03/03/2011

The 30th Anima - Brussels Animated Film Festival opens on March 4 for ten days entirely devoted to the art of images in motion.

The feature film competition gives pride of place to European animation, with no fewer than seven out of ten films hailing from Europe. These include Scandinavian titles Olsen Gang Gets Polished [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Jorden Lerdam (Denmark/Norway) and Ploddy the Police Car Makes a Splash by Rasmus Sivertsen (Norway); as well as Jean-Christophe Roger’s The Storytelling Show [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (France/Luxembourg) and Chico & Rita [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Javier Mariscal, Tono Errando
film profile] by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal (Spain/United Kingdom). Also making a comeback, in avant-premiere out of competition, is Sweden’s most famous spook Laban the Little Ghost, by Per Åhlin, Lasse Persson, Alicja Jaworski and Karin Nilsson.

Short films, which are a vital springboard in the animation sector, have not been forgotten and are represented in two sections: the international competition and the national competition “C’est du belge” (“It’s Belgian”).

At the heart of Europe, Anima 2011 has chosen to focus attention on Germany, a country known for its economic importance within European animation, but whose artistic vitality is too often underestimated or even ignored. To fill this gap, the festival is giving carte blanche to two studios, a school and the Berlin-based Pictoplasma Festival. Two other European countries, Ireland and Romania, will also be the focus of retrospectives.

The festival also takes an interest in professionals and offers them the Futuranima programme, a series of conferences and workshops on subjects ranging from searching for partners in Europe to writing and the role of music in animated films.

Finally, as every year, the festival is collaborating with Cartoon d’Or, which awards the best European animated short film. The contenders are nominated from among the prize-winners at Europe’s major animated film festivals, including Anima. So let’s wait for the prize list!

(Translated from French)