ANIMATION events

If you're someone working in the animation industry
there're few events you should attend once in a while

- to keep you updated
- to networking with the international animation community
- to promote yourself
(if you have your work screened, it's therefore a great chance to make new contacts and also to travel and get to know better the animation industry in other countries).
These are festivals and other related events (screenings, pitching, conferences).

At these events animated films are screened and there is often a competition = prizes. Prizes can be money, but often just a trophy or a certificate.
Festivals are the biggest place for short films: infact, they're usually not thought to be sold, screened in cinemas or tvs.
Conferences and other kind of events are usually focused on one topic (sound, FX, VR, gaming...) and very good for updating or networking in a specific area.

I will list here some of the biggest and most important events in Europe that I know (I am sorry, I don't know much about the rest of the world and I can better tell about the festivals I visited and saw with my eyes).

I am filling out also a bigger table with all the festivals and deadlines, but I still have to figure out how to add it in the blog.


Some European animation festivals:
International Animated Festival of Annecy
Animateka
Animafest Zagreb
Fantoche(Svizzera)
KLIK Amsterdam
KROK(Russia, non proprio Europa...)
MONSTRA (Lisbona)


The older a festival is, the more reliable it is.

Sometimes it happens that animation shorts end up in regular film festivals or cinema festivals, but usually their place is in festivals which are entirely dedicated to animation.
For example: Clermont Ferrand Festival is a very famous festival for short film (any kind); it has a dedicated section for animation.
Also the famous Canne Film Festival may screen some animations, exactly as the Berlinale.


Italian animation festivals
Cartoon on the Bay
GIFFONI Film Festival
LAGO film fest
FANO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALEUGANEA (Padua)
IMAGINARIA Film Festival,ConversanoZabut International animated short-FF,
Animaphix
Savoca
Cartoon Club (Rimini)Visioni italiane (Bologna)

 
Keep an eye on the festivals!
This is a good website to find animation festivals and also to keep track of the deadines: http://www.animation-festivals.com/
There are some platforms (like filmfreeway, festhome or realport) that makes this work easier in a way, because you create your own account, you upload already all your material and then you submit to festivals with a click.There are some platforms (like filmfreeway, festhome or realport) that makes this work easier in a way, because you create your own account, you upload already all your material and then you submit to festivals with a click.
(vedi anche Presskit e Marketing per il proprio cortometraggio)

Another way to find out about new festivals and deadlines is in festivals' catalogues, or flayers givet at other festivals/events/fairs.


  PITCH EVENTS: (for some of them I wrote dedicated posts)
- Cartoon movie, Cartoon Forum, C springboard (di Cartoon d'or)
- Animation Production Day
- There are pitch events during Annecy's Festival
- it's actuallty possible to make a pitch everytime with a production company, just scheduling a meeting. (See pitch and elevator pitch)


OTHER:
- FMX Stuttgart - During the Animation Festival in Stuttgart: Effects, VR, etc
- PICTOPLASMA
- MAZE:  Indipendent Videogames Festival, Berlin (april)


TIPS:
try to  be 100% at these events
healthy, positive, happy, clean, nice
This will give an open impression, higher success for networking and higher performance too, because you feel good and confident.

Take care of yourself, especially the night before an important event/pitch
and even more if you had an hard travel.




INFO DI SERVIZIO:
Sto scrivendo alcuni posts che si chiamano "event report" per descrivere nel dettaglio la mia esperienza ai festival a cui ho partecipato e raccontare i pro e i contro di ogni evento.

nota: per quelli che mi sono amici su fb, andare a vedere la lista dei miei Likes per avere un gran numero di eventi, festival e altro (anche studi) , da cui avere news, updates, open call, reminders.