The 19th edition of the Animest Festival (October 4 – 13) proposes a series of urban white nights dedicated to the most daring of animated film lovers. Atypical stories, intense experiences, nocturnal screenings and challenging experiments come together in a sophisticated cocktail of thematic events – new and established.
Ghost of the Dark Path (dir. Fish Wang)
Trippy Animation Night returns with an unusual and electrifying collection, Creepy Animation Night will give shivers to even the bravest of viewers, Erotica – The Night of Erotic Animation will stimulate the imagination outside the comfort zone, and Animusic Night will once again prove that quality parties also find a place in the cinema. In addition, this year, the special events are complemented by a new entry, dedicated to young people – Fresh Frames, a selection of animated films mostly made by teenagers in the workshops supported by the Animation Incubator during the year.
The urban surprise of the edition comes a few days before the festival: between September 23 and 28, Animest Warmup takes place, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Library: one by one, every evening, the sectors of Bucharest will host screenings of short films in neighborhood libraries.
Trippy Animation Night – Vol.11: Saturday 5 October, the night of the unexplored maze
During the first weekend of the festival, on October 5, from 11:30 p.m., at Cinemateca Eforie, fans of avant-garde cinematic experiences can enjoy a new volume of animated screenings chosen and interwoven by Michael Helmerhorst, the host of the event and the curator of the out story selection -of-the-box. The collection of eccentric and psychotronic images was put together by Michael combining his own analog footage with gems hidden in the depths of the Internet. The result was compiled into several small chapters – “Far Horizons”, “Masquarades”, “Grand Guignol”, “Found Footage”, “Loops & Droodles”, “Bad Trips & Pipe Dreams”, “Urban Autographs” and “The Many Faces of Mickey Mouse” – and promises a cinematic maze that will open up new urban dimensions. Tickets: https://bit.ly/Trippy2024
Erotica – The Night of Erotic Animation: Tuesday 8 October, the night of animated non-conformism
After being sold-out at every edition in which it shamelessly crept into the program, Erotica – The Night of Erotic Animation returns on October 8, from 11:00 p.m., at Cinemateca Eforie, with night screenings dedicated to those who are not afraid to step out of their comfort zone and explore on the big screen explicit animations about pleasure, passion, carnal love, games and toys exclusively for adults.
Films prohibited for minors are collected by Jakub Spevák, artistic director of Fest Anča – Slovakia’s largest event dedicated to animated film. The selection proposed for this edition includes titles produced and released in the last year in the USA, Germany, Canada, Portugal, Singapore, Japan, France, Hungary and Poland, a foray into the wider world through fetishes or taboo subjects. Tickets: https://bit.ly/Erotica2024
Animusic Night: Thursday October 10, the night that gets your blood pumping
The most spectacular animated music videos will compete again this year for the prize of the edition at Animusic Night – the event that will set the tone of the party on Thursday evening, October 10, from 21:00. With stories on beats from Japan, Korea, Argentina, France, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, the 31 videos selected in the competition will delight Animest viewers and challenge the 3 appointed jurors to analyze and score them.
Omu Gnom, urban name Daniel Secăreanu, host of the show “Music for thought” from Radio Guerrilla, long-term partner of the Animest Festival, will be part of the Animusic jury, together with MidoriStars (Izabella Alda), the first Romanian artist who sings and writes in Japanese and Kōji Morimoto, one of Japan’s leading anime directors. Tickets: https://bit.ly/Animusic2024
Creepy Animation Night: Friday October 11th, the night that gives you the chills
Almost 3 hours of thrills provided by 23 horror stories from this year’s selection of the Animest section that send shivers down the spine of even the bravest of viewers year after year. On October 11, from 11:00 p.m., at Sala Luceafărul (formerly CinemaPRO), fans of the horror genre are expected to watch short films with a strong emotional impact.
The break between the two sets of projections keeps the spectators on their toes, promising a live performance worthy of being scared, supported by Cristi Stanciu aka Matze, a pioneer of electronic music and Robert OBERT, one of the most recognizable urban visual artists from Bucharest. Tickets: https://bit.ly/Creepy2024
Fresh Frames: Saturday, October 5, a new entry with a teenage vibe
The newest Animest section will debut on the first weekend of the festival, on Saturday 5 October at 5pm at Cinema Elvire Popesco. Spectators will be able to see a selection of 16 animated films created by teenagers from Romania and the Republic of Moldova, selected by the Teen Jury from the previous Animest edition. The new section was born thanks to the Animation Incubator, the largest community for teenagers dedicated to animation and digital art, and aims to be a mirror of the perspectives of the new generation of animators. Most of the short films included in Fresh Frames were created as a result of the workshops held by the Incubator throughout the year. Tickets: https://bit.ly/FreshFrames2024
Warmup Animest: 23 – 28 September, the evenings in which you rediscover the city
In this edition, the festival aimed to explore the city as much as possible and reach as many neighborhoods of the Capital as possible. Through a partnership with the Bucharest Metropolitan Library, the organizers are giving animation film lovers a meeting, between September 23 and 28, in each sector of Bucharest, in one of the local libraries, to properly warm up for Animest. 19 – Urban Frames. Sectors 3 and 5 will give the youngest moviegoers an idea of what they can see at Minimest, on September 27 and 28, from 11:00 a.m., at the Gheorghe Şincai Library and the Alexandru Macedonski Library, respectively. The rest of the warm-up starts at 18:00, with a selection of short films from this year’s thematic section, which will be screened at the Alexandru Macedonski Library (23 September, sector 4), the Marin Preda Library (24 September, sector 1), the Dimitrie Library Cantemir (September 25, sector 2) and Nichita Stănescu Library (September 26, sector 6).
Admission is free to all screenings, subject to availability.
