Palme d'Or Winner- competing for the Anim'est Trophy

55 films will be competing in 2010 for the Anim'est Trophy- which, traditionally, awards the best film in the shortfilm competition of Romania’s most important animation film festival. 51 all-new titles produced by reputed universities worldwide have been selected to enter the student film competition.

2010 Palme d'Or winner for Best short film, Chienne d'histoire (dir. Serge Avedikian, France); Oscar nominated and BAFTA award winner Polish director Tomek Bagińsky's latest film– Kinematograf (Poland, 2009); as well as the newest productions of Gil Alkabetz and Matthias Bruhn, Audience Award winners at both the 2008 and 2009 Anim'est, are all part of the titles selected for this year's international shortfilm competition.

Only a few months after the Cannes red carpet triumph ,Serge Avedikian's film, Chienne d'histoire / Barking Island (France, 2009), a Sacrebleu Studio production and last year's guest title during a special Anim'est program, is coming to Bucharest wishing to win-over the festival's jury and audience with the little-known and heartfelt story of the stray dogs deported from Istanbul in 1910, sent off to a deserted island, far away from the city which the authorities of the time planned to turn into a European metropolis. Kinematograf / The Cinematograph (Poland, 2009) is yet another competition highlight-title at the 2010 Anim'est, an epic homage given to the history of the seventh art by Tomek Bagińsky , the Oscar nominated director for Best animation short film in 2003 for The Cathedral, and BAFTA Award winner in the same category with Fallen Art in 2006.

Two filmmakers the festival's audience is very familiar with are also competing for the Anim'est Trophy and Best Shortfilm Award: Matthias Bruhn. the director of the beloved film Poşta, is returning to Anim'est with Ente, Tod und Tulpe / Duck, Death and the Tulip (Germany, 2010), an enchanting animated poetry about friendship, love and death, an adaptation of Wolf Erlbruch's classical story; and 2008 Anim'est winner for A Sunny Day, Gil Alkabetz, who will bring the Anim'est screens a unique, humorous reinterpretation of one of this decade's most popular controversies in Der Da Vinci Timecode / The Da Vinci Timecode (Germany, 2010).

Mihai Mitrică, the director of Anim'est, declares: “This year's Anim'est competition is the step forward the festival needed for its fifth edition in order to confirm its status on a national and international level. Giving the fact that we have received over 800 short films for all the 6 competition sections, the entry of the new Palme d'Or owner in the short film competition being a definite highlight, we can safely say that Anim'est has passed on to the next level in festival terms."

The Anim'est student film competition is not lacking hit-titles either. Mobile (dir. Verena Fels, Germany, 2010), the peculiar story of a rebel cow choosing to take life into its own hands; the short film animation selected at the Cannes Festival in the Semaine de la Critique section- The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Lion (dir. Alois Di Leo, UK, 2010), a psychological story about a child's powerful imagination; or the electrifying goth-style short film , VillaOlvidada (dir. Miguel Lopez, Elena Najar, Spain, 2008) are only a few of the productions film lovers mustn’t miss at this year's Anim'est, and which will be competing for Best Student Film Award.

"As usual, the selection showcases a variety of animation styles chosen not only based on their narrative aspect, but more on their visual impact. As proven by the winners' results from the previous four festival years, Anim'est promotes young international talents, and I'm sure that the films in the competition will receive many other international awards and, hopefully, we will confirm what has already become this festival's tradition- some of those film will make their way on the nominations list for the Oscars", adds Mihai Mitrică.