Sign language, a subtitled film for deaf people (pending agreement with ONCE), relaxed sessions, adapted for the public with autism spectrum disorders, addressing physical and intellectual diversity, migrations, environment, feminism, LGTBIQ identities or not. violence. These are some of the novelties of the Animac de Lleida festival, the International Animation Film Festival of Catalonia that is held in Lleida between February 15 and 18 with the motto “Diversity”.
Organized by the city council, the festival will screen 179 films in its 28th edition: 8 feature-length films, 4 medium-length films and 167 shorts. It will present two Catalan co-productions in production, Rock Bottom and Mariposas negra, and will seek to attract a teenage audience with a new section, Animac Teen, with successful mangas The Concierge and Sand Land.
The director, Carolina López, maintains that "animation in its DNA carries diversity with imaginary characters, whose sex or ethnicity is often not known; it has allowed itself more freedom than real-image films." Topics that interest us, feminism, gender identity or inclusion will run through the program in a transversal way. As an example, the opening short, Aikāne, the Hawaiian name for love between people of the same sex," the director said yesterday in the presentation.
López has highlighted the excellent moment that animated cinema is experiencing, both in Catalonia and in the State. “We have to celebrate,” he said, “that a film like Robot Dreams, of Catalan production, is not only nominated for four Goya awards, but it is one of the films nominated for the Oscars and we are lucky that its director will come to Lleida.” of art, José Luis Ágreda, in an unmissable conference”,
This year the festival will present the honorary award to the San Sebastian director Isabel Herguera. A retrospective will be dedicated to her with the screening of a selection of her short films, including her first “El Sueño de la Sultana” (Spain, Germany, 2023), nominated for the Goya Awards and with which she was nominated for the Golden Shell and won. the Basque Cinema Award at the San Sebastián Festival.
British creator Barry Purves will receive the Animation Master Award and will share with the public the themes and storytelling methods that resonate in his film and stage work, and cartoonist Roser Capdevila, creator of iconic drawings such as Les tres Bessones, will receive the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award.
At the presentation of the festival, the mayor of Lleida, Fèlix Larrosa, insisted yesterday that the exhibition promotes "entrepreneurship, education and talent" of youth. The organization expects that around 10,000 children, mainly from Lleida, will participate in school sessions this year and will offer free passes for teenagers.
