Stories that Bloom on the Silver Screen: Animest.21 Announces the Official Selection for the Feature Film, Short Film and Student Film Sections

The big screen is back, baby! This year’s cinematic odyssey continues during the 21st edition of the Animest International Animation Film Festival whose organic, vibrant selection will sweep you away – shall we call it a force of nature? The only Oscar-qualifying event in Romania invites the intrepid cinephile to explore a breathtaking visual ecosystem consisting of no less than 89 productions set to take over Bucharest’s big screens for three of the festival’s most important competitive sections.

Of these, 49 short films from across the world are vying for the coveted Animest Trophy in the Short Film Competition, while another 35 short films represent the voices of the new generation in the Student Competition. The Feature Film Competition also proposes five distinct narrative adventures, all in their national premiere in Romania. Take a closer look at the complete Animest.21 Official Competition on the festival website.

“Just as its muse – nature itself – this year’s competition selection is overwhelmingly diverse, sometimes unpredictable, but always full of vitality. We received such a wide array of short films, each exploring human feelings and emotions that cut deep. From entries by renowned auteurs to the explosive creativity of student films, all of the short films in the Animest.21 selection have a common purpose: startlingly alive, they invite viewers to engage in an essential exercise to reconnect with themselves and those around them,” explained Mihai Mitrică, festival chief programmer and artistic director.

From Cannes and Annecy to Competing for the Animest Trophy

Only one of the 49 competitors in the International Short Film Competition will win the Animest Trophy, automatically becoming eligible for an Oscar nomination. The jury's task will be far from simple – this year's selection is a vibrant ecosystem of short animated films that have already charmed audiences and juries at major international festivals.

Straight from Cannes’ Quinzaine des Cinéastes selection and Annecy comes the British-German co-production Daughters of the Late Colonel (directed by Elisabeth Hobbs): a lyrical, sharp comedy, traditionally animated on hand-painted paper, featuring two middle-aged sisters who rediscover their freedom after the death of their oppressive father.

Also fresh off the Cannes Film Festival screens are Adgwa-Ata (directed by Zsuzsanna Kreif), The Last Spring (directed by Mathilde Bédouet), and The End (directed by Niki Lindroth von Bahr). The first – which premiered in Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique section before being selected for the Annecy Festival too – is a Franco-Hungarian co-production that follows the initiatic journey into adulthood of three young women kidnapped by a tribe. The rite of passage is brutal: enter a divine dimension and tame their totemic animals, embodied by giant snakes. Beyond the fantastic elements and illustration of a primal connection with wild nature, the film presents a sharp social critique, exploring the gap in communication between generations and the inherent conflict between the sacred and the materialistic world.

Adolescence is also explored in The Last Spring, whose distinctive visual technique combines rotoscoping with colored pencil illustrations on paper. The short film focuses on 15-year-old Marion and Camille, inseparable friends on their last school trip to an island in the south of France. This sensitive portrayal of the abrupt end of the carefree days of childhood will surely inspire many to delve into their own teenage memories.

Somewhat darker stylistically, The End is a disturbing X-ray of everyday alienation peppered with humor and absurdity. We’re at an international airport. As a plane loses contact with the control tower, a bizarre group of anthropomorphic animals (think: killer snail, anxious sheep, shrimp in a wheelchair) are completely absorbed by consumerism, reality TV and the trivial routines of travel – while completely ignoring the existential crisis around them.

Another short film in competition is Cosmonauts (directed by Leo Černic), which impressed at Berlinale Shorts before reaching Annecy: on an intergalactic cruise for singles, we follow three lonely passengers as they confront their relationship with love and what they’re willing to do to experience it, "even if only with the tip of their pinky finger.”

The International Short Film Competition also includes the latest from multi-awarded Romanian director Anca Damian, which was presented in June at Annecy: Motherhood. Anca’s immersive 17-minute meditation follows a deeply natural and organic process as it becomes an artistic journey about creation, femininity and primordial connection.

A Fertile Ecosystem for the Future of Animation: The Student Film Competition

The Student Film Competition will present an impressive 35 films that prove that the future of animation is (still) in good hands. This year’s selection by Andrei Voineag and Mihai Mitrică reunites productions from all the major animation schools in the world: Gobelins, La Poudrière, MOME, FAMU, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Royal College of Art, NFTS, Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, and more.

Notable competitors include Growing Stones, Flying Papers (directed by Roozbeh Gezerseh and Soraya Shamsi), which won Third Prize in Cannes’ La Cinef this year. This brave film contrasts two survival mechanisms in a rising dictatorship: while a writer documents the truth, silently, from his apartment, his neighbor chooses action, protesting night after night in the streets. When her life is in danger, the writer is the only witness – and must choose between silence and action.

This year’s edition also marks an absolute premiere for Animest in the Student Competition section: our first film from Kyrgyzstan! Because I Am a Girl is an animated documentary co-created with seven teenage girls from Kyrgyzstan. Their personal reflections reveal the social roles and expectations they grow up with and how they take root in the collective mentality. The film listens carefully to how these norms are perpetuated as seemingly “natural” parts of everyday life. What emerges is an organic and courageous exploration of femininity in a cultural space that is, so far, not represented enough on the big screen.

Five Feature Films, Five Brave New Worlds to Explore

The International Feature Film Competition consists of five stunning animated films from Spain, Italy, Brazil, France, and China. You will travel back in time to explore human resilience in the face of exile in Winnipeg, Seeds of Hope (directed by Beñat Beitia and Elio Quiroga), a historical drama that premiered at Annecy. Victor, a widowed father, and his daughter Julia flee Spain in 1939, as Barcelona falls to Franco’s forces. The film is a profound story of resilience and shows that hope can take root even in the darkest moments of history.

Also coming from Annecy, where it was presented in the Contrechamp section, we have Spacetime Chronicles (directed by Stefano Bertelli), a surreal stop-motion feature film animated with handcrafted paper – a visual journey through the mind of Fred, a man lost in a transit space. Suspended between reality and dream, he explores this fragile mental ecosystem guided by Freud, a cat that embodies his subconscious and serves as his conscience. Weaving a mosaic of human identity, the film subtly suggests that life may not mean reaching a final destination – perhaps what matters most is the beauty of the road itself, uncertain as it may be.

The same Annecy section also featured the Brazilian 2D animated feature Son of a Bitch (directed by Erica Maradona, Otto Guerra, Sávio Leite, and Tania Anaya), a courageous exploration of human nature and destiny. We follow the story through the lens of Ismael, a young man who decides to leave his small village in search of two great unknowns: his father and the ocean. Accompanied only by his three-legged dog and a copy of Moby Dick, the protagonist crosses the arid lands of Brazil – a harsh journey that serves as a backdrop for reflections on the (im)possibility of escaping one's roots and fated path.

Also coming to Bucharest – after premiering at Cannes and winning Best Animated Feature Film at Fantasia IFF – is Blaise (directed by Dimitri Planchon and Jean-Paul Guigue), a black comedy that dissects the fragile ecosystem of a dysfunctional bourgeois family. Crafted with 2D cut-out characters superimposed on photorealistic backgrounds, the film follows the Sauvage family, whose members desperately seek to be loved. While the parents battle their own insecurities, their 16-year-old son, Blaise, is an introvert lacking convictions – so he just says yes to everything out of inertia. This changes as he meets young Joséphine, under whose influence Blaise becomes an activist ready to cause chaos.

Rounding up the feature films selection is Light Pillar (directed by Zao Xu), an innovative sci-fi drama that premiered at the Berlinale and was selected at Karlovy Vary. Fluidly melding 2D animation with live-action sequences, the film follows a lonely janitor at a bankrupt film studio who finds refuge in a virtual idyll. When a film crew arrives at the studio to shoot a film about an alien invasion, the protagonist's illusion begins falling apart, and he chooses to disappear with the space he was tending. The film thus becomes a profound visual meditation on alienation and how an artificial ecosystem may come to completely replace the need for real connection.

Stay tuned for the other competition sections – VR, AniMusic, Minimest, and Romanian Short Film – and get your limited edition Animest.21 passes on the Eventbook platform: https://eventbook.ro/festival/animest.

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

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.

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