About ANIMA

ANIMA - Córdoba International Animation Festival is both an academic and cultural event, devoted specifically to animation in its artistic and technological dimensions. ANIMA merges the energy, enthusiasm and joy of an Animation Festival with the scientific aspects of a Conference. Held every odd year since 2001, ANIMA is the main animation event in Argentina and a very influential player in its field in Latin America and the Caribbean.

ANIMA is no ordinary event. Its main objective is to gather creative individuals devoted to the art and craft of animation into a meeting point where all discussion and exchange can be directed into the scope of animation, in its many dimensions of analysis: as artistic expression, as cultural industry, as educational resource, as corpus for research, etc… Or just as fun!

ANIMA’s is jointly organized by the Centro Experimental de Animación (CEAn) – Animation Experimental Centre, the animation research and production branch of the Film and TV Department at the National University of Córdoba, Argentina – the Animation Faculty of the National University of Villa María; the Centro Cultural España Córdoba – a joint venture of the City of Córdoba and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) – and the University of Córdoba Film Society.

ANIMA is composed by three superimposed dimensions:

• It’s an ANIMATION FESTIVAL: ANIMA’s 2009 edition screened 130 films (feature and shorts) selected from a pool of 825 submissions from 53 countries. Guests and Jurors in former editions include prestigious animators from abroad, to name a few: Academy Award nominee Barry Purves (UK), Academy Award nominee Christopher Hinton (Canada), Academy Award nominee Caroline Leaf (USA). Most of the finest Argentinian animators have also been guests and Jurors in the Festival: Juan Pablo Zaramella, Javier Mrad, Pablo Rodríguez Jáuregui, among many others.

• It’s an OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN FROM THE BEST: ANIMA aims to bring in depth and high – end educational opportunities to its audience. Seminars, workshops and short courses are organized, centered on a variety of topics dedicated to specific animation aesthetics and technology, and are conducted by prestigious professionals in the area, such as the forementioned guests, Rodolfo Sáenz Valiente (Argentina), Walter Tournier (Uruguay), Giannalberto Bendazzi (Italy) and many more.

• It’s a CONFERENCE: ANIMA’s Academic Forum is the only specific Conference on Animation held in Latin America. It holds an open call for papers, video presentations and posters on animation, that undergo double peer – reviewing by an Academic Committee for selection and publication.

These three dimensions of the ANIMA gathered an attendance of over 9000 in the three days that lasted its fifth and last edition. The people who attend ANIMA work in jobs related to the arts, cultural industries, entertainment, media, and education, both in public (state – owned) and private institutions.