Denmark’s Largest Animation Festival – Viborg Animation Festival (VAF) – Returns for 2022: Highlights
Viborg Animation Festival, Denmark’s largest animation festival, will return between 26th September and 2nd October 2022.
Ahead of the main festival dates, VAF hosts a number of single date events, which started last Friday (26th) with their opening film (and Danish premier) Where is Anne Frank?, directed by the renowned Ari Folman. Other highlights over the next month include a retrospective of Ukrainian animation, a talk with Michelle Kranot, and a talk with the creators of Monster Loving Maniacs. Head to animationsfestival.dk for more information on these events.
There are new events and guests still being confirmed, but here are some highlights to look forward to at this year’s VAF:
VAF Industry
VAF offers a range of workshops, masterclasses, talks, and networking sessions for the animation professional. Get into immersive storytelling and VR with ANIDOX:VR, meet the broadcasters at the annual Creative Media Industry Forum, or join “What’s cooking in DK?” where new Danish tv-series productions are presented. Together with EPIC and Unreal Engine VAF offers free workshops on how to use Unreal in film and game productions, while the conference CAVE (by VizLab) has invited top-industry professionals to talk us through their methods and work in World Building and Concept Art for AAA-productions. Last but not least VAF focuses on alternative use of animation in fx the healthcare industry (Animated Health Conference), as a didactic and educational tool (Animated Learning Conference), or as part of science dissemination and communication (Sci-Vi Conference).
Where is Anne Frank? directed by Ari Folman
VAF Artist 2022
Each year VAF invites a professional animator to join the festival and present their work, method and passion. This year we are joined by Danish artist, Sara Koppel. She started out as a teenager interning at the studio “Tegnedrengene”, and the pencil hasn’t left her hand since. Her work is characterized by her use of oldschool pen and paper, sensual style, and wonderful colors. During the festival she will display her Augmented Reality works in Viborg City and it will be possible to go on guided tours where she tells about her works. She will also be introducing her all time favorite animation, Son of the White Mare, and present a retrospective filmprogram.
VAF Culture
Together with Khora Contemporary and Viborg Kunsthal, we present the Danish artist group SUPERFLEX (Bjørnstjerne Christiansen, Rasmus Nielsen and Jakob Fenger) and their first ever VR-experience Psychoplakton. Plankton are too small to see, but they can form large enough masses to be seen from space. They are crucial partners in the work of keeping both the oceans and the air healthy. How does it feel to be a plankton? To explore this question, SUPERFLEX designed a computer-generated plankton in a VR environment. Unsettling our perceptions of scale and otherness, Psychoplankton allows the viewer to mentally drift along with a life form that bears no resemblance to human beings, though we share a planet, an ecosystem, and a future.
VAF Awards
October 1st will be a day of celebrating animation film when VAF host VAF Award Show 2022, presenting and awarding feature and short films in 7 different categories: Best Feature, Best Short, Best Graduation, Best Experimental, Open Workshop Danish Talent, ANIMOK Youth Jury, and the new award Best Commissioned Film. Each category has a professional jury who will deliberate and announce the wining films. VAF receives films from all over the world and celebrate the versatile and wonderful medium of animation.
To stay up to date with this year’s VAF, visit www.animationsfestival.dk