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Cardiff Animation Festival 2020 Announces Official Selection

118 animated shorts to screen in competition; festival returns April 2-5. 

The 2020 Cardiff Animation Festival has just announced the selection of 118 short films from around the world to screen in competition at the event, set for April 2-5.  The selection features unique voices and a diverse range of stories told by animated filmmakers from different backgrounds around the world. Over one quarter of the films selected were made by animators of color, and over half were directed by women.

According to festival director Lauren Orme, “We’re so excited to be back and bringing another jam-packed lineup of animation to Cardiff this April. Animation is an artform that doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves, and we’re really proud to celebrate it. We had so many amazing animated short films to choose from this year that we decided to add an extra program. We’ve got a brilliant and diverse selection of shorts that we’re really excited to share. There’s a huge audience for animation in Cardiff and beyond – the inaugural Cardiff Animation Festival in 2018 was really well received, with sell-out audiences and a huge buzz. We can’t wait to do it all again this year.”

Themed shorts screenings for adult audiences will include “Truth,” showcasing animated documentaries like Bloomers (Samantha Moore), a moving glimpse into British manufacturing, “Dare,” a late night screening of dark and strange shorts including gory and psychedelic revenge story Coyote (Lorenz Wunderle), and “Speechless,” films with no spoken or written language, like the hilarious Hors Piste (Léo Brunel, Loris Cavalier, Camille Jalabert, Oscar Malet). Films about the environment and our place in the world, like sublime and transporting In Passing (Esther Cheung) and The Bear Hunter (Sayaka Hara), are brought together in a program called Cynefin, a Welsh word with no direct translation to English, but which roughly translates as “habitat.” “Heart” features films about love and friendship, such as breathtaking adolescent adventure Nettle Head (Paul E. Cabon). Tamou (Tom Prezman, Tzor Edery), the story of a trans man in 20th century Morocco, and Technology for Talking (Jemima Hughes), celebrating the voices of people with hearing loss, are part of the “Body” program. “Mind,” films exploring neurodiversity and mental health, includes Daughter (Daria Kashcheeva) an Oscar-nominated film that uses groundbreaking animation techniques to explore a father-daughter relationship. Cardiff animation studio Cloth Cat Animation has selected two programs of animated short films for children aged 3+ and 7+, including Cats Can’t Swim (HaiLing Morgan) and The Witch And The Baby (Evgenia Golubeva).

The Cardiff Animation Festival program will include something for everyone, with short film programs, feature films, masterclasses, workshops, filmmaker Q+As, industry events, panels, networking events and parties. Previous Cardiff Animation Festival events have included masterclasses and Q&As with key talent behind Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, Aardman’s Early Man, hit preschool show Hey Duggee and Cartoon Saloon’s The Breadwinner, workshops in animation and life drawing, industry panels with TV commissioners, screenwriters, distributors and festivals, and an exhibition of sets and puppets from animated Welsh feature film Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires.

Cardiff Animation Festival 2020 is funded by Ffilm Cymru Wales and Film Hub Wales, as part of the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN) and sponsored by Cloth Cat Animation, Picl Animation and by the ScreenSkills Animation Skills Fund with contributions from UK animation productions.

The festival runs from April 2-5 at Chapter, an independent arts hub and cinema space in Cardiff. Cardiff Animation Festival passes will be on sale soon, with a limited number of Early Bird passes available.

Source: Cardiff Animation Festival

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Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.