New edition of the Oscar® qualifying International Animated Film Festival ANIMATOR will begin on June 21st. Poznan will become the World Capital of Animation for the 16th time.

Since its very inception, the International Animated Film Festival ANIMATOR has been striving to shape the sensitivity of its audience and broaden their knowledge about animated film. Over the last 15 years, it has gathered a wide following of regular participants, but it still does not stall in its mission of reaching new viewers. 2023 will be a special year for IAFF ANIMATOR.

The programme of the 16th edition is the effects of a cooperation with the new Artistic Director - Adriana Prodeus. 

Adriana Prodeus has been involved with IAFF ANIMATOR since its first edition, which took place in 2008. She participated in the Festival as a selection board member, moderator and debate participant. She also hosted the awards gala in 2009. She is a lecturer at the Art Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She specializes in avant-garde and animated cinema. She is a curator of film programmes at Anthology Film Archive in New York, Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, the New Horizons Festival and others. For the last 3 years she was also the selector for the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia.

A brand new programme section will debut in 2023, devoted to the extremely popular and rapidly developing animation from Japan and South Korea, under the title CRYSTALS OF ANIME. In the well-established RETROSPECTIVES section of the Festival we will showcase the directorial output of the long-time Artistic Director and co-founder of the ANIMATOR Festival who passed away in 2022 - Marcin Giżycki.  

New edition tagline: Searching for Yourself

The audience will also have a chance to watch a selection of films submitted by creators from all over the world as part of the OPEN CALL inspired by the slogan of this year's edition: Searching for yourself. From among 118 authors who submitted their films in the open call, we’ve selected the creators of the animated trailer for the 16th IAFF ANIMATOR.

Dudek Pulit will be responsible for creating the visual and Slawomir Kandziora the musical side of the project.

Their joint work Choice (2020) will be screened as part of the Searching for yourself programme section.

Competitions

At the very heart of the ANIMATOR Festival lie the competitions: the International Short Film Competition, the International Feature Film Competition, the International Animated Series Competition, and the Polish Animated Film Competition. The call for entries concluded on February 20th, 2023 with 3250 submissions from 114 countries, including Bahrain, Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Cameroon, Mali, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Honduras, Cape Verde, Jamaica, Myanmar, Jordan, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Paraguay, Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago, Yemen, Senegal, Ghana, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Guadeloupe, Bolivia, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Eswatini, Sri Lanka.

This year we witnessed a record-breaking number of submissions to the Feature Film Competition!

Every year outstanding animators from all over the world are invited to join our international competition JURY. So far, the Festival has been visited by Mariola Brillowska, Daniel Gill, Andrzej Chrzanowski, John R. Dilworth, David Ehrlich, Eric Goldberg, Yoram Gross, Emily Hubley, Hisko Hulsing, Igor Kowalow, Bady Minck, Michel Ocelot, Bracia Quay, Bill Plympton, Phil Tippett, Gerald Potterton, Zbigniew Rybczyński, Raoul Servais, alongside some of the most important Polish animators such as: Witold Giersz, Jerzy Kucia, Mariusz Wilczyński, Piotr Dumała, Kazimierz Urbański.

The award-winning author of the cult film The Triplets of Belleville - Sylvain Chomet and 2023 Oscar nominee - Sara Gunnarsdóttir, will be guests of the 16th edition of the ANIMATOR festival*

SYLVAIN CHOMET - French director, winner of César and BAFTA awards, author of The Triplets of Belleville. During this year's edition of the Festival, we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the premiere of this cult classic.

In June, Poznan will also host the nominee for the 2023 American Film Academy Award, Icelandic artist - SARA GUNNARSDOTTIR. Her Academy Award-nominated animation My Year of Dicks was also awarded during ANIMATOR 2022 in the International Animated Series Competition. 

The 16th edition of the ANIMATOR Festival will take place both online and on-site in Poznan. 

Between June 21st - 25th, 2023,

we invite you to Poznan for film screenings at the Muza Cinema and interdisciplinary events presented on the open-air scene and at the Festival Club in Pawilon in the old Warta river bed. A series of events organized in cooperation with cultural institutions, associations and local partners is also planned.

Online screenings will take place between June 26th-30th, 2023.

On the first two days of July, there will be screenings of short and feature films awarded in the ANIMATOR 2023 competitions, works of the ANIMATOR OF TOMORROW and ANIMATION BACKSTAGE workshops participants, as well as screenings of the films awarded at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2023.

Oscar® qualifying

Established in 2008, the International Animated Film Festival ANIMATOR is the largest animated film festival in Poland. Since 2017, ANIMATOR Festival carries the Oscar® qualifying status from the American Film Academy. This means that a short film that wins the Festival’s Grand Prix, the Golden Pegasus, is on a fast track to being considered for an Oscar® nomination in the Best Animated Short Film category and can compete for this prestigious award.

 See you in June! 

*EDIT 26.05: Due to personal reasons Sylvain Chomet will not be joining us in Poznan this year. More information on the updated Jury of the 16th ANIMATOR Festival is available in the press materials  --> https://animator-festival.com/en/materialy-dla-prasy/