Registrations for the animation workshop Pitch, please!, now in its 6th edition, are now open.
The touching and humorous story of a woman who refuses to be defeated by life’s adversities will open the de-the 19th edition of the Animest International Animation Film Festival (October 4-13, Bucharest) with a national premiere screening. A drama told with a lot of humor and authenticity through the voice of the Australian actress Sarah Snookthe animation Memoir of a Snail explores the complex defense and coping mechanisms that people develop in the face of trauma, as well as the incredible inner resources they have available to break free from situations in which they are constricted – by other people, by unforeseen circumstances, or perhaps even by themselves mental illness – beyond their will.
The animation, awarded with the Crystal for the best feature film at this year’s edition of the Annecy Festival, will be seen in Bucharest on October 4from 19:00the Hall Luceafărul (formerly Cinema PRO). Tickets have gone on sale and are available on the platform Eventbook.
Grace the Pudel is a solitary misfit, collects ornamental snails and has a boundless love of books. Her childhood was a merry-go-round full of unexpected meetings and breakups, deprivations and small joys, anxiety and escape in the imagination. Despite a series of hardships and unfortunate events, meeting the eccentric Pinky and the friendship that develops between them will bring hope and inspiration to Grace’s life.
“Full of poetic ways of turning into qualities and strengths the labels of ‘different’ or ‘strange’ imposed by a society that does not know how to accept the differences between people.” (Variety), “An authentic portrait of the ‘renegade’, constructed with undeniable creativity.” (The Hollywood Reporter) sau “A story both funny and heartbreaking.” (Screen Daily) are just some of the words that critics use to describe the newest production directed by Adam Elliotwinner of the 2004 Academy Award for his short film Harvey Krumpet.
“The protagonists of all my films are misfits, and the themes I choose explore the differences between people. I love to tell stories infused with humor and pathos, reflections on aspects of our everyday lives, capturing moments of happiness that illuminate the darkness that comes with life’s inherent challenges. For 30 years, my goal has been simple: to make my audience laugh… and cry.”said Adam Elliotwhich will open the Animest Festival for the second time.
His first feature film, Mary and Maxinspired by the director’s personal history, was screened for the first time in Romania at Animest in 2009, when it opened the fourth edition of the festival, remaining years later one of the most beloved animations from all editions.
Memoir of a Snail is the second feature film in which Adam Elliot uses clay figures and sums up thousands of hours of work by Australia’s best animators, who over the course of a year hand-sculpted the film’s 7,000 backgrounds, characters and objects, moving them frame by frame, according to the rules of the classical technique stop motion. The animation does not include any CGI effects, with the final production tally reaching over 135,000 shots that meticulously render the story of the charismatic Grace. Among those voicing the characters are Australian actors Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Eric Banathe television presenter Tony Armstrongbut also the famous singer and composer Nick Cave.
Pitch, please! – registrations are open for the Animest workshop dedicated to animated films
Starting today and until September 10the directors and producers of animation films from Romania and the Republic of Moldova are challenged to give voice to ideas not yet realized and to enroll their projects in the development program Pitch, please!, already reached its 6th edition within Animest. No registration fee is charged, and selected participants will have free access to the events included in the program of the19th Edition Animest (October 4-13, 2024).
All projects selected in the final stage will receive feedback and recommendations from the three-member jury, screenwriters, directors or international producers with extensive experience in the field of animation. The best projects are eligible to win one or more of the prizes up for grabs for this edition: participare la Black Sea Animation Workshop 2024 – a specialized training, after which the best projects in the program have a chance to be included in the section Partner Pitches of the Annecy International Animation Festival 2025, the most prestigious animation event in the world; dual credit (director and producer) at Rise & Shine Animation Pitching Lab 2025 – an international workshop for the development of animated film projects, organized in two modules; and full audio post-production services offered by Raza Studio.
In the previous 5 editions they were registered over 40 projects, of which 18 were selected and participated in the Animest training program. It was supported at all editions by the trainers Cristian Pascariu (writer, director) and Dan Panaitescu (animator, director), who provides mentoring and consulting to the participants, supporting them in order to support the presentation, from the point of view of the script and the creative and technical development of the project.
Among the projects that have already materialized or obtained funding to be produced as a result of participating in the competition Pitch, please! animations count Dirty paradise (dir. Alina Gheorghe), Balázs Orbán the collector of legends (dir. Fazakas Szabolcs, Bálint Hunor), Happy New Year (r. Radu Gaciu) and Mr. Ladybug (r. Ioana Păsărin). Others, such as A Horse in a SwanSea (r. Maria Brudașcă) and The Shoebox (r. Cristina Pîrvu), are in the development stage, while Stejarelul (r: Nicoleta Miron, Liana Chiriță) continues to work on the script under the mentorship of Dave King, a member of last year’s pitch jury.
The Animest Festival is a project of the Animest Association, co-financed by the MEDIA Program of the European Union and the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
Institutional partners: Romanian Cultural Institute, French Institute and French Embassy, Instituto Cervantes, Italian Institute of Culture in Bucharest, Austrian Cultural Forum, National University of Theater and Cinematography “IL Caragiale”, Animation Festival Network
Main media partner: Radio Guerrilla
Media partners: Radio Romania Cultural, Adevărul de Weekend, Zile și Nopți, Observator Cultural, Revista BIZ, Haute Culture, IQads, Scena9, AGERPRES, Ziarul Metropolis, Mindcraft Stories, LiterNet, Movie News, CineFAN, HAPP.ro, MunteanuRecomandă, AndreeaVerde
Monitoring partner: mediaTRUST
Source: www.iqads.ro
