NEWSLETTER
SPECIAL EDITION: ANNECY 2019
ISSUE 02
EDITORIAL ASIF A HELLAS - HELL
ENIC ANIMATION ASSOCIATION
GREECE ANIMATED @ANNECY For a third consecutive year, ASIFA HELLAS conducts the presence of the Greek animation community at ANNECY International Animated Film Festival & Market. This year, we launch GREECE ANIMATED 2019-2020, a labeled action aiming at further opening Greek Animation to the co-productions arena. Visit BOOTH 4.P00 and discover the Hellenic Animation Delegation 2019 and all #GreeceAnimated related events.
VASSILIS C. KARA MITSANIS ASIFA HELLAS PR ESIDENT
ASIFA HELLAS ADMINIST RATIVE BOARD PRESIDENT VASSILIS C. KA RAMITSANIS VICE-PRESIDENT PANAGIO TIS KYRIAKOULAKOS SECRETARY ANASTASIA DIM ITRA MEMBERS MARIA ANESTO POULOU, ELENI MOURI
ASIFA HELLAS NEWSLETTER ISSUE 02, SPECIAL EDITION: AN NECY 2019 PUBLISHER ASIFA HELL AS | HELLENIC ANIMATION AS SO CIATION EDITOR-IN-CHIEF KONSTAN TINOS KAOURAS, ARISTARCHOS PAPADANIEL CREATIVE ART DIRECTIO N ARISTARCHOS PAPADANIE L | SYLLIPSIS
ASIFA HELLAS - THIRD CONCECUTIVE YEAR AT MIFA ANNECY Third consecutive year at ANNECY International Animated Film Festival and the Greek animation thanks to ASIFA HELLAS, has managed to successfully become part of an international art community with more than 21 years of history. This year’s Greek delegation is clearly enhanced, with many official entries and new productions, a fact that highlights the dynamics and capabilities of our animation community. As the Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Media, we decided from the outset that Greek animation, an art that has been overlooked by the state for many decades, has right to take a special place in our vision of supporting and developing the audiovisual sector in Greece. This right became a reality in many ways: through the new financial incentives we brought for the first time in Greece such as the 35% cash rebate and the 30% tax deduction for audiovisual productions, through the practical support of the Greek Animation Community, through the first B2B Animation Conference (ATHENS ANIMATION AGORA). The systematic, organized and Increasingly rich Greek delegation in the ANNECY International Animated Film Festival is an actual proof that when the State trusts the future in the creative forces of our country, opening up cooperation with the wider international community, the results justifies everyone.
GOVERNMENTA
L SUPPORT TO
THE GREEK AN
LEFTERIS KRETS OS DEPUTY MINISTE R
IFNOTREERWVIOERWD
IMATION INDUS MINISTRY OF DIG TRY ITAL POLICY, TEL ECOMMUNICATIO NS AND MEDIA | GREECE
EKOME NATIONAL C
ENTRE OF AUDIOV ISUAL
MEDIA & COMMUN ICATION
Dear friends, The National Centre of Audiovisual Media and Communication - EKOME, is a firm supporter of animation in Greece, proudly advocating the work, the international distinctions and the significant presence of Greek animators worldwide. We stand by the mission and activities of ASIFA HELLAS, as we believe that through the collaborative work of all stakeholders supporting the audiovisual production, Greek animation will gain its rightful place in the global market and the heart of the audience.
PANOS KOUANIS EKOME PRESIDEN T & CEO
Thanks to the impressive results of the Cash Rebate program within its first year of operation (April 2018-May 2019), we are experiencing a real surge of inspiration in our creative industries, which is also generating impressive results in productions : feature films, documentaries, television series and animation have already joined the cash rebate program. To date, more than 39mn euro in production costs have been invested in Greece and over 12mn euro returned to the companies. In this context, it is easy to understand the impact of our incentives program and the new opportunities arousing for production and storytelling in Greece. At the same time, our projects and activities in the field of audiovisual education and media literacy, in collaboration with major stakeholders in Greece and abroad (UNESCO-GAPMIL, European Council, European Commission, NUBOYANA/FILMFORGE, European Audiovisual Observatory, Ministry of Education, the British Film Institute), aim at further strengthening the national effort to help animation grow, not only as an art form and a self-expression mechanism, but also as a language of communication and as an education tool to the benefit of pupils, students, teachers and creators. It is my pleasure to invite you to meet EKOME and the incentives program we offer, designed to support the creative industries and audiovisual production and to choose Greece as home to your next story.
