Animated Travels

The festival mascots designed by Koji Yamamura.

From the shores of enchanting Rio to Sao Paulo’s urban hustle and bustle, I was lucky enough to attend Brazil’s 2008 Anima Mundi festival.  This is the only festival I know about that starts in one city for a week and then moves to another town for another week of festivities.  While this makes it one of the longest festivals, I think most people would want it to last even a little longer.

The amount of screenings at Anima Mundi is impressive.  Furthermore, the selection is very varied making for great viewing.  When one attends a number of festivals the same films usually get repeated a number of times so that by the end of the year one feels as if they have seen half the films already.  Not the case here!  The films were varied in their country of origin but also in quality – some being from small workshops and others from the biggest of studios.  However, they were all entertaining and interesting.  A great selection indeed!

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OIAF Artistic Director Chris Robinson previews Chainsaw by Australian animator Dennis Tupicoff.

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is trying out some new elements this year, including a new venue (the Canadian Museum of Civilization), a new free shuttle bus between venues and new additions to programming, like a live art presentation by Daniel Barrow, who uses an overhead projector and narration to create something called “manual animation.”

OIAF artistic director Chris Robinson says that they’re “trying new events with more of a performance aspect. We’re expanding out rather than keeping things static.”

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