27/10/2005

Since yesterday and until next Wednesday, animation moves into every corner of France with the 4th Animation Festival. Organised by Afca with the aid of partners such as SACD and the National Film Centre (CNC), the event proposes a vast programme of screenings, previews, expositions and meetings. Guest of honour for 2005: Dutch filmmaker Paul Driessen, European master of the genre prize-winner at numerous international festivals since his debut in 1972. Among the titles in his filmography are La Fin du monde en quatre saisons (End of the world in four seasons) (1995), 3 Misses (1998 – nominated for an Oscar) and Le garçon qui a vu l'iceberg (The boy who saw an iceberg) (2000).

Part of a World Cinema Animation Day (28 October), the French event leans towards the theatres, schools, museums, libraries and media-techs in France. For example in Paris, a programme at the Cinémathèque, at the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie, at the Forum des Images and also at the Centre Georges Pompidou which on Friday will screen a selection of shorts on the theme "Cinema animation in shadow and light" with the participation of Michel Ocelot (the last piece being Kirikou et les bêtes sauvages (Kirikou and the savage beasts) which will be released in theatres on 7th December) who will cast some light on Chinese shadows. Last year, the third Cinema Animation Festival generated more than 250 events in France, a country where production is booming with the making of, among others, Renaissance by Christian Volckman (Onyx Films), Azur and Asmar byMichel Ocelot, Astérix et les Vikings (Asterix and the Vikings) (M6 Studio and Danish A-Film), Persépolis (adaptation of the comic-book by Marjane Satrapi, Mia and the Migou by Jacques-Rémy Girerd and L’illusionniste (The Illusionist) by Sylvain Chomet.