Conference+

cultural networking and educational activity, aimed at professionals and young people interested in the film industry
Animest Program + Conference
Saturday, October 7, 17:00, Eforie cinema - Presentation of the Fredrikstad Animation Festival
Anders Narverud Moen, the director of the Fredrikstad Animation Festival in Norway, will present on the Norwegian animation scene. Fredrikstad is the most important animation festival in Scandinavia, featuring a significant competitive section for the entire Nordic and Baltic region.
Sunday, October 8, 15:00, Cervantes Institute - Ligia Soare - Audiovisual Translation for Children
Ligia Soare is a translator specialized in audiovisual translations. She has been adapting films into Romanian for almost two decades and has collaborated with most Romanian film festivals, production and distribution companies, cultural centers, and embassies, as well as with writers and independent directors. The workshop will focus on film translation for children, types of adaptation, subtitling, and dubbing. It will address challenges, limitations, as well as effective solutions and accessibility for viewers with special needs. The workshop is intended for both experienced and inexperienced film translators, distributors of children's films, teachers who want to use film in the classroom, and organizers of cultural events that include films for young audiences.
Sunday, October 8, 16:30, Cervantes Institute - Keiichi Hara - Making the „Lonely Castle in the Mirror”.
Born on July 24, 1959, Keiichi Hara has garnered numerous praises and awards for his film „Crayon Shin-chan: The Storm Called: The Adult Empire Strikes Back” (2001). Subsequently, he became one of Japan's most respected animation auteurs and in 2018, he became the third animation director (after Isao Takahata and Katsuhiro Otomo) to receive a medal awarded by the Japanese government to individuals who have made significant contributions in the artistic and academic fields. Derived from the eponymous novel by Japanese author Mizuki Tsujimura, the animated interpretation of the ”Lonely Castle in the Mirror” balances elements of fantasy and realism, providing a sophisticated reflection on the challenges of adolescence.
Tuesday, October 10, 10:00, Cervantes Institute - Coffee with the Authors
Each morning, artists from the festival's program meet with the public and discuss their films and their work process.
Tuesday, October 10, 11:30, Cervantes Institute - Book Launch „Gopo 100” by Dana Duma
In a dialogue with film critic Mihai Fulger, author and film professor Dana Duma will launch her new book celebrating Ion Popescu-Gopo on the centenary of his birth (April 30, 1923).
Tuesday, October 10, 13:00, Cervantes Institute - Festival Networks
A conference on best practices and opportunities offered by Creative Europe - MEDIA program with Media Desk Romania (Valentina Miu), Fest Anča Slovakia (Jakub Spevák), Animest Romania (Helga Fodorean)
Wednesday, October 11, 10:00, Cervantes Institute - Coffee with the Authors
Each morning, artists from the festival's program meet with the public and discuss their films and their work process.
Wednesday, October 11, 11:30, Cervantes Institute - What They Don't Teach You in Film School
Frank Mosvold is the director of the Norwegian production company KoolProduction, with a rich portfolio of short films, TV series, and feature films. Frank believes he has made all the mistakes a film producer can make and is ready to share these lessons with the Animest community.
Wednesday, October 11, 13:00, Cervantes Institute - Benjamin Efrati - From Music to Film and Back
Benjamin Efrati is a French media artist and electronic music producer. Since 2012, he has been composing soundtracks for films, short films, and animation series (Candide, Zsuzsanna Kreif, 2017; The New Kid, Arnaud Dezoteux, 2020; Amok, Balázs Turai, 2022; Inner Feels: Everything Flows). The workshop explores creative ways short film directors can use music and the collaborations they can develop with composers. The case study is Amok, an award-winning animated musical short directed by Balázs Turai in 2022.
Wednesday, October 11, 2:30 PM, Cervantes Institute - Vlad Ilicevici & Radu C. Pop - World Building Workshop
Vlad and Radu work in tandem on almost everything they do. They manage an animation film studio (Worksheep Studio), an educational platform for young Romanian animators and students (Animation Worksheep), and at the same time, both are professors at the National Film School within the Department of Animation. Animation Worksheep is a platform created for the educational and professional development of young animators from Romania and the Republic of Moldova. Out of over 200 graduates of the first 16 editions of the Workshop, more than half are currently working as animators, either in studios in Romania or abroad, or as freelancers. For each edition of the Workshop, between 15 and 20 young animators work together on an animation project, guided by a team of 6-7 trainers over a period of 3 weeks. In the last 4 editions, participants and trainers have worked on a collaborative world-building project - the fantastic universe of Călușarii - based on local mythology and folklore, mixed with defining moments of recent Eastern European history. Additionally, one of the most significant projects of Animation Worksheep is an animated documentary based on the experience of the first Romanian cosmonaut, Dumitru Prunariu, which will be presented as a work-in-progress during the presentation.
