SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – As crowds gathered in front of the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center, in the center of Rio de Janeiro, and at a movie theatre complex in the Botafogo neighborhood on Wednesday night, organizers of the Anima Mundi Festival let out a sigh of relief. The 27th edition of the largest animated film festival in Latin America almost did not occur due to financial problems.
“Through crowdfunding, we were able to hold the Festival,” Marcos Magalhães, one of the four directors and organizers of Anima Mundi, told The Rio Times.
In April, Petrobras and BNDES (Brazil’s National Development Bank), both controlled by the federal government, announced they were not renewing major cultural sponsorships, including this year’s Anima Mundi Festival in Rio and São Paulo. Organizers, instead of canceling the festival, decided to open a collective funding campaign.
“We had to reduce the number of locations and the number of days of the festival; this edition is more concentrated, more human, but we continue to show all the types of animated films and are still holding all the workshops we had planned,” he added.
The crowdfunding campaign, whose target was to obtain R$400,000, surpassed its goal, enabling organizers to show 303 films from over forty countries
“It was all very sudden. We were taken by surprise because we believed we already had the sponsorship money for this year. When we came across the situation (lack of sponsorship), we decided we would do the festival no matter how,” explained Magalhães.
Although the campaign was successful, Magalhães says this is not the best way to resolve the festival’s future editions. “We need regular sponsorship from large companies, from different sectors of private business,” he said noting that the festival is just one of the events of the group, which has activities promoting animated art in Brazil throughout the year.
In 2018, the Anima Mundi Festival had almost 50,000 visitors and added R$26.8 million in revenues to Rio and São Paulo. According to Magalhães, organizers expect 50-60,000 people to participate in this year’s edition.
This year’s festival will have 186 films participating in eight competitive shows: Short Films (79 films), Short Films Documentary (six), Children’s Short Films (33), Gallery (nineteen experimental films), Portfolio (26 publicity or custom-made films), Children’s Feature (four) and Virtual Reality (fifteen).
The non-competitive part of the Festival will bring together 116 films in the categories of: “International Panorama” (27 international short films that present various trends within animation), “Animation in progress” (36 final works of the best animation schools in the world), “Look at them! ” (24 national short films that deserve attention), and “Animation Future” (29 films that use animation language for educational experiences).
Organizers say that the films presented at this year’s Anima Mundi use various animation techniques and discuss overall issues such as love and death; social issues such as violence, racism, and child abuse; and contemporary situations such as connectivity and gender issues.
“One of the most original and meaningful categories of the festival, I think, is the so-called Future Animator. They are free programs in which we were touched by the newness and enthusiasm of children, young people, and educators, in various initiatives around the world, who discover how much the language of animation can transform. This year we have very interesting films made in non-professional schools and workshops in Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, and Portugal,” says Magalhães.
In addition to the Future Animator, Magalhães highlights feature films such as “A Cidade dos Piratas” (Otto Guerra/Brazil) and “Buñuel en el Laberinto de las Tortugas” (Salvador Simo/Spain), and the short film “Memorable” (Bruno Collet/France).
“The plastic beauty that the images of the films present in this edition is impressive. We perceive the animators have total mastery of the software, using it as a tool to perfectly simulate the most diverse artistic materials, surpassing the limits imposed by the digital universe,” explained Aída Queiroz, another of the founding directors of the festival.
During the event in São Paulo, Anima Mundi will discuss the animation market with lectures, talks, and seminars about animation, aimed at the promotion, professionalization, and internationalization of the animation market.
Since 2012 Anima Mundi has been qualified by the U.S. Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Science and the Anima Mundi Grand Prize short film is eligible to participate in the Oscars. “We’ve had three of our winners as contenders in the animated short film category at the Oscars,” says Magalhães.
“What we see with each passing edition is an animation market which is alive, strong and spreading throughout Brazil,” concludes Magalhães.
Anima Mundi runs from July 17th to 21st in Rio de Janeiro and 24th to 28th in São Paulo.