My visit to the 5^thXiamen Cyber Sousa Animation Festival in Xiamen, China was in marked contrast to my visit to Changchun, China six weeks before.  Changchun is located in the far North East of China near to the South Korean and Mongolian borders and although the weather had not turned cold yet the heavy coats and boots in the department stores foretold what was to come soon.

Xiamen is situated on the South-eastern coast of China on the Taiwan Strait which gives it a beautiful tropical climate with lush flowers and foliage.  The most marked difference between the two events was the much more relaxed pace of the Xiamen festival.  Although there was an array of events, there were very few that we were required to attend, so I could choose what was most interesting to me.

Dear filmmakers, producers, students and distributors,

Now is your chance to submit your animated films for the 4th GOLDEN KUKER – SOFIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL!

will be held from May 7 to 12, 2013 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

You are kindly invited to participate in our festival’s competition this year with your animation films produced after 1st January 2011!

There is nothing that I like better than sitting in a dark theatre watching film.  Usually it is animation but during my 2 days at the Festival International Du Court Metrage (International Short Film Festival) in Lille, France I got to catch up on some live action and documentary shorts as well as the 3 excellent programs of animation.  As the name implies, no film was over 30 minutes.  The majority of the works were 15 minutes or under, so even though I was only at the festival on Friday and Saturday, I got to watch a wide variety of work.

The high points of the animation programs for me were Oh Willy by Emma De Swaef and Marc Roels, Tram from the extremely talented Michaela Pavlatova, and Hisko Hulsing’s Junkyard.  These 3 films have been garnering honors at festivals worldwide and it was no surprise that Hisko and Junkyard took the Best Animation award back to the Netherlands.  It was very impressive that Oh Willy walked away with the International Grand Prix, beating out hundreds of short films, documentaries, and animations.