Five blocks of the international animation competition, an extraordinary programme of commissioned animation and an incredibly beautiful competition of Ukrainian films. As well as animation by women, horror films and a total of 22 thematic selections for adult and children's audiences! So, let’s find out the exciting things the festival organisers are preparing and who will judge the eleventh LINOLEUM International Animation Festival this year.
In the largest International Competition, the festival curators selected five separate blocks (33 films). Each block has a title that profoundly reveals the overall theme of the selection.
Crime, abuse, baldness, and maternal supervision. The world of masculinity is full of personal dramas that can begin with a simple visit to the bar restroom and always unfold according to all the rules of traumaturgy. These are all stories from the first block of the international program called "Trauma King".
As part of this block, the premiere of the film "I Died in Irpin" by the famous Ukrainian animator and director of the animated series "Patron the Dog" Anastasiia Falileieva will take place.
The second block, “Blink twice if…” tells about childhood nightmares becoming the first friends, the loved ones behaving worse than monsters. In this world, kids' favourite shows die, a sausage can masquerade as a warrior of light, and a black metal-style winter leads to an unexpected finale.
As part of the second block, there will also be a screening of the Ukrainian work "Spooky Loops" - a collection of 13 independent ultra-short animated stories about dreams, fears, loneliness, cruelty and humanity. They are directed by the director and animator Stas Santimov from Dnipro, who received the Audience Award at the Ukrainian KISFF competition for his film "Surrogate" in 2020 and a Special Mention from the jury of the LINOLEUM festival "for the power of atmosphere and craft, as well as the fresh angle on the genre conventions of horror.”
In the third block, with the optimistic title "What doesn't kill us, doesn't kill us," the protagonists of this selection vividly tell us how to overcome a certain traumatic experience.
Animals are friends of humans, but not all of them and not for everyone. These feathered and furry creatures live their best lives as they encounter a robot vacuum for the first time, scare government officials, or plot an attack at the zoological museum. They can do anything because they are God's creatures. This is precisely the title of the fourth competition block.
The fifth block, “Unplug this world”, shows how fragments of memory come together into a picture of the world, held together only by a band-aid or masterful hip-hop. While some heroes embark on their cosmic odyssey, others struggle to navigate the labyrinths of their memories.
This year’s International Competition Jury members are:
- Marta Magnuska, a Polish short film director and animator. Her short animated films have been screened and awarded at numerous international festivals, e.g., Cannes IFF, Locarno IFF, DOK Leipzig, Ottawa IAF, and Annecy IAFF.
- Nienke Deutz, a director and animator based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her films “Bloeistraat 11” and “The Miracle” received global recognition, screening at over 200 festivals and winning multiple awards, including the Cristal for best short film at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
- Malte Stein, an independent animation filmmaker based in Berlin. He has worked as an animator for several short and feature films, as a screenwriter for TV series, as a co-curator for Dok Leipzig, and as a jury member at several film festivals.
The Ukrainian Competition consists of 9 films, united under the theme of memory. What is memory? It's the vibrant recollections of childhood and nostalgia wrapping us in a blanket of peace and joy. It's the melancholy and longing for our hometowns, now under occupation by invaders. It's the experiences and traditions of many generations guiding us through the darkest times.
The best film of the National Competition will be chosen by:
- Laura Almantaitė, a festival director and film producer who has worked as a consultant and producer on a dozen film projects, including documentary, animation and fiction films. In 2014, Laura founded the BLON Animation and Games Festival in Klaipeda, which she still heads today.
- Mariam Kandelaki, a famous director and producer of animation films. She is the organiser of the International Film Festival “Nikozi”, leading educational project “Annecy Georgia” Animation project development workshop, and founder of the annual International animation conference Anima-Tbilisi and Georgian Animators Association SAQANIMA.
- Aliona Penzii, a researcher at the Dovzhenko Centre, film critic and cultural manager. Since 2018, she has been working at the Dovzhenko Centre, focusing on the history of Ukrainian non-fiction films. She has organised retrospectives of Ukrainian animation at international and Ukrainian venues. As a film critic, she contributed to LB.ua, Ukrainska Pravda and other media.
The winner of the Ukrainian competition will receive a Wacom One 12 graphic display from Novella Company, the official Wacom distributor in Ukraine.
Launched in 2018 as an experiment, the commercial animation competition has long since become not only a full-fledged participant of the LINOLEUM festival, but also one of the most popular screenings within the festival.
Educational videos that you don't want to turn off. Music videos that make you happy and creepy at the same time. How to deal with children's anxiety, and how a person dies. And also - the basics of cyber security and the brightest animated menstruation ever – there are topics and plots for every taste. A total of 28 acidic, lustful, phantasmagorical, and sometimes very lyrical animated works will surprise you this year. Particular attention should be paid to the Ukrainian films presented in the competition, which is increasing yearly. This year, viewers will see 7 animated works by Ukrainians.
The Commissioned animation section will be judged by:
- Lei Lei, an Academy Member for the Short Films and Feature Animation branch, has won many prestigious awards; he works in the direction of experimental animation.
- Sofiia Melnyk, a Ukrainian illustrator and animator. She creates live visualisation for theatre plays. Her works are featured at GOGOLFEST and Dakh Theatre, Deutsches Theatre Berlin, and Münchner Kammerspiele in Germany.
- Luca Tóth, an animation director and illustrator. Her graduation film, “The Age of Curious”, won the Jury Distinction Prize at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. After studying and working in the UK, Luca moved back to Budapest, where she made her first independent short animation, “Superbia”, which premiered at Critics’ Week in Cannes.
This year, LINOLEUM also focuses on Ukrainian GameDev, will hold a series of lectures and workshops, a presentation of Ukrainian indie games, as well as a master class from the famous Austrian collective TOTAL REFUSAL, which will present its approach to modern video games. Drawing on a range of theoretical frameworks such as game studies, political economy and anthropology, they will discuss several games as well as possible tools for artistic interpretation, analysis and reinterpretation.
Festival passes and tickets are available starting today! Students have the right to a discount, and veterans and military personnel, as well as pensioners, get free entry with a valid ID.
Festival passes can be found at this link: TicketsBox.
All shows will be held from September 4 to 8 in the first innovation park UNIT.City in Kyiv.
LINOLEUM 2024 will be held with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, the Austrian Cooperation Office Lviv, Ukraine Office Austria and the Polish Institute in Kyiv.
Main partner: UNIT.City
Partner of the Ukrainian competition: "Novella" company - the official distributor of Wacom in Ukraine.
Media partners: 1+1 Media, Kinowar.com, Klap, ProShoKino
