Anima 2008

The biggest animation film festival in Belgium, Anima highlights the best in international animation, including a number of films from Flanders. The festival opens with the prestigious Fear(s) of the Dark, which is the result of a collaboration between six renowned graphic artists. A number of Flemish animators, like Pieter Vanluffelen, have worked on the film which will be distributed in Belgium by Lumière. The opening film of the children's section is Max & co, a co-production between Belgium and Switzerland. In the Futurama programme, which is aimed at professionals, animators Christine Polis and Kim Keukeleire will give a behind-the-scenes look of Max & co. But these are not the only Flemish animators who worked on Max & Co, Kristien Vanden Bussche is also one of them. You can check her out on the portfolio section of this site. On the same day, 7 February, Vincent Patar and Stéphane Aubier will come and talk about the making of the feature-length version of A Town Called Panic, currently in production at Beast Animation in Brussels.Anima is also the perfect platform for the presentation of the long-awaited stop-motion puppet animation film The Cid, in which a variety of insects tries to adapt the famous play by Corneille. Production company S.O.I.L. will present this medium-length film on 3 February. One of the special guests of the festival is Dutch animation wizard Rosto. His intriguing collection of shorts will be shown on 6 February. On the occasion of this retrospective, the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), is to organise a co-production meeting with professionals from The Netherlands and Flanders on 8 February. This meeting will be followed by an interview session with Rosto. Three programmes highlight the Flemish and Belgian animation shorts. In total, C'est du Belge or Dit is Belgisch shows about 30 films in a wide variety of animation genres. Finally, a new Best of Anima dvd has been presented to the public and will be on sale at the festival. Best of Anima 4 includes a.o. Administrators by Roman Klochkov and Tempus Fluit by Thies Baert, both prize winners at last year's Festival. More of Anima 2007 is shown at cinemas across Flanders during the festival.For more information, visit www.anima2008.be.