Romanian day at Anim’est 2015

11 short films in the local competition

Halfway through the 10^th edition of Anim’est International Animation Film Festival, local animation draws the audience to the cinema on Wednesday, October 7^th, starting at 20.30, the 11 short films selected for this year’s Romanian competition will be screened.

Ever since its first edition, in 2006, the main mission of Estenest Association, who organizes Anim’est festival, has been to help with the development of local animation film industry. For this very reason, the educational component of the festival has been gaining importance year after year: next to the 30 workshops and 15 animation masterclasses for adults and children, the effort to develop the Romanian animation film has given life to an ambitious project outside the festival, Animation Worksheep which reached its fifth edition in 2015. Out of the 56 graduates of this intensive animation workshop that takes place every spring for two and a half weeks, more than half of these young animators from Romania and Moldova work by now as animators in dedicated studios and connected industries or as illustrators, graphic designers etc.

Romanian competition is here to bear witness to the positive effects of our festival’s educational endeavour. Omulan, a 2D animation about a small humanoid character, directed by Matei Branea, one of the best known Romanian illustrators and animators, is part of this year’s selection. Other notable titles in the competition are Fear is a Lie The Dream Diggers ft Mihnea Blidariu & Awen, directed by Mihnea Păcurar, a 3 minute animation about the journey of human innocence seen as an isometric video game, The Carol (dir. Ion Octavian Frecea), a 2D/3D animation about ancient traditions, The Distance directed by Andra Mirea, former graduate of Animation Worksheep, about the relative perception of “distance”, The Apple Tree Flower (dor. Monica Vinogradov) about the fantasy tale whose protagonists are a curious girl and a flower blossom, Loop (dir. Claudia Ilea), a self-portrait outlined by key aspects of ordinary life combined with fictional elements, Memento (dir. Attila Bende), an experimental animation that shows the communist and post-communist eras by taking into account people’s emotions, The Magic Stone (dir. Tóth Árpád) , a 3D animation that focuses on mythical beings in the heart of Transylvania, Gratitude, a short film about a strange ceremony, made with the use of drawings on paper and directed by Ștefan Scărlătescu and Andrei Scărlătescu, still, alive ( dir. Máthé Endre-Botond), an extremely short animation focusing on the life of a stag through  series of photographs, Voyage, a 2D/3D short film directed by Marian Poiană, about a war veteran’s journey home.

The winner of Best Romanian Animation Award, offered by the Romanian Cultural Institute, will be decided by a jury made up of Mark Shapiro, Head of Entertainment Brand Marketing at the famous LAIKA animation studio in USA, Sarina Nahei, freelance animator and illustrator from Tokyo, winner of the Best Student Film Award in 2014 (for Small People with Hats) and Milen Alempijević, the artistic director of Animanima International Animation Festival in Čačak, Serbia.

The Romanian day at Anim’est continues at Journey Pub, from 22.30 in the company of DJ Vasile (Lucian Stan) & Matze (Cristian Stanciu), two of the pioneers of Romanian electronic music.

The ticket for the screening costs 13 lei and it can be purchased online, from eventbook.ro, or at the cinema, during the festival.

The access to Journey Pub access is free, however there is a limited number of available seats. Information concerning the booking of seats for screenings or parties is available on the Anim’est website.

The Romanian competition will be screened once more on Thursday, October 9^th, from 12.30 at Cinema Studio.

The tenth edition of Anim’est International Animation Film Festival will take place between October 2nd and October 11th 2015 at Cinema Studio, Cinema Elvira Popescu, Re: Animation Hub and Journey Pub. The festival programme is available online, on the festival website.

Anim’est International Animation Film Festival is a member of the pan-European Cartoon Network, it is organized by Este'n'est Association, with the support of the National Cinematography Centre, the Ministry of Culture, the Bucharest Centre for Cultural Projects - ARCUB, the National Cultural Fund Administration and the Romanian Cinematographers Union.

Institutional partners: the United States Embassy, the Romanian Cultural Institute, Japan Foundation, the French Institute, the Royal Norwegian Embassy, the Portugal Embassy, the Czech Centre, the Polish Institute, the Wallonia-Brussels Delegation, the Hungarian Institute.

Partners: Groupama Insurance, Aqua Carpatica, Jameson, KFC, Pizza Hut, SeniorHyper, HBO, Domeniile Samburesti, F64, Noumax, Journey Pub, AVIS, Flanco, Idilis, Accenture.

Media partners: DIGI 24, DIGI Film, UTV, DIGI Play, Days and Nights, Tanănana, Ring Newspaper, Cinemagia, Metropolis Newspaper, cinemarx.ro, AaRC.ro, Mediafax, SUB25, animationmagazine.eu, Vice.

Monitoring Partner: mediaTRUST.