25/09/2015 - Greece’s largest animation gathering spreads colour among the Cyclades by inaugurating its Agora, the country’s first animation market

Celebrating its eighth year in the heart of the Cyclades, Greece’s largest annual animation gathering, the AnimaSyros International Animation Festival, is inaugurating the country’s first specialised animation market, to be held during the event in Syros (24-27 September). 

Aiming to become a hub of creative professional networking, and target the development of partnerships and synergies among animation professionals from around the world, the Agora includes open networking meetings, closed pitching sessions, a videotheque, professional lectures, and presentations of commercial and film projects by animation studios from around the globe.

Aliki Theofilopoulos, a Walt Disney Studios alumna with such films as Mulan, Hercules and Fantasia 2000 among her credits, will headline the guests-of-honour list at the festival’s inaugural Agora, which will also welcome Antony Riakiotakis of the Netherlands’ renowned Blender Institute and the UK’s Dan Richards of A+C Studios as just two of the key presenters of the market’s talks and presentations. 

Close to 200 shorts and features from around the world of animation will be featured at this year’s festival in Syros, which will turn its spotlight on Japan. Moreover, the gathering’s two competitive sections, focusing on international and students’ animated shorts, will this year be complemented by the Feature Competition, comprising seven films vying for the AnimaSyros Audience Award. 

In addition, Ari Folman will be under the event’s spotlights as the year’s most prestigious guest; the multi-award-winning Israeli director will be on hand to discuss his much-awaited animated take on The Diary of Anne Frank.