Animayo closes its tenth edition with more than 15,000 participants and a luxury record of achievements

Animayo has managed to surpass attendance figures by more than 20% compared to the 2015 edition in a week full of activities with a total of 24 international guests, 9 members of the jury, training spaces, outdoor activities and the inauguration of a European forum aimed at professionals.

The Animayo International Festival of Animated Film, Visual Effects and Video Games has surpassed its attendance by more than twenty percent compared to the 2015 edition, in an event held from May 3 to 7 in which the artistic and organizational quality has stood out.

This international festival emerged eleven years ago following the dream of its promoter, Damián Perea, to bring the flourishing sector of the audiovisual industry to Gran Canaria in all its professional, training, cultural and entertainment applications, and today it has become essential in the field of animation, visual effects and video games at an international level with a very defined objective: to generate in Gran Canaria a fertile soil for new generations, a platform for knowledge and for the development of all creative processes, from children to adults, in order to create a professional network and a job opportunity for talent and position the Island as a stage for the film industry due to its multiplier effect to attract directors and producers of this branch.

“Nothing would exist without education,” Damián Perea stated at a press conference. Year after year, Animayo has been meeting its objectives and expanding its horizons to be present in the rest of the national territory and in many other places around the world through its traveling festivals. The annual event in Gran Canaria is the starting signal for a tour around the world and Spanish geography: Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Madrid, Huesca, Zaragoza, Los Angeles, India, Uruguay, Italy, Holland, Germany and Portugal… itinerant spaces for the transmission of audiovisual knowledge. Furthermore, through the Animayo Educational System, the festival works closely with primary and secondary educational centers throughout the year, to promote audiovisual development, stimulating children and young people to carry out projects and overcome their own creative challenges.

Animayo, whose nerve centers are the CICCA and the Teatro Guiniguada in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a benchmark, and this is proven by the interest shown by the greatest creators who present their works to the official international competition section and the twenty-four guests who have attended this new annual event, great international professionals, who do not hesitate, as happens every year, to support the Festival. The collaboration by the most important studios in this industry is also increasingly notable, such as Walt Disney Animation Studios, a collaborating studio for this 2016 edition, or many other companies that have supported in these eleven years and continue to do so: Dreamworks, Sony Pictures, Piximondo, Ilion Studios, Amanita Design, Platige, Stargate Studios, Brb International or Doble Negative, among others.

Collaboration with other festivals

This year the festival has had the collaboration of the group Visegrad, also known as V4. This group emerged during the 7th century and was renewed in 1991, when it was formed by Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, becoming the current formation of four countries after the division of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. The V4 has provided Animayo specials such as Platige, the best of Slovak animation from the mid-90s to the present, the world premiere of “Stories Mortals” by Jan Bubenícèk, a Slovak animation special made by women, and guests such as Vàclav Blín and Adolf Lachman of Amanita Design (’Samorost 3′, ‘Samorost 2’, ‘Samorost 1’, ‘Botanicula’, ‘Machinarium’) and Ivana Laučíková, animation director and producer at Feel Me Film (Snow, The Last Bus, Stiry / Four, ‘Today is my first date’). And as more institutional guests, Jan Skoda, ambassador of Slovakia in Spain, Marek Brieska, chargé d'affaires of the Slovak Republic, Stanislav Skoda, director of the Czech Center of Madrid and Gonzalo del Puerto, head of cultural activities at the Cervantes Institute of Lisbon, were present.

Also present were representatives of two of Animayo's 2016 Guest Festivals: Puneet Sharma, director of the Orbit Live Festival in India and Luca Raffaelli, writer, screenwriter and specialist in comics and animation who for many years was the artistic director of Castelli Animati (The Animated Castles) in Italy.

Masterclass and workshops

En una época en la que el interés cultural sólo parece encontrarse en el ocio y en el placer de la experiencia inmediata, como destacan algunos de los gurús del marketing, Animayo ha nadado a contracorriente para demostrar que el público también reclama un entretenimiento y ocio de calidad donde el placer y la diversión no está reñida con la formación, el aprendizaje y el esfuerzo personal por el conocimiento. Así lo confirman los llenos absolutos de las salas de masterclass y talleres formativos que se han celebrado en esta edición con invitados tan destacados como Bob Kurtz, una leyenda viva de la animación, fundador del estudio de animación Kurtz & Friends, imposible de olvidar por ser el storyboard artist y guionista de la mítica serie de dibujos animados de la Pantera Rosa. Carlos Biern, presidente de DIBOOS y Ceo BRB Internacional/Screen 21 (David el Gnomo, La Vuelta al Mundo de Willy Fog, Berni, Iron Kid, InvizimalsTM); Borja Montoro maestro animador y diseñador de personajes que ha trabajado en títulos como “Tarzán”, “Hércules”, “El emperador y sus locuras” y en la última de Disney “Zootrópolis”. Luis San Juan Pallares quien actualmente trabaja como Character Technical Director en Walt Disney y ha sido parte del equipo que creo películas inolvidables como Big Hero 6, Zootrópolis, Frozen o Rompe Ralph.

