Two Decades of Animation: Animest Returns October 3-12 for Its 20th Anniversary

After some 16,000 fans of animation – spectators of all ages, animators and industry leaders presenting special events – rediscovered the urban playground last year, the Animest International Animation Film Festival returns to Bucharest silver screens to celebrate our 20th anniversary. Join us between October 3-12 to remember and celebrate a two-decade journey into the fascinating universe of animation films that we have been on alongside the best possible partner: the extraordinary community of Animest moviegoers.

How do we define a journey? Exploring new horizons and unknown shores or discovering the people and stories that impact you? Where does a journey start? Where does it end? On a map, screen, photo album, or within yourself? These are just some of the questions that the theme of the 20th edition of the Animest International Animation Film Festival is putting forward to audiences through a diverse array of screenings, special events, meetings with international guests, and artist highlights. 

Starting today, Animest.20 passes are available on the Eventbook platform: Ten Stops and Full Trip. Full Trip Passes guarantee a comprehensive festival experience, allowing you to access any and all screenings, concerts, and special events – as such, only 50 such passes are available. Details: https://eventbook.ro/festival/animest. 

Travel: Beyond the Destination Lies (Self-)Discovery

Animest.20 seeks all of the many valences of travel, inviting the audience to choose their own through the evocative narratives in animated art. Some journeys turn mere steps into miles; some make words into scripts, while others yet insert ideas into reality, which soon becomes a part of history. 

“Twenty years later, I can still vividly remember the emotion permeating the first screening of an independent animation film in Romania, in 2006, in a bursting room. Animest remains our soul’s journey alongside an audience returning every year, ever growing, motivating us to evolve too. Together we’ve built more than a film festival: we have put together an environment where stories come to life, and every single smile and audience reaction grant us the courage to go further. Our festival was never just about movies: it’s about the community united by giggles, awe, and wonder as we all look up at a silver screen in a dark room,” shared Mihai Mitrică, festival director and programmer.

This year’s official theme of travel is not just a metaphor for Animest’s journey over the past 20 years, but an open invitation to cinephiles: join us on a new adventure through films that will take you to the most unexpected places! Milestones include the classic Gulliver's Travels (directed by Dave Fleischer, 1939), a timeless odyssey transcending the limits of imagination that was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Score and Best Song (Faithful Forever). Another classic, An American Tail (directed by Don Bluth, 1986), also a Best Song nominee (Somewhere Out There), tells the story of a youth separated from his family while emigrating in search of a better life. Prepare to ponder immigration, hope, the importance of family, culture shock, and solidarity alongside one of the most famous mice in animation.

The theme also led us to many short films depicting different meanings of travel. From Rosto’s enigmatically oniric universe in Reruns (2018) to the visual exploration of culture in Madagascar, a Journey Diary (2010) by Bastien Dubois, each film is both journey and destination. Let yourself be immersed into the subtle switches in Somewhere Down the Line (directed by Julien Regnard, 2014) and don’t shy away from Nicolas Menard’s witty aesthetics in Wednesday with Goddard (2016)!

And who do we have to thank for this dazzling itinerary? Mihai Mitrică, festival director and programmer, has reunited with French film journalist and historian Alexis Hunot to create irresistible short film programs accompanied by just the right music. This year’s Animest mixtape includes Where is My Mind (Pixies), Around the World  (Daft Punk), Over the Rainbow (Judy Garland), The Passenger  (Iggy Pop), and more.

“What better way to celebrate a birthday than going on a trip? This year’s selection is an invitation on all sorts of voyages. Sometimes you only need a few things to go on a trip… it can be all in your mind: you just have to put your feet in the air and your head on the ground and leave on a psychedelic voyage in The Elephant’s Garden by Felix Colgrave, jump into Anikó Takács’s Cosmic Jacuzzi, take Marko Mestrovic’s Raft to the end of the world, or follow Hideki Inaba’s abstract forms in Slowly Rising.
But you can also go around the world on a Bike Ride with Tom Schroeder, on a boat in T.R.A.N.S.I.T. with Piet Kroon or on a wonderful walk with Opinci by Anton and Damian Groves. And discover other places: a Trip to Japan with Dante Zaballa or crazy Planet Z by Momoko Seto. But travelling is not only for pleasure: sometimes you don’t have a choice than to leave, like in I Had Nothing by Elise Kelly and The Last Bus by Ivana Laucíkova and Martin Snopek,” explained Alexis Hunot.

The Animest.20 Visual: a Memory Quilt

Authored by Romanian contemporary artist Saddo, known for his seamless transition from the canvas to outdoor murals or brand visuals and for mixing classic influences from Rousseau and Matisse with Iranian miniatures and urban culture. The Animest.20 visual reflects his eclectic creativity. Designed by Saddo alongside Sorin Trăistaru (graphic design, typography), our main visual is a quilt, a vibrant mosaic of graphic elements referencing past editions of the Animest Festival, from work by illustrators such as Tuan Nini, Irina Șelaru and Oksana Kurmaz to suggestions from organisers, collaborators and volunteers.

“The projects that scare me the most are those where I have full creative freedom. I was so happy when Filip [Mănișor – festival executive director] suggested I do the official visual for Animest’s anniversary edition, but when he said I could do whatever I wanted, I said ‘No, no, no… give me all your suggestions, references, keywords, give me everything you’ve got'. 

Since this is an anniversary edition, I wanted to incorporate as many Easter eggs from past visuals and trailers as possible, along with behind-the-scenes references. Just as an example, ANIMEST is written with one of the fonts Britney [Spears] used on one of her albums, because one of the festival curators plays her music on their sound system when presenting certain thematic sections.
The main concept is of a quilt or spider-web: the Animest sheep is front and center, and from it emerge and grow different stories, riffs, elements, all positioned in such a way that the visual can be reorganized or cropped and still make sense,” Saddo said.

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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.

Partners: Groupama, TVPaint, MyAirBridge, The Romanian Cultural Institute

Main media partner: PRO TV, VOYO

As Heard On: Radio Guerrilla

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