35% CASH REB ATE
FOREWORD
PROGRAM - 30% TAX DEDUCTION EKOME STANDS B Y ASIFA HELLAS
GREECE ANIMATED @ MIFA 2019 With double pavilion space and more delegates than the previous two years, ASIFA HELLAS presents the Greek Animation scene to the International Marketplace of the International Film Festival of ANNECY. The following projects are being presented during the Festival, both to the Greek Pavilion and to the dedicated by the organisers Videotheque Space, to enable discussions and transactions with potential partners: FEATURE FILMS: (IN DEVELOPMENT) THE NIGHT WITH THE KALIKATZAROUS by Spyros SIAKAS SHORT FILMS: (IN DEVELOPMENT) KARIM & HERCULES by Taxiarchis DELIGIANNIS & Vasilis TSIOUVARAS THOSE WHO LIVE IN HEAVEN by Giannis & Konstantinos ANDRIAS MAN WANTED by Irida ZHONGA (IN POST PRODUCTION) FIRST THIRST by Dimitris ARMENAKIS (IN DISTRIBUTION)
PANAGIOTIS KYR IAKOULAKOS ASIFA HELLAS VIC E-PRESIDENT
TV PROJECTS: (IN DEVELOPMENT) ANIMINI by Ioannis TEXES & Dimitris SAVVAIDIS KAPTENS by Konstantina KOUKOURAKI GREEK MYTHS: THE ANTIHEROES by Giannis & Konstantinos ANDRIAS FUTURE POSTMAN by Sergio KOTSOVOULOS & Dimitris SAVVAIDIS (PROJECT SELECTED AT CARTOON FORUM 2018)
THE TREASURE AT THE ROOTS OF THE TREE OF EARTH by Vaggelis KARADIMAS STORIES OF PLANET SENTIA by Vaggelis KARADIMAS SAVE YOUR PLANET by Tassos KOTSIRAS (IN DISTRIBUTION) SAVE YOUR PLANET-BABY by Tassos KOTSIRAS (IN DISTRIBUTION) TRANSMEDIA, BOOKS, WEB: (IN DISTRIBUTION) BLACK HOLES by Antonis NIKOLOPOULOS (SOLOUP) SAVE YOUR PLANET book by Tassos KOTSIRAS TOP 5 EUROPEAN GOALS by Antonis SMIRNIOTIS TELIS flipbooks, Pocket Cinema series by Aristarchos PAPADANIEL CAVAFY | THE CITY by Aristarchos PAPADANIEL & Panagiotis KOUNTOURAS FILMS IN COMPETITION: (SCREENINGS) VIOLENT EQUATION by Antonis DOUSSIAS, 05min, prod. A. DOUSSIAS, GR PERSPECTIVES in COMPETITION 1 Monday 10 June, 18:30-19:50, Bonlieu- Petite salle Tuesday 11 June, 21:00-22:20, Bonlieu- Petite salle Thursday 13 June, 13:30-14:50, Cinéma Pathé- Pathé 6 Saturday 15 June, 14:30-15:50, Cinéma Pathé- Pathé 3
HEATWAVE by Fokion XENOS, 07min 14s, 2019, prod. NFTS, UK GRADUATION FILMS in COMPETITION 3 Tuesday 11 June, 16:30-17:57, Bonlieu- Petite sale Wednesday 12 June, 22:00-23:27, Cinéma Pathé- Pathé 3 Thursday 13 June, 23:00-00:27, Bonlieu- Grande salle Friday 14 June, 19:30-20:57, Cinéma Pathé- Pathé 3 Friday 14 June, 23:00-00:27, Bonlieu- Grande salle
ASIFA HELLAS MIFA - ANNECY 2 019
ASIFA HELLAS
@ANNECY #GR | FRANCE
ABROAD
EECEANIMATED
ANNECY 2019 poster illustration: CHARLOTTE GASTAUT
ASIFA HELLAS #GREECEANIMATED Greek animation has an over 70 year strong tradition. The past few years animation in Greece has experienced an unexpected growth. A new and dynamic generation of animation directors and artists has produced films, which were screened and awarded worldwide. Τhe role of ASIFA HELLAS is to boost animation production in Greece as well to promote the Greek animation scene worldwide. In this context, ASIFA HELLAS presents the 2019-2020 new campaign logo "GREECE ANIMATED". The logo is designed by Mikaela Kakaridi Deligianni and Alkistis Tsikou. Two young and talented animators. According to mythology, Talos was a strong giant bronze man-automaton, who guarded the island of Crete. Talos was an excellent hunter, his arrows always found the target. A strong metaphor that pictures the strength and creativity of the Greek animation scene.
ANASTASIA DIMIT RA ASIFA HELLAS BO ARD MEMBER
ASIFA HELLAS #GREECEANIMAT ED
ASIFA HELLAS
@WORLDWIDE
ABROAD
#GREECEANIMA TED
Anastasia Dimitra had the privilege and pleasure to serve as a jury member of the short animation competition at the 21st edition of ISMAILIA International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts, the most important festival of the Arabic world.
SISTER CITIES ANIMATED International screening of short animated films created by artists working /residing in Baltimore and in Baltimore’s Sister Cities (Egypt, Greece, Netherlands, China) Curators: Lynn Tomlinson, Safiyah Cheatam. Parkway Theater, USA
What motivated you to direct this film? Starting out, I wanted to do something about someone getting enough. And to have a mix of the mundane and dramatic. I was thinking of different small stories, like someone quitting their opressive job in a very dramatic way. I really liked the idea of imagining what people actually want to do, if there was no social rules. What did they really feel like doing, in different situations. You know this flashes you can get in your head, what if I did this, but in normal life you would never act upon these impulses, so I wanted to explore that. Having been raised in Greece and studied in the United Kingdom, how did these two countries influence your animation style? I have been raised mainly in Sweden, with a Swedish mother and Greek father. But I always spent my summers in Greece with my grandparents, aunt and cousins. And I studied in Norway, and then I did my Masters in UK. I think having a background of two cultures, understanding them and speak their language, has helped me to see things from different perspectives. I could swich my mind and see something from the Greek point of view, or the Swedish, and early acknowlegde and understand different ways to see things. For example in Sweden I could see things from a greek eye, and see things that are funny if you look at it from another way. And vice versa.
ANNA MANTZARIS "ENOUGH" DIRECT OR
How do you consider the European Animation Awards? A pan-European fest of animation and/or a hub for promoting animation production across Europe? It’s a great way to connect animation people from allover europe and create a community and showcase great work. In which ways has ASIFA HELLAS supported you as an animation professional and what do you expect in the future? They have been very supporting in promoting my work. I’m very happy to see that ASIFA HELLAS has grew so big over the last years and to see this animation community in Greece, and I hope to be able to connect even more with them in the future!
EUROPEAN AN BEST ACHIEVEME NT
IMATION AWAR
IN A STUDENT FIL M
INTERVIEW
DS 2018: ENO
UGH
ENOUGH by ANNA MANTZARIS
What is the novelty of your film and which was the most challenging part of its production?
