Lineup for first annual Palm Springs International Animation Festival running November 9-11 includes screenings of ‘Loving Vincent,’ ‘Tehran Taboo,’ and more than 250 animated short films from all around the world.
The inaugural Palm Springs International Animation Festival kicks off on Thursday, November 9, bringing together the world’s most talented artist and animators with awards going to 35 categories including Best Animated Feature.
Planning on traveling to Palm Springs November 9-11? AWN has a two-person All-Access Pass to PSIAF to give away -- to enter your chance to win, email fanservices@awn.com with the subject heading “PSIAF All-Access Pass Giveaway.” One lucky winner will be chosen at random, and will be notified via email along with instructions for pick-up. The deadline for entries is 5:00PM Pacific on Wednesday, November 8.
The festival will include more than 250 short and six feature-length animated films from over 103 countries. Panel discussions, seminars, and educational programming will be held in conjunction with local educational departments including the Arts Institute of Palm Springs High School. Parties and special events will provide the social focus for the festival.
Highlights of the first annual edition of PSIAF include the opening night screening of Loving Vincent, the world’s first fully oil-painted feature from Breakthru Films comprising more than 65,000 hand-painted frames, along with a special live-painting demonstration.
Also screening at the festival is Bilal: A New Breed of Hero, the first fully Middle Eastern-funded and produced CG-animated film inspired by the story of Bilal Ibn Rabah.
The festival will also screen Tehran Taboo, a rotoscope-animated feature that premiered at the Cannes Critics’ Week and was in competition at Annecy. Directed by Iranian-born Ali Soozandeh, the film is a German-Austrian co-production that explores inhibited existence in Iran through the eyes of four young people, interweaving the sex lives of a prostitute, a male musician and two young women in Tehran. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers, cast and crew.
In addition to the feature lineup, the first annual PSIAF also features a robust program of animated short films, exploring a range of methods including hand-drawn 2D animation, watercolor animation, paper cut-outs, hand-painted animation and stop-motion animation, along with other 2D and 3D techniques. Competition categories include Abstract Animated Shorts, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Shorts, VFX & Rotoscoping, Music Videos, and more. Head over to the PSIAF website to see the full schedule.
