Oscar-nominated ‘The Flying Sailor’ leads the 40-film shorts field for the upcoming festival, which runs onsite February 23-26 and online March 3-12.
Animac, International Animation Film Festival of Catalonia, has revealed its official selections to be screened at the 27th edition, running onsite in Lleida February 23-26 and online through the Filmin platform March 3-12. The short selections are led by The Flying Sailor (Shorts 1), from Canadian animators Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis, recently nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.
This year, the shorts' official section will present 40 productions from 22 countries over five sessions. In addition to The Flying Sailor, notable films in this section include stop-motion Salvation Has No Name (Shorts 2), directed by Joseph Wallace; Amarradas (Shorts 2), a film by Spanish filmmaker Carmen Córdoba (nominated for a Goya award); Sierra (Shorts 4), by Estonian filmmaker Sander Joon; and O Homem do Lixo (The Garbage Man - Shorts 4), by Portuguese filmmaker Laura Gonçalves.
Also, screening is the winner of the Annecy Festival Cristal Award Amok (Shorts 3) by Balázs Turai, and Babičino seksualno življenje (Granny's Sexual Life - Shorts 3), by Urška Djukić and Émilie Pigeard - nominated for the César Award of the French Academy.
The official section for narrative and visual experiments - Shorts 5 White Cube includes:
- The Hour Coat, by Amy Kravitz
- Backflip, by Nikita Diakur
- Boca, by Frederic Amat
- Intermission, by Réka Bucsi, among others.
The section Future Talent, dedicated to shorts received from animation schools, will include three sessions with a total of 37 shorts selected from 14 countries, including:
- À bicyclette, by Océane Lavergne, Benjamin Langagne, Lucas Durot, Pierre Cilluffo, Marine Beuvain, and Kerrian Detay
- Slouch, by Michael Bohnenstingl
- An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It by Lachlan Pendragon.
The festival section, Little Animac, programming for children and their families, will include 48 films from 18 countries in six different sessions.
- Našeprasátko (Little Animac 1 Short & Sweet), by Jaromír Plachý, creator of the adventure videogame Botanicula
- Bill i Janet (The Smeds and the Smoos - Little Animac 2), by Daniel Snaddon and Samantha Cutler, the tenth adaptation of the book by the writer Julia Donaldson
- Operación Frankenstein (Little Animac 3), by José María Fernández de Vega
- Les astres immobiles (Little Animac 4), by Noémi Gruner and Séléna Picque
- La joya del pantano (Little Animac 5), by Camilo Ayala Nieto.
The films in the official sections Shorts, Future Talent and Little Animac are eligible for the festival audience award.
The section, Talent.cat, brings together animation films from students in Catalan-speaking territories. This year 14 schools participated with 16 film submissions, including:
- Let's Dance; Beyond the Fringe; La Cucharada; Half-Dog; Pank con chocolate; Sweet Side; Jidai (次代); Era del presente; Ventanas; Pieces of Us; Chimborazo; Sully; Sunburned; Vestigis; Proceso Mental; and Papirola
This year’s event celebrates the creativity of Latin American animation under the motto “LatAm Boom!”
The event features the presentation of animated cinema with monographic and retrospective sessions, as well as a handpicked selection of recently created short and feature films, exhibitions, talks, and masterclasses. Visit the ANIMAC website for updates.
Source: Animac 2023
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.