GIORGOS NIKOPO ULOS "THEOX" DIRECTO R
In some way, THEOX is one of the results of a longtime artistic research which at the same time is connected to my academic research at the Department of Audio and Visual Arts of Ionian University, with Ms Marianna Strapatsaki as supervisor. By interpreting the notion of novelty in the context of academic terminology (besides, I could never talk about artistic novelty for obvious reasons), I would say that it lies within the way I choreographed and animated the characters of the film. The visual outcome of the movie has apparent but not innovative references to shadow play. Although, regarding to the way of animating the characters, I tried to apply a method that I have developed during my research and I call “Animating Human Dolls”. In this method, I combine the ways of animating at these two associate arts, the Shadow Play and the Animation. On the one hand, I apply to human bodies the widely known principles of animation according to Walt Disney as they are described in the book The Illusion of Life (12 Principles of Animation), and on the other hand, I identify the animated subject (the animator or the puppeteer in the case of the shadow play) with the animated object which is every character of the film. In other words, the animator is being animated. Being inspired of the two-way process of animating in the shadow play, that is to say from the puppeteer to the figure/puppet and from the figure/ puppet back to the puppeteer, I decided to teach the performers I was collaborating with, some of the aforementioned basic principles of animation so that they become both animated subjects and objects by using these as expressive tools of their characters. Αs for the most difficult part of the production, I would say that both technically and artistically, it was the whole process of the Post Production. In this extremely significant part of the production, among other things, the visual context of the film had to be created in a way that integrated all -equally important- elements; the music composed by Dimitra Tripani while we still had the first cut of the film in green screen, the live action of the performers dressed up like shadow play puppets with the masks that Nikos Kokkalis created, the physical and digital material that I had at my disposal in order to create all the elements of the environment, the initial idea of the sound design which was implemented by George Gargalas.
EUROPEAN AN
BEST SOUNDTRA CK IN
IMATION AWAR
A FEATURE FILM
(NOM.)
INTERVIEW DS 2018: THEO
X
What did it take to write the soundtrack for this 67’ feature film? In practical terms, it took about one and a half month for the score to be written, and about three months for the rehearsals with the musicians, the recording and the editing. From the creative point of view, the most important part of the process was the ongoing preparatory discussions with the director Giorgos Nikopoulos in order for me to understand in detail and in depth what he envisioned for the soundtrack of the film. What we did was to actually take the film minute by minute and “map” in detail the atmosphere, the emotional parametres and the various symbolic interpretations of each scene, so that the music really functions as an additional “actor” in the film.
DIMITRA TRIPAN I "THEOX" COMPOS ER
I consider the European Animation Awards as a crucial and insightful institution. The European co-productions in the field of animation are at their peak while the compound of these co-productions brings in very interesting results, not only from the aspect of the narrated stories but also because of the multicultural character that films have once they are completed. The contemporary European co-productions tend towards an artistic diversity, which is exceptionally interesting and hopeful, that leads the way to contemporary European animation, but also for its position across the other big animation industries, such as America or Japan. Our experience of participating in the Emile Awards 2018 left us feeling that there is a quite big community where the value of the sustainability of the field, from a commercial point of view, is equally important to the value of the artistic, aesthetic and political position of the young producers. So I really hope that the European Animation Awards are going to continue supporting both their festive and their professional character. In which ways has ASIFA HELLAS supported you as an animation professional and what do you expect in the future? ASIFA HELLAS is the home of the Greek animation. I could never say enough about what ASIFA has offered me individually because its actions are collective and very supportive to all Greek animation productions that are happening every year in the country. The truth is that the past 4 years that I have become a member of ASIFA and I have followed its activity, I understand that Greek animation starts to have a potential that I could have never imagined as an independent filmmaker. However, ASIFA’s work aims at institutions in and out of borders, not so that it presents a supposedly active and supportive position towards new projects but because it truly acts essentially and continuously. I find that this consistent and targeted activity has already brought in significant results and, as long as this work continues and all of us who engage in greek animation support this institution, I can imagine a very hopeful future for the Greek animation industry.
THEOX by GIORGOS NIKOPOULOS
How do you consider the European Animation Awards? A pan-European fest of animation and/or a hub for promoting animation production across Europe?
