Idea: Animator 2013
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Animator, celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, definitely settled for good on the map of the most important animated film festivals in the world.
The best proof is that the authors of a book devoted exclusively to world festivals Coming Soon to a Festival Near You: Programming Film Festivals, which has just been published by St. Andrews Film Studies, considered Animator as one of the two (together with the one held in Hiroshima) animated film festivals that deserve a separate presentation.
This year, to celebrate our special anniversary, we decided to introduce a brand new element to the festival program, namely a full-length animated film competition. I am deeply convinced that this will only increase further the attractiveness of the event and it will be well received by our audiences.
Of particular note is our main festival event, besides competition screenings, which is a broad presentation of Canadian animated films from the National Film Board. We will also look at the work of one of NFB’s greatest stars over the years – Norman McLaren.
Among special guests of the festival we are proud to have Normand Roger with a retrospective of his films. He is by far the most prominent Canadian film music composer and creator of soundtracks to many Oscar-winning productions.
Animator’s anniversary coincides with the jubilee of professor Jerzy Kucia, a distinguished and truly exceptional Polish animation artist, who is celebrating his seventieth birthday this year. It is a great pleasure to invite you to a special meeting with him and to his retrospective screening.
As every year, we tried to fill the festival program with not only competition screenings but also with a wide range of accompanying events such as concerts, lectures and workshops. Our offer in this area is very diverse, so I recommend a careful study of the contents of this catalogue.
Keeping up with the times, this year we decided to host a group of experts in new media, who will show our audiences how to make films using mobile phones (Abi Feijo) or by using programs to computer game authoring (Friedrich Kirschner).
Perhaps the biggest surprise and discovery of this year’s festival is, however, Bruce Bickford, a clay master, barely known in Europe but surrounded by legend in the USA. Frank Zappa even made a film about him.
I wish you many unforgettable moments while following the events of Animator Festival 2012.
Marcin Giżycki
Dyrektor Artystyczny Festiwalu / Artistic Director of the festival