Nearly curtain time for the 35th Anima Festival
- The 35th Anima Festival will be held from 5-14 February and will be opened by 3D Belgian adventure film Robinson Crusoe
It’s Robinson Crusoe [+see also:
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film profile], the new film by Ben Stassen (co-directed with Vincent Kesteloot), that will open this year’s Anima Festival, the Belgian film festival dedicated to animated films. So Stassen chose a mythical story for his latest opus. A specialist in 3D animation at the head of the company he set up, nWave, a global leader in the production and distribution of 3D films, in 2008 he made Fly Me to the Moon [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the first animation designed entirely for 3D viewing. He has made more since, including two A Turtle’s Tale films, The Magic House [+see also:
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film profile], which was released two years ago, and documentary African Safari 3D [+see also:
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This year Anima will also feature two focuses, one on Japan and the other on the United Kingdom, providing another opportunity to turn the spotlight onto the work of the outstanding Aardman studios.
On the competition side of things, eight feature films will battle it out for the Grand Prix, including French film Adama [+see also:
film review
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film profile] by Simon Rouby; Little from the Fish Shop [+see also:
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film profile] by Czech filmmaker Jan Balej; animated documentary The Magic Mountain [+see also:
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film profile] by Romanian director Anca Damian; and Psiconautas [+see also:
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film profile] by Spanish duo Alberto Vazquez and Pedro Rivero. In the international children’s film competition, Europe leads the way with Raven the Little Rascal - The Big Race [+see also:
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film profile] by Ute von Munchöw-Pohl and Jesse Sandor (Germany); Dofus – Livre I: Julith [+see also:
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film profile]by Anthony Roux and Jean-Jacques Denis (France); Mini et les voleurs de miel by Jannik Hastrup and Flemming Quist Møller (Denmark); Mune, le garçon de la lune by Benoît Philippon and Alexandre Heboyan (France), and finally, Long Way North [+see also:
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The Anima Festival will also feature a sizeable programme of short films, a varied selection for children, and a number of professional events, including a round table on the distribution of animated films, and several ‘making of’ discussions.
(Translated from French)
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