Así mismo, se han llenado las salas con Juan Luis Sánchez, Supervisor de Character Effects en Ilion Animation Studios cuyo trabajo ha permitido al público disfrutar de títulos como “Gravity”, “Star Wars“, “Harry Potter” o “Piratas del Caribe”. Cinzia Angelini, directora, storyboard artist y animadora quien comenzó su etapa americana trabajando como animadora de películas en Dreamworks, siguiendo un camino que le llevaría a todos los otros grandes estudios de Hollywood formando parte de los equipos que llevaron a buen puerto historias como “El príncipe de Egipto”, “El dorado”, “Spirit”, “Simbad”, “Spider-man 2”, “Bolt” o “Los Minions” y muchos otros que nos han acompañado y que sería muy largo de recitar. Jose Antonio Rodríguez, director académico del área de arte, diseño visual y animación y director del Centro de Alto Rendimiento de U-tad (Érase una vez … un cuento al revés”, “Defensor 5”, Happily Never After”, “Planet 51”, “Futbolín”, “The legend of Smurfy Hollow). Xes Vilà Roig, copropietario y director técnico de Fx Animation Barcelona 3D & Film School y cofundador y supervisor de efectos visuales de “3 Monos VFX”, compañía de artistas y técnicos con una gran experiencia en todo el proceso de la postproducción digital para Cine y Publicidad. Ana Sánchez Gijón, productora y directora de Producción de La Mirada Producciones/ La Casa Animada (Esposados, La Raya, Ruleta, Un matrimonio bien avenido, Hombres Felices, La Isla Interior, Seis puntos sobre Emma, El Club de Archi, Cleo). Marc Gorchs, Toni Sola y Dani Benavides del Grupo Morning Star que impartieron el taller VFX Compositing con Black Magic Fusion.

There is no place, part or nuance of animation that this festival does not take into account. As the director and producer Damián Perea says 'animation uses symbology and with that symbology it introduces into the mind, without the resistance that real images can have, the ideas that want to be transmitted in the psyche of the human being in the deepest way imaginable, so that it allows concepts to take root in the mind better than any other cognitive seduction technique.' That is why Animayo takes great care to study in depth the messages sent by the works that are selected and projected to the public, since, whether the projections are aimed at children, adolescents or adults, they must comply with the principles of 'integration, diversity, coexistence...', in short, whatever they say, they must exhibit a 'spirit that respects something as important as the ethical values ​​of respect for human beings, life in general and nature in particular... which encompasses everything'.

80 projected works

The Festival, after a first selection of more than 2,000 works received and of which 150 became pre-selected, has screened 80 works chosen to be evaluated in two categories: official section and cinematic section. In addition, and continuing with what is already a tradition at the festival, a section was screened, out of competition, of films made by women with which we want to contribute a grain of sand to the creative effort of this part of society that has more difficulties in showing its creations. The winner of this edition of the contest was We can't talk live without Cosmos – Konstantin Bronzit – Russia. The International Jury composed of Bob Kurtz, Ivana Laučíková, Cinzia Angelini, Luis San Juan Pallares, Puneet Sharma, Václav Blín, Adolf Lachman, Luca Raffaelli and Manuel González (director of the Zoom Net program) awarded this prize worth 3,000 euros for its quality, originality and technique.

In the rest of the categories, the winners come from places as diverse as Syria, France, the USA, Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Holland, and have managed to convince the jury that they are worthy of receiving an award for very diverse reasons. It has not been easy for the jury to decide between the works presented in the competition, with the multiplicity of techniques used: Stop motion, handmade drawing, after effects, 3D, glass painting, 3D mixed with real action...).

I European Coproduction Forum

During this edition, Animayo included as a novelty the 1st European Forum on Co-production, Investment and Tax Incentives for Animation, Visual Effects and Video Games. The forum, organized and directed by Animayo, had the sponsorship and collaboration of public and private institutions interested in creating a meeting space aimed at professionals with the main purpose of allowing foreign producers to see the possibilities of investing in the Canary Islands for animated films and series that are in the concept, development, production or completed films phases. Conferences, panels, presentations, discussion tables and pitching sessions were the central elements of this forum that took place at the CICCA from May 6 to 7 as an activity of the Festival. The SPEGC and the Gran Canaria Film Commission were the main promoters of this 1st European Forum, moderated by Damián Perea himself and Nuria Guinnot from the Gran Canaria Film Commission, who explained to the attendees all the tax advantages offered by producing in Gran Canaria. The 1st Animayo European Forum closed with great success in terms of reception and professional assistance. The forum was attended by associations, international producers and directors, Canarian producers and directors, creatives, institutions, tax investors, law firms, educational centers, audiovisual companies, agencies and press media. We also have the presence in the Forum of institutions and public organizations such as the Government of the Canary Islands, with Aurora Moreno Santana, general director of Cultural Promotion, who stated that 'we must support this type of events, it is our obligation'. Beatriz Barrera, President of the ZEC, Consortium of the Canary Islands Special Zone, who wanted to make it clear that 'the audiovisual sector as a whole is very important for the diversification of the productive fabric of the Canary Islands, which is why the Canary Islands ZEC special zone of taxation at 4% is the most important incentive to introduce the branch of the audiovisual sector in the island territory.' Ana Trasguerres Peláez, Head of the ICEX Spain Export and Investment Sector, and Sergio Díaz, APPA Representative, Spanish Association of Audiovisual Production Professionals, also participated. Luis Renart, Manager of the Canary Islands Audiovisual Cluster, and Marcos Martín, SAVE Manager, Canary Islands Association of Animation, Video Game and VFX Companies and Professionals.

Within its programming, Animayo has included in this edition a series of masterclasses with transversal content that, although forming part of the corpus of the festival and its programming, have offered content adapted both to the objectives of the forum and to the usual ones offered at its annual events, so that today's professionals could also mix and get to know, not only those who practice the profession today, but also the talents that will allow the sector to establish itself and continue in the future.