How challenging is to run an independent news media on animation? Αs challenging as making independent animation itself! You need to be on guard on both news that matter, technical issues that pop up from all corners and need immediate solving, prioritising what's really important, finding able collaborators to share your vision. If all these are handled adequately, you need to bring your own animation news child to the world to co-exist with big business, and find its own niche and acclaim, and be able to survive. We've done this for 8 years in a row at Zippy Frames, it's a marathon race that has gradually started to pay off. How much has the European animation scene changed over the past few years?
VASSILIS KROUS TALLIS ZIPPY FRAMES H EAD EDITOR
The European animation scene was diverse, and will continue to be diverse: that's its advantage over US studio animation. What I observe in the last years is that it has become less timid and more daring in terms of what it thinks it can accomplish. We watch so many feature animation projects coming off the ground from independent filmmakers, a renewed festival scene which includes markets and pitching forums for projects in development (a must for any animation project), and a wider collaboration between professionals from different countries. It's a changing environment, even though financing (and especially co-ordinating financing) will always be an issue in all those multi-national animation projects. How much has the Greek animation scene evolved over the last decade? To your view, which is the future of Greek animation? Greek animation scene has talents which, during the last decade, made their appearance highly visible in many acclaimed festivals. But, of course, an organized mode of production is necessary for those talents (both within and outside Greece) to actually continue what they're doing, and (it goes without saying) a systematized, reliable mode of state financing for independent animation. Greek Film Center has no separate category for animation funding, and this won't make the job of animators (very different from live-action) any easier. The good news is that Greek animation professionals start networking (in festivals such as Animasyros, Athens Animfest, Thessaloniki Animation Festival, Chaniartoon) and make projects together, either in the short department or in TV-series proposals etc. We also need diversity here, and that's more than encouraging.
PROMOTING E
UROPEAN & IN
ZIPPY FRAMES W ORLDWIDE
INTERVIEW
DEPENDENT A
NIMATION
INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION DAY 2019 - ASIFA Central GIANNIS KOUTSOURIS AND THE WELLS OF IMAGINATION With eye-popping, swirling color Giannis KOUTSOURIS’s poster for 2019 International Animation Day celebrates the spirit of the unknown, as tubes and spouts from the earth provide for the free-flights of our imagination. As a child, Giannis was intrigued by the wells in the home courtyards, “the holes that derived from the earth’s depths,” inspiring feelings of awe and questions about the underworld of the earth. With the pumping of water, the many types of extractions we pull from the earth, and the machinery needed for it all, Giannis questioned the survival of the earth for the future. Giannis path to animation, from small village in the country side to the founding (along with Nassos Mirmiridis) in the 1970s of Kounoupi Animation production company, lead through Athens. At five, he saw the Disney animated film Peter Pan and was impressed by the images. Learning that it was made by sketches, he decided to become an animator himself. His work has included animated commercials, short animated films shown at festivals, and drawing, cartooning, sculpting, and the illustrating of children’s books. The earth, its wells of imagination, the depths of the unknown. For Giannis, animation will continue to fascinate audiences, especially by the imperfections of traditional techniques, inspiring aesthetics, meanings, and feelings.
GIANNIS KOUTSO URIS IAD 2019 POSTER CREAT
OR
Bob Swieringa
Brief Bio: Giannis KOUTSOURIS was born in Aliarto, Greece, in 1944. He studied graphic arts at ATT with teachers A. Tassos, A. Asteriadis, H. Dekoulakos, G. Georgiadis and S. Lydakis and, for three years, he was close to Spyros Vassiliou as a student and assistant. During the period of his studies and until the end of the 60s, he dealt with painting, cartooning and illustration of children's books and magazines, while his main activity for 30 years was creating animated cartoons for advertising, companies Mosquito and Quack. His animated film LINE won the 3rd prize at Zagreb festival, 1973.
INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION DAY 2019 poster illustration: GIANNIS KOUTSOURIS
Writer, Instructor of Animation History Grand Valley State University ASIFA-Central USA Board Member
POWERED BY ANNECY 2019 poster illustration: CHARLOTTE GASTAUT