Festival ANIMAFILM wishes you the brightest and most joyful impressions, inspiration, health and good luck in the new year!
Thank you for being with us all this time and supporting our events!
We would like to share with you the results of 2020, which has become a landmark for our festival and for Azerbaijani animation in general.
1) On January 20, with the support of Sheki Art Club we held the event “Animafilm in Sheki”. We also met with the Head of Sheki City Executive Power and discussed future cooperation.
2) On January 21, with the support of the Nizami Cinema Center, we held the second round table on the topic “The Future of Azerbaijan Animation”. The participants of the round table, employees of private and state animation studios came to an agreement that in the near future it is necessary to create a public association in the field of animation. Unfortunately, this idea was not implemented in 2020.
3) In March we created ANIMAFILM School. The first classes were held offline, but with the beginning of quarantine, classes were held via ZOOM. During the year, we did three courses on stop motion animation. Our students took part in international festivals and received prizes. Our teachers were: school director Nazrin Aghamalieva and animators Aydan Hasