The festival will have 113 films in competition that, after the tones of post-covid production, now return to “strong color palettes.” The analysis is by Henrique Neves, who, as president of Nascente – Cultural Action Cooperative, directs the event in the Aveiro district and in the Porto Metropolitan Area, which in 2023 registered a total of 85,949 participants in its various activities.
“After a long season in which the films presented a reduced color palette with the predominant use of darker tones, in what many called the era of ‘post-covid cinema’, in this edition vibrant colors once again fill our movie screen. Comparing this year’s selection of works with that of previous editions, it is clear how the filmmakers once again focus on stronger and happier color palettes,” he explains.
In a range of films that “ranges from the most experimental avant-garde to works of a more popular nature”, Henrique Neves also highlights the predominance of the use of drawing on paper, which “is one of the oldest techniques of animation and today it is reinvented with the help of computer programs.
Other resources used on a large scale in the 2024 film poster are the use of plasticine and puppets, and computer creation in two and three dimensions, an expensive technique that contrasts with the means of the festival itself, whose annual budget for competitive sessions and retrospectives in various rooms, exhibitions, debates, workshops and ‘masterclasses’, school activities and human resources is around 200,000 euros.
“In recent years there has been a stagnation of public support for Cinanima, both at the national level, through the Film and Audiovisual Institute, and at the local level, through the Municipal Council of Espinho,” reveals Henrique Neves, pointing out that , despite Thanks to the “love” of local sponsors such as Grupo Solverde and the Aipal bakery, the main financial support for the event comes from the Europa Criativa program
“If it were not for the competent and selfless work of the small professional team of the event, the voluntary dedication of the activists of the event and the Nascente cooperative, and also the contribution of some chamber workers, it would not be possible to keep this festival alive, which is one of the oldest in the world,” highlighted the same person in charge.
In any case, Henrique Neves guarantees that the 2024 edition “will be a privileged setting for the presentation of works by national and foreign directors” on the theme of Freedom, in a strategic option that marks the 50th anniversary of April 25 and celebrates “one of the most universal and inspiring values of the art of animation.”
Of the 113 films in competition at the 48th Cinanima, 81 compete in the different categories of the international competition and 32 fight for the award for best Portuguese work. Of the latter, four have the possibility of competing for the American Oscar for Best Animated Short Film: “Percebes”, by Alexandra Ramires and Laura Gonçalves; “T-Zero”, by Vicente Niro; “Citizen Tourist”, by Gustavo Carreiro; and “Tomorrow it won’t rain”, by Maria Trigo Teixeira.
At the international level, the five feature films in competition at the festival stand out: “Cuttings: A Minha Vida Como Animador Independente”, by North American Eric Power; “Sultana’s Dream”, Spanish-German production directed by Isabel Herguera; “Mataram o pianista”, Portuguese co-production directed by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal; “Memory of a Snail”, by Australian Adam Elliot; and “Fluxo”, the work of Latvian Gints Zilbalodis with Belgian and French financing.
As for the retrospective sessions, Cinanima 2024 proposes four: “Stories of freedom”, with films from the archives of the Xiamen International Animation Festival, in China; “Liberade, the definitive quest”, curated by French illustrator and animation historian Olivier Cotte; “Expression of Freedom”, curated by the Portuguese Association of Animation Directors; and “Cinema about the loss of freedom and the hope of overcoming past traumas,” with three works selected by Austrian director Thomas Renoldner.
In addition to the presentation of books by Olivier Cotte, the journalist and historian Nancy Denney-Phelps and the animation programmer Manuel Matos Barbosa, the festival also includes a professional training component with ‘masterclasses’ from figures such as the producer Joanna Quinn, the musician Nik Phelps, filmmakers Coke Riobóo, Bruno Caetano and Piet Kroon, and directors Marta Pajek, Filipa Costa Gaspar, Eliane Gordeeff and Deanna Morse.
The usual symposium “Olhares sobre a Animação Portuguesa” will focus this time on the work of director Regina Pessoa, whom Cinanima points out as “one of the greatest references of auteur animation in Portugal.”
Source: Observadora
