The Covid-19 pandemic forced a huge number of festivals online in 2020. Is the online form temporary, or will it continue even post-pandemic? Meanwhile, changes in modern art and platforms are contributing to the spread of animation, and leading to its integration into other forms such as games. How should animation festivals evolve in response to these changes? The directors of three major international animation festivals and the director of the Japan Media Arts Festival Overseas Promotion will explore those issues in this panel discussion.
© Vivien Gaumand
Marcel Jean was appointed Artistic Director of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2012. Since May 2015, he is also the Executive Director of the Cinematheque québécoise. A film and literature graduate from the University of Montreal, he is the author of several books on animation and Canadian cinema. He was the curator of animation at the Cinematheque québécoise from 1996 to 1998 and in 1999, he became head of the French program animation studio at the National Film Board of Canada. He produced many internationally awarded films, including Black Soul (Martine Chartrand, 2001), Aria (Pjotr Sapegin, 2001), Accordion (Michèle Cournoyer, 2004), Tragic Story with Happy Ending (Regina Pessoa, 2006) and Sleeping Betty (Claude Cloutier, 2007).
Annecy International Animation Film Festival Official Site
Annecy International Animation Film Festival Twitter
Chris Robinson is a Canadian writer and author. He is also the Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) and is a well-known figure in the animated film world and was recently given the 2020 award for Outstanding Contribution to Animation Studies by the World Festival of Animation Film - Animafest Zagreb.
Robinson has been called “one of the stylistically most original and most provocative experts in the history of animation.” He made a name for himself with a unique and eclectic magazine column Animation Pimp, which became a book of the same name (the column was later renamed into Cheer and Loathing in Animation).
Mastering different methods and styles in critical and scholarly approaches, Robinson covers a broad range of Canadian and global subject matters in his books Estonian Animation: Between Genius and Utter Illiteracy, Unsung Heroes of Animation, Canadian Animation: Looking for a Place to Happen, Ballad of a Thin Man: In Search of Ryan Larkin, Animators Unearthed, and Japanese Animation: Time out of Mind.
Ottawa International Animation Festival Official Site
Ottawa International Animation Festival Twitter
Daniel Šuljić is an animation film director and a musician. Born in Zagreb, from 1992 to 2010 he lived in Vienna, and from 2010 on he has been living and working in both cities. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and from 1992 to 1998 painting and animation at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Masterclass C. L. Attersee, where he graduated with the film “Sun, Salt and Sea.”
His films have been shown at all major animation festivals around the globe. He was a member of numerous juries and had several personal retrospectives (Anifilm Trebon, Monstra Lisbon, ITFS Stuttgart, Cinema Tuškanac Zagreb, Filmcasino Vienna, etc.).
Since 2011 he has been the artistic director of the World Festival of Animated Film Animafest Zagreb.
Since 2018 he is an assistant professor at the Department of Animation and New Media, Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb and from 2017-2020 ambassador of the European Animation Awards for Croatia.
Currently he plays and produces electronic music in a Zagreb-based band ROPPONGI RED.
Born in 1964. “Mt.Head”(2002) was nominated at the 75th Academy Awards in the category of Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Other titles such as “The Old Crocodile” (2005), “Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor” (2007) and “Muybridge’s Strings”(2011) have also won grand prizes at notable film festivals such as Annecy, Zagreb, Ottawa and Hiroshima.
He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and currently a professor of Tokyo University of the Arts. He has been appointed Director of Media Arts Division for the upcoming Hiroshima Festival 2022.
Producer/Vice President, Tokyo University of the Arts; Professor, Department of Animation, Postgraduate School of Film and New Media; Director, SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO., LTD.
Produces and curates numerous TV programs, visual works, and events. Notable produced programs include Digital Stadium (2000-2006), NHK Educational TV Monday-Friday broadcasting 2355, 0655 (2010 to present), and TECHNE: The Visual Workshop (2011 to present). Major production events include “Digital Art Festival Tokyo” (2003-2005), “Tokyo University of the Arts, Visual Department of Games” (2017), “Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Games - Vertical Slice” (2018), “ART of 8K” exhibition (2018).
Judge for Mainichi Film Awards, Best Animation Film division (2019, 2020), and general director for the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2018, 2019 and 2020, heading the overseas exhibition of the Japan Media Arts Festival.
