La Città Incantata esiste!

 Today's post is about the latest event that I visited:
La città incantata, Il meeting internazionale dei disegnatori che salvano il mondo, in Civita di Bagnoregio (Italy).
I am going to write it in English on purpose, because it is an Italian event and I wish more foreign artist knew about it, since it is an "international event for artists who save the world"!

This year it was the 4th edition of this beautiful festival, held in one of the most suffestive and breathtaking place I have ever visited: Civita di Bagnoregio (Lazio, Italy).
The entire event last three days (from Friday to Sunday) and it all takes place in the little old town of Civita di Bagnoregio.

For once I didn't attend a festival which was purely for animation of film: actually I had the impression the main focus of La Città incantata is Illustration and Comics. That was a great experience for me, for once, to meet some artist working for not-moving pictures, for printed paper! I have the feeling that animators and illustrator belong to the same big family, but have at the same time a lot of differences, and rarely have the chance to meet together.

During the event there were some screenings in different locations, some random interviews in the streets, some talking and comic presentations, some exhibitions and also some double interviews.
I really appreciated the concept of the double interviews:
They organized some public interviews, putting together two artist, belonging to two very different fields or using very different approaches and techniques. For example comparing the great and traditional stop motion artist Fusako Yusaki with the modern sensible 3D director Mauro Carraro.

Another interesting activity during the event is "l'arte si anima in piazza" (which could be translated in English with "the art is animated in the square"): it consists in artist making art the whole day in the middle of Civita di Bagnoregio, in the main square - and also main venue of the whole festival.

Here there was for example the great Lorenzo Terranera, who painted a huge colorful canvas in one day.
 

There was also a modeling clay area, where Fusako Yusaki, Stefano Argentero, Francesca Ferrario and many other artists were creating colorful characters and little sculptures together with many kids.
Those characters have been then also animated, later, in the same square, with Stefano Argentero and Peter Lord.

La città incantata was not only a great festival and experience. I am so extremely grateful I had the chance to travel to Lazio and discover such a beauty in my own homeland. The nature in that region is wild and amazing and the people are warm and welcoming.
I hope I will have the chance to travel to La Città Incantata again!

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.

Animation in FINLAND

In the summer 2014 I decided to use my summer school holiday to go for two months in Helsinki and explore the Finnish animation and also the life style and mood.

I have been writing a blog, in Italian and English, for the whole stay.

There are posts about animation, but also many other about the travel experience itself and architecture and design and food and so much more..

Here a post about the Finnish animation I discovered there
Here another one about Tove Jansson and the MoominsIf you're interested in the whole experience, the blog is called Finnlà and you can find it here.


Now, after almost three years from that journey, I know a little more about the Finnish animation. There is a very interesting festival in Turku, not far from Helsinki (deadline around the beginning of the year and festival taking place in August), called Turku animated film festival.
I personally had the pleasure to meet some talented people from the studio Pyjama film and I can only recommend you to check out what are they doing. Just amazing!