MINSK, 17 October (BelTA) - Minsk International Film Festival Listapad will launch a competition program for animated films this year, BelTA learned from the press center of the film festival.
This year, the festival will run four programs: feature, documentary, animated films, as well as films for children and youth audiences Listapadzik. A separate competition program for animated films are a novelty of this year's edition. In 2021, the fourth program was the "Cinema of the Young".
Despite the fact that the animation competition is making its debut this year, it has received the largest number of applications from around the world - 530. Only a tenth part of them has been selected by the selection committee. "Half a thousand applications is a normal figure since these are short films. Many of them last for 2-3 minutes,” said Konstantin Andryushechkin, the program director of the animated film competition program, screenwriter and animator. “The geography of the participants is extensive. These are 21 countries: Germany, Israel, Mexico, France, Japan, South Korea, Belgium, the Netherlands, Iran, Colombia, China, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Serbia, the USA and others. Sixteen films out of the 50 selected for the competition program are Russian made. There are also Belarusian works: three Belarusfilm and one film by independent authors.”
The organizers have pooled the film into five programs: three for children (6+) and two for adult viewers (16+). The programs have been titled Tales and Stories, About Children and Adults, With a Smile, Serious Conversation, and Images of War. They all will be screened at the Belarus cinema house.
“In my opinion, the animation program is fantastic! There are films that have taken part in other prestigious international film festivals: in Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Locarno and Annecy. We also plan to showcase new animation works of two Oscar-nominated filmmakers. Just like at any other film festival, we will screen films with almost no awards, which may become a discovery of our film forum,” said Konstantin Andryushechkin.
Belarusian animator Igor Volchek, the winner of the special award of the President of the Republic of Belarus “For preservation and development of traditions of spirituality in cinema” will be chairman of the jury of the animated film section. The jury may also include Denis Chernov, director of Finnick, Teddy Boom and Smeshariki, and Mohamed Ghazala, animation director, assistant professor of animation and the chair of the department of the Visual & Digital Production of Effat University, Saudi Arabia, founder and director of the first chapter of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA, in Africa and in the Arab world.
Launched in 1994, Listapad is an annual international film festival in Minsk. Among the organizers of the film festival is the Culture Ministry of Belarus, Minsk City Hall and the Belarusfilm national film studio.
