Animation festival opens in Athens
It’s been 10 years since the screening of «Toy Story,» the first film made entirely on a computer. Since then, digital animation has evolved into the prevailing method of creating animation films. Athens’s Fourth International Cartoon Festival, organized by Animation Hellas in collaboration with Cartoon and staged under the aegis of the General Secretariat for Youth, starts today at its usual venue, the Athinais arts complex. The festival will run to Sunday. For the duration of the festival, the special educational programs will cater to students of all ages. The program will include screenings of the award-winning films from the 2005 Festival International du Film d’Animation in Annecy, France, as well as tributes to artists Koji Yamamura and Spyros Siakas. Saturday will feature the presentation of Anastassia Dimitra’s book «I Goiteftiki Poreia tou Schediasmou ton Titlon ston Kinimatografo» (The Charming Evolution of Designing Titles in Cinema), while Sunday will feature a one-day conference for professional cartoon artists titled «Games, Videos and Cartoons.» Full-length films that will be screened during the festival include Hayao Miyazaki’s «Howl’s Moving Castle» (Japan, tomorrow at 9 p.m.), Stefan Fjeldmark’s «Terkel in Trouble» and «Help! I’m a Fish» (Denmark, today at 11 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m. respectively), Aron Gauder’s «The District» (Hungary, Saturday at 10 p.m.), Dave Borthwick and Jean Duval’s «The Magical Roundabout» (France, today at 11 a.m.), Jose Mari Goenaga and Inigo Berasategui’s «Supertramps» (Spain, Saturday at 7 p.m.), Deane Taylor and Emmanuel Klotz’s «Duck Ugly» (Ireland, today and tomorrow at 10 p.m.), Hiroshi Negishi’s «Shadow Skill» (Japan, tomorrow), Katsuhiro Otomo’s «Akira» (Japan, tonight at 9 p.m.) and Hideaki Anno’s «Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth» (Japan, Saturday at 11 p.m.) as well as others. The Athinais Arts Complex is at 34-36 Kastorias in Votanikos (tel 210.348.0000).
