6th ANIMAFILM International Animation Festival Announces Program & Ticket Info
Skwigly
The 6th edition of the traditional ANIMAFILM International Animation Festival for children and adults, organized by the Azerbaijan Animation Association and “PERI FILM” LLC will be held at the Nizami Cinema Center on September 6-10, 2023 with support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Cinema Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The festival has published its extensive program and announced ticket sales.
The festival’s director, Chairperson of the Azerbaijan Animation Association Rashid Aghamaliyev, declared that the revenue obtained from ticket sales will be donated to support local women directors.
The 6th ANIMAFILM Festival features three main programs
1. Competition Program: Out of 174 films submitted from 46 countries, the selection committee has accepted 39 films from 13 countries for the competition. These films will compete in two international and two local categories. The selected films will be evaluated by an international jury and children spectators, and the winners will be announced at the festival’s closing ceremony. The prize fund of the festival is 2300 US dollars.
2. Non-competition Program: This program features the ‘Made by Women for Women’ program, Oscar-nominee ‘Red Turtle’, and the Oscar-winning ‘Spirited Away’ feature films from Japan’s Ghibli Studio, as well as the award-winning best Indian animation films. Notably, this program will present the film Hadis about the Azerbaijani Turk Hadis Najafi, who was tragically murdered by security forces during protests in Iran, and a Georgian-produced film about Pari Khanum Sofiyeva, the first democratically elected Muslim female member of parliament.
3. Professional Program: This program offers a presentation of local animation film projects, as well as masterclasses, meetings, and workshops with special guests and international jury members. The program features masterclasses by Oscar-winning director Michaël Dudok de Wit and Canadian animator Matthew Lyon, as well as animation workshops for children by Georgian director Ana Chubinidze and Indian animator Tehzeeb Khurana.
This year’s Professional Program also features a range of private events for animation professionals. These events include trainings and individual meetings with European mentors — Swiss director Isabel Favez, and French producer Olivier Catherin — for five selected women directors as part of the ‘Women’s Rights Through Animated Films’ workshop and funding program supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Selected animation projects will eventually be presented to the public in the “ANIMAFILM School: Pitching Competition”. Participation as a viewer is open to all in this competition.
The festival will host a roundtable discussion on the perspectives of commercialization and export opportunities for the Azerbaijani national animation industry.
Furthermore, the best of our national animation will be screened at the “Classic Azerbaijani Animated Films” event to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Azerbaijani cinema and the 100th anniversary of the establishment of “Azerbaijanfilm” studio named after Jafar Jabbarli.
The general sponsors of the festival are the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Cinema Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation as the main sponsor. Other sponsors include the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Republic of Azerbaijan and the TOTD/Tip Of The Day Community Center and Public Relations.
This year the festival’s partners are the Azerbaijan Union of Film-makers, the Azerbaijan Creative Industries Federation, Shahmaran Metaceramica, Gender Hub Azerbaijan, the Embassy of the Czech Republic in the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Embassy of France in Azerbaijan, the French Institute in Azerbaijan, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Tripsome and XPPen.
The festival’s media partners are Skwigly Animation Magazine, Madaniyyat TV, Trend News Agency, Day.az, Milli.az, Azernews, the Akinchi, VarYox, KYNO platforms and CityLife.az.