Wednesday, October 11, 6:00 PM, National Dance Center - Dance Meets Animation
A journey into the world of the artist, dancer, animator, and filmmaker Franco-Cameroonian Jean Charles Mbotti Malolo and an exploration of the interaction between dance, animation, sign language, and documentary filmmaking.
Thursday, October 12, 10:00 AM, Cervantes Institute - Coffee with the Authors
Every morning, the artists from the festival's program meet with the public and discuss their films and their work process.
Thursday, October 12, 11:30 AM, Cervantes Institute - The Creative Process of Marta Pajek
A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Marta Pajek studied at the Animation Film Studio led by the legendary animator Jerzy Kucia. Pajek later trained under the guidance of Estonian animator Priit Pärn at the Turku Arts Academy in Finland. Pajek's filmmaking style was shaped by an interest in art and graphic design, as well as dance, psychology, spirituality, and human experiences. She has directed several animated short films, including After Apples (2004), Sleepincord (2011), and the most recent award-winning triptych "Impossible Figures and other stories" (2016-2021). Marta Pajek will offer the audience a perspective on the development of her creative process, starting from her early student films to internationally awarded films.
Thursday, October 12, 1:00 PM, Cervantes Institute - Titina from First Sketch to the Big Screen
Marie-Laure Guisset & Sunniva Fluge Hole are part of the Titina team (Norway, 2022, directed by Kajsa Naess), an animated film selected in the competition of major animation festivals. The workshop will illustrate the creative process of the Norwegian studio "Mikrofilm," from the first sketches of Titina to the screening of the feature film on big screens around the world.
Thursday, October 12, 2:30 PM, Cervantes Institute - Pitch, please!
Animation project pitching session
Thursday, October 12, 6:30 PM, Cervantes Institute - Presentation of Volda Norwegian School of Animation
The animation degree at Volda University College is the oldest animation education in Norway. The school offers a 3-year bachelor's degree and an interdisciplinary master's program. The bachelor's degree introduces students to various techniques (2D, 3D computer animation, and stop-motion) before allowing them to specialize in a chosen approach. In the final year, students undertake a larger project, often resulting in a short film. The faculty accepts up to 15 new students each year, and there are international exchange programs. Students have 24/7 access to top modern facilities, including a stop-motion studio. With the opportunity to work with traditional analog techniques, as well as modern technologies such as VR, students are expected to experiment within and beyond conventional frameworks. As evidenced by several films in the projected program, student works from Volda have been recognized in the international animation community, being screened at major festivals such as Animafest Zagreb and Annecy.
Friday, October 13, 10:00 AM, Cervantes Institute - Coffee with the Authors
Every morning, the artists from the festival's program meet with the public and discuss their films and their work process.
Friday, October 13, 11:30 AM, Cervantes Institute - Atom Art: Between Experiments and Films for Children, Sabine Andersone & Edmunds Jansons
Atom Art is an independent animation studio based in Riga, Latvia. Founded in 2001, the studio has been active in two main areas - developing quality content for children in a variety of formats, including TV series, TV specials, and animated feature films, as well as the production of authorial short films. While experimenting with different techniques, Atom Art expands the diversity of Latvian animation - the studio has produced films in sand animation, charcoal on paper, cut-out animation, puppet animation, and other techniques. In recent years, Atom Art has premiered an animated feature film "Jēkabs, Mimmi and the Talking Dogs" and more than ten award-winning animated short films that have traveled to festivals around the world.
Friday, October 13, 1:00 PM, Cervantes Institute - Anna Zača & Ioana Nicoară - Stronger Together: The Power of Professional Associations
For over a decade, Anna Zača has specialized in the field of animation as a theorist and critic. She leads the Latvian animation association and curates the SHORT RIGA short film program at the Riga International Film Festival. Her initial directorial project, "All My Friends Are Dead," was a joint effort with Nils Skapāns, where she handled the script, direction, set elements, and contributed to the overall visual concept.
Romanian animator Ioana Nicoară has worked as an art director and scriptwriter for notable productions such as "The Magic Mountain" and "The Blissful Accidental Death", as well as for commercials and various cultural projects. Her work in animation complements her practice in painting and interest in augmented reality (AR) projects. Collaborating with Reniform Production, her main goal is to innovate animation techniques and promote cultural and artistic awareness on a broader scale.
Saturday, October 14th, 12:00 - Closing Conference