site.bta19th World Festival of Animation Film Starts in Varna

The 19th edition of the World Festival of Animation Film started in Varna on Wednesday. The best titles in the genre from the last year are selected in the programme, said the hosts from the Festival and Congress Centre (FCC).

Individual panels of the forum include short, feature-length, student, erotic and horror animation, as well as films for children.

At the opening ceremony, viewers will be able to watch the first competition programme of short films, including productions from Israel, Hungary, China, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands and Iran.

The erotic animation will be presented on September 8 at 10:00 pm in the Graffit Gallery, hosted by Hristina Djurova, as well as singer Polina, guitarist Chavdar Gochev and producer Tsvetan Momchilo, while the horror films will be presented the next day at the same hour at the FCC.

The festival also has side events. On the first day, two exhibitions will open in the foyers of the FCC. One will be dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Portuguese animation and shows original drawings by some of the best directors. The other will present the work of students from the Animation Cinema Program at New Bulgarian University, taught by Dr. Pencho Kunchev. For the second year students from the Czech Republic also will participate with their drawings.

A masterclass will be held by graphic artist and animation director Alice Saey, who will share her experience in creating music videos and will outline the boundaries between design practice and moving images.

A lecture will be given by Georges Sifianos, who has taught animation in Paris and at universities in India, Korea, Japan and China. He will talk about postmodernism and analyze how artificial intelligence contributes to it.

There will be representative screenings of works by the 19th Animation Festival jury members Raimund Krumme from Germany, Robert Sova from Poland and Spain's Noel Palazzo, who will give a masterclass at the forum.

The animation festival will offer a panorama in memory of Yavor Kalachev and on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pencho Bogdanov.

The Varna World Festival of Animation Film will close on September 10 with the awarding of the best titles.