The Animator Festival features over 150 events and more than 300 films!
Have you already mapped out your own festival route? Have you marked the events in the program that interest you the most? Starting today, you can buy tickets for them!
We will open the festival with a screening of Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. Before the screening, Tim Allen (curator of the “to be human” section) and Joanna Piotrowiak (Festival Director) will welcome the audience and officially open the 19th edition of Animator. The screening is part of the “to be human” program, which also includes, among others, Animal Farm, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, the premiere screening of Junk World, and animated social awareness campaigns.
The program also features screenings accompanied by Q&A sessions with filmmakers. We would like to remind you that Animator will host, among others, John R. Dilworth (creator of the cult Cartoon Network series Courage the Cowardly Dog), Maciek Szczerbowski (a native of Poznań and this year’s Academy Award winner for Best Animated Short Film), Marc Silk (the voice of Johnny Bravo and Scooby-Doo), Greg Grabianski (co-writer of all episodes of Beavis and Butt-Head), Aya Suzuki (animator of films and productions such as The Wind Rises, Isle of Dogs, and Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc), and Daniele Zannone (responsible for character animation in films including Hotel Transylvania and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs).
Many of the festival’s guests will also share their expertise during the industry event Animator PRO. A dedicated VR space will be set up in Słodownia at Stary Browar, offering immersive experiences that will quite literally transport us into the world of animation. This year’s VR Gallery features seven unique experiences.
At the heart of Animator, however, are its competitions: the Academy Award–qualifying International Short Film Competition, the International Feature Film Competition, the Polish Animated Film Competition, the International Animated Series Competition, and the Open Call section, which this year is dedicated to animated music videos. The films selected for the official competition are remarkably diverse, created by both established and emerging artists. The winners are also in your hands! After selected competition screenings, you can vote for your favorites and help decide who receives the Audience Award.
We will meet all the winners during the awards ceremony, which will be accompanied by a screening of The Girl Who Cried Pearls by Maciek Szczerbowski and Chris Lavis, featuring a live musical performance by an orchestra assembled especially for the occasion.
See you on the festival trail!
