By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The competitive international animated film festival known as Anima Mundi returns to Rio de Janeiro today, Friday July 25th for its 22nd edition. Complete with screenings of both short and full-length animated features from national and international filmmakers, as well as, professional workshops, forums and masterclasses in animation, the festival will run in multiple venues in the city through Sunday, August 3rd.
Fundição Progresso, located in the Rio neighborhood of Lapa, will again serve as the festival’s principal site with Centro Cultural Light, Espaço Itaú de Cinema Botafogo, and Ipanema’s Oi Futuro hosting additional screenings and programs.
Anima Mundi was founded in Rio de Janeiro 22 years ago, in 1993, by Marcos Magalhães, Lea Zagury, Aida Queiroz and Cesar Coelho. The four filmmakers and animators began the festival in the hopes of raising awareness in the city about the art and craft of animation. The festival grew over the years and is now the second largest animation festival in the Americas and second largest in the world.
In addition to Rio, Anima Mundi has taken place in the Brazilian cities of São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba and Brasília. After Rio this year, the festival will go on to São Paulo from August 6th to 10th.
The festival’s competitive section yearly grants awards for Best Short Film, Best Feature Film, Best Short Film for Children, Best Brazilian Short Film and Best Student Short Film. Jury prizes are also awarded for Best Animation Technique, Best Screenplay, Best Sound Design, Best Art Direction, Best Picture and Best Picture from the Gallery Session.
Additionally, because the Anima Mundi festival became qualified by the American Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences in 2012, the winner of the festival’s professional jury award for Grand Prize for Short Film will become eligible to compete for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in next year’s ceremony.
The Short Films category alone contains over one hundred films submitted by filmmakers from around the world. During the festival the shorts (“Curtas” in Portuguese) are shown in blocks of six to nine per screening with a total of fifteen blocks of competitive short films.
Notable shorts during this year’s edition include; “Beyond the lines” by Chloé Bonnet, Séraphin Guery, Elodie Houard, Baptiste Lebouc, Pierre Tarsiguel (France); “BAD TOYS II” by Daniel Brunet and Nicolas Douste (France); “Marilyn Myller,” by Mikey Please (UK); “Beasts in the Real World” by Sol Friedman (Canada); “Harald” by Moritz Schneider (Germany), “Beauty” by Rino Stefano Tagliafierro (Italy); “Edifício Tatuapé Mahal,” by Carolina Markowicz and Fernanda Salloum (Brazil); and “A Recipe For Gruel” by Sharon Smith (UK).
The four feature films vying for 2014’s best film award are; “Cheatin’” by Bill Plympton (United States); “Lisa Limone ja Maroc Orange: tormakas armulugu” (Lisa Limone and Maroc Orange: a Rapid Love Story) by Mait Laas (Estonia); “O Apostolo” by Fernando Cortizo (Spain) and “Saibi” by Yeon Sangho (South Korea).
Additionally for masterclasses held during the festival special guest instructors include; American animator, Chris Landreth, Animator and Head of Character Animation of the How to Train Your Dragon series Simon Otto and American animator, film director and voice actor best known for his work with Disney, Eric Goldberg
Goldberg will return for the festival’s “Animated Chat” series held at Fundição Progresso on July 31st as will animators Bob Balser, Sky D’Ellia, and Frédéric Guillaume on July 30th, August 1st and August 2nd respectively. For a the complete list of films, screening times and locations, see the Anima Mundi website.
What: Anima Mundi 2014
When: Friday, July 25th through August 3rd. Screenings and event times vary.
Where: The principal site is Fundição Progresso Rua dos Arcos 24, Lapa. For more information about screenings and programs held at Centro Cultural Light, Espaço Itaú de Cinema Botafogo, and Ipanema’s Oi Futuro.
Entrance: R$5-R$10 per screening. Prices for masterclasses and other programs vary.
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