerary filled with striking animation and intense experiences, and nothing better represents this vibe than our special late night events – designed to spice urban evenings in ever-surprising ways. Each of these events is a destination in itself: a marathon of gripping sensations that will swiftly carry you over the boundaries of the conventional and transform the cinema into a playground of passion, oddities and unbridled fantasies. From hypnotic experiences to horror screenings, from spectacular music videos to taboo tales, the Animest.20 Special Events will usher you outside your comfort zone towards adrenaline-filled unique new destinations.

Get your tickets to the Animest.20 Special Events on the Eventbook platform, here.

Trippy Animation Night – Vol. 12: Saturday, October 4, 11 PM, at the Eforie Cinematheque

“Facing the harsh reality of today, in which the Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD)-balance between East & West is no longer valid, it is good to buy a one-way ticket to Trippy-Land and learn to love your yesteryear Cold War-nostalgia. Trippy Volume 12 reflects in many ways pure escapism by the enchantment of animated depiction and mesmerizing hypnotronics. This year’s Trippy Edition will offer you a wide variety of items, such as: Unusual Travelogues, Page Turning Bestsellers, Very Private Screenings, Nuclear Mushrooms and the ones for consumption, Female Powerplay, Cutting Edge Cutouts, Loops & Droodles, plus our regular portion of Music Clips and Weird Commercials,” explained Michael Helmerhorst, event host and longtime curator of the most eccentric animated stories there ever were.

Mixing lost-and-found footage, bizarre collages and psychotronic worlds, the short films in Animest’s anniversary edition Trippy Animation Night coalesce into an avantgarde audiovisual voyage that eschews the everyday and urges spectators to be active explorers of new facets of their own imagination. Trippy Animation Night is a two-hour journey into new and archive animations that you are guaranteed to not find just everywhere. Dare you let your mind stop at “stations” such as Travelogues & Trips, Pageturners, Cutting Edges, Private Screening, Sirens, This Izz Your Music, Loops & Droodles, Manahatta, Dope Dreams, Cold War Nostalgia, and Urgent Messages?

Tickets here.

EROTICA Vol. 5 – The Night of Erotic Animation: Tuesday, October 7, 11 PM, at the Eforie Cinematheque

(You know you want to enjoy the) teaser trailer here.

Power up your curiosity and leave your inhibitions at home: this year’s EROTICA Vol. 5 – The Night of Erotic Animation invites hither only the most open animation lovers on a stirring nocturnal exploration of taboos, fetishes, and fantasies come alive on the silver screen.

The event is curated by Jakub Spevák, Artistic Director of Slovakia’s Fest Anča, who selected several explicit short films not for the faint-hearted nor under-18 viewers. Highlights include An Explosive Love Story (directed by Adina Oana Enache), My Good Boy (directed by Sara Priorreli) and Sweet Nothing (directed by Joana Fischer and Marie Kenov).

Bonus of all bonuses: want to rewatch some naughty animation or can’t make it on Tuesday? EROTICA Vol. 5 will have a second screening on Saturday, October 11, at 9 PM, also at the Eforie Cinematheque.

Get your tickets here.

Animusic Night: Thursday, October 9, 9 PM, at the Eforie Cinematheque

Press play on the teaser trailer here.

Music merges with animation for AniMusic Night, Animest.20’s party-starting event! This year, a whopping 33 music videos from all over the world are competing for the section prize, energizing us all along the way with tunes from France, Portugal, Belgium, Mexico, the USA, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Korea, and more.

Our animated music competition will be presided over by Lola Lefevre of France – who last year received a special mention from the jury in this section; Andy “Sinboy” Luke – a multi-hyphenate artist of British and Spanish origins, currently residing in Bucharest and contributing to the music and graffiti spaces for 25+ years; and Dragoș Olaru – actor and Radio Guerrilla host, a longtime partner of the Animest International Animation Film Festival.

Get your tickets here!

Creepy Animation Night: Friday, October 10, 11 PM, at Sala Luceafărul

Check out the teaser trailer (if you dare) here.

One could argue some of the most intense journeys start with a generous dose of blood-chilling, deepest, darkest fear. During Animest.20, such an experience can only happen on a Friday night, close to midnight, in a jam-packed cinema room, where three+ hours of animated scary stories will endeavor to touch even the most steadfast spectators. On the menu are 22 horror short films liberally combining the grotesque and varieties of fear into the most toe-curling scenarios. Entries include Praying Mantis, Joe Hsieh’s latest (you might remember him from previous Creepy Animation Nights). The film, which premiered in the Orizzonti section of this year’s Venice International Film Festival, follows a mother who sacrifices all for her child.

Join us for Creepy Animation Night and you will get to enjoy the premiere of King of Nothing (directed by Aleksa Gajić, Serbia) and Our Baby of Rot (directed by Bibi Erjavec, Slovenia). Creepy will also feature Asian animations Zombie Safari – We Will Be Animals (directed by Joanne Lin and Jerrold Chong) and Necronomicon (directed by Jisub Cheon), as well as two shorts exploring perceptions of death and the great beyond in intense and profound ways: The Devil Room – Columbian director Duban Pinzón’s second film – and Sublime – directed by seven French artists (Marie Heribel, Candice Yernaux, Juliette Buysschaert, Camille Leroy, Joséphine Vendeville, Martin Laurent, and Lucas Foutrier).

No rest for the wicked during the night’s interlude: the MIXDEATH Duo (Albu vs Mitrix) will be proving their metal mettle via vinyl mixes.

Get your ticket before seats run out here.

Fresh Frames: Saturday, October 4, 6.30 PM, at Cinema Muzeul Țăranului

After its full-room debut last year, our section dedicated to short films by teens returns with 11 animated shorts authored by youngsters in Romania and the Republic of Moldova. The section was curated by last year’s Animest Teen Jury – Marta Crețu, Alesia Iancău and Ilinca Popa. Fresh Frames is a special place just for emerging teen animation voices – yet part of an international animation festival with two Academy Award-qualifying sections.

Fresh Frames exists thanks to the Animation Incubator, the largest community for teens interested in animation and digital art in Romania and the Republic of Moldova. A facet of the meteoric development of up-and-coming artists in our part of the world: last year, most of the section’s short films resulted from past Animation Incubator workshops; in 2025, the number of independently-created short films has grown considerably.

This year, all Animation Incubator community members get a 20% discount for tickets to Animest.20 individual screenings and the Ten Stop Pass. You can (and should!) join the Incubator community at https://incubatoruldeanimatie.ro/alaturate.

Fresh Frames tickets right here.

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The Animest Festival is a project of the Animest Association, co-financed by AFCN–the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.

This project does not officially represent the AFCN’s stance, nor may AFCN be held responsible for the festival’s content or outcomes – these are fully under the beneficiary’s responsibility.

Presented by: ING Bank

Partners: Groupama, Freshful, TVPaint, MyAirBridge, Oglivy

Institutional Partners: The Romanian Cultural Institute, French Institute and French Embassy, Instituto Cervantes, Petőfi Sándor Cultural Center, Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Center in Bucharest

Main Media Partner: PRO TV, VOYO

As Heard On: Radio Guerrilla

Media Partners: Radio România Cultural, Zile și Nopți, Observator Cultural, Revista BIZ, Haute Culture, IQAds, Revista FILM, Mindcraft Stories, LiterNet, Movie News, CineFAN, Cinefilia, HAPP.ro, MunteanuRecomandă, AndreeaVerde.ro, SuntPărinte.ro

Monitoring Partner: mediaTRUST