The 17th edition of the Animasyros International Animation Festival, the biggest event dedicated to animation in Greece, will be held from September 23 to 29, 2024 on the island of Syros. The aim of this major festival of European animation is to reward the year’s best films, honor the achievements and talent of creators from all over the world, and highlight the diversity and creativity of the large European animation community.
The festival is co-organized together with the Syros-Hermoupolis municipality and the Region of South Aegean; the main theme of this year’s edition is dedicated to the creation and production of contemporary African animation under the title “Africa: An Animated Continent”.
International guests from Africa, including Ebele Okoye, Raymond Malinga and Comfort Arthur, will be in attendance, while a program of 40 short and feature-length films will highlight the richness of storytelling and artistic innovation from this part of the world. Films by leading European filmmakers will also pay tribute to Africa and its history, including The Black Pharaoh, the Savage and the Princess by renowned director Michel Ocelot. The central theme will be addressed through all the pillars of the festival: the artistic program, the educational workshops and the market.
Founded in 2008, the Animasyros International Animation Festival soon became the biggest animation festival and market in Greece, and one of the 20 biggest worldwide. It offers a wide-ranging program, including screenings, tributes, educational activities, festive events and an animation market, the Agora, a not-to-be-missed event for animation professionals, with pitch
Within the context of the Agora, Animasyros is launching a new three-year strategic partnership with the Annecy International Animation Film Market (Mifa) -linked to the world’s largest animation festival which takes place in Annecy- with the support of the French Institute of Greece and the French Institute (Paris). More specifically, the Agora Pitching Forum has become part of the International MIFA Campus, an international program aimed at supporting young creators and artists from the Mediterranean countries of Greece and Cyprus, the Balkan countries, Turkey, Egypt and Morocco, by providing them with skills and experience. A total of six (6) professionals from the above-mentioned countries will take part in the program sessions, presentations and master classes led by internationally renowned experts.
The Emile Awards in Greece for the first time
The ceremony honoring the best in European animation, the European Animation Awards, known as the Emile Awards, will be making a comeback this year at the Animasyros festival. First held in Lille in 2017, the Emile Awards saw only a second edition the following year. Named after pioneering French creators Émile Reynaud and Émile Cohl, the awards are being relaunched at the initiative of a group of renowned animation professionals from across Europe, with Animasyros president Vassilis K. Karamitsanis as chairman of the awards organizing committee.
The awards ceremony, which will mark the start of a new era for the legendary European animation awards, will take place at the historic Apollo Theater in Ermoupolis. The Emile Awards will be held in Greece for the first time.
In addition, Animasyros, highlighting the remarkable evolution of the vibrant animation scene in Central Europe, will screen, with the support of the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Greece, six animated films from Slovakia selected by Ivana Laučíková, producer, director and professor at the University of Bratislava. A tribute to Mexican animation, in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes and the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE), presents 21 short films by new and old Mexican filmmakers, while young festival-goers will have the opportunity to enjoy 12 new films from the Czech Republic, in collaboration with Zlín Film Festival. Finally, director Konstantinos Yannaris selects his favorite Animapride films of recent years, which will be screened at the Drama International Short Film Festival and Animasyros in a unique tribute.
Leading figures from the international animation community will be present at the Animasyros market, including Emmanuel Blanchard, historian and director of the iconic animated documentary Notre-Dame de Paris (2019); Spanish director Isabel Herguera, creator – among others – of the acclaimed feature film Sultana’s Dream (2023); internationally renowned Portuguese animator Regina Pessoa, for a particularly interesting creative masterclass; Moroccan producer Mounia Aram, founder of production and distribution company Mounia Aram Company; Vanessa Ann Sinden, producer of Triggerfish Animation, one of Africa’s largest animation studios; legendary Oscar-nominated creator Joanna Quinn; and her partner and writer Les Mills, from the UK.
Animasyros 2024 educational workshops
The educational workshops, one of the main mainstays of Animasyros, are also inspired this year by the festival’s main theme “Africa: an animated continent”. Featuring renowned artists and professionals such as Ibrahim Saad (Egypt), Tünde Vollenbroek (Netherlands) and Anastasia Michael, Thomas Künstler and Manos Mastorakis, Dimitris Papacharalambous and Matoula Papadimitriou, Margarita Simopoulou, Elena Pavlaki, Agisilaos Robolas and Anna Economou, the educational workshops are aimed at children, teenagers, adults, the disabled and the elderly, who will have the opportunity to make African masks, create exotic animals from the African savannah and be transported to the tropical zones and desert landscapes of the neighboring continent.
This year, Animasyros is organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Social Cohesion and the Family. The National Centre of Audiovisual Media and Communication-EKOME is a strategic partner of the festival, while the Greek trade and investment agency “Enterprise Greece” supports the Agora section. The public electricity company PCC SA is the festival’s official sponsor.
International competition
During the call for entries for the festival’s competition sections, which opened in February 2024 and closed on June 1, a total of over 2,600 entries from 115 countries were submitted. Once again this year, ANIMASYROS 2024’s international competition program includes films that have earned distinction at international festivals, as well as timeless works by world-renowned professionals. The official selection includes a total of 261 films from 50 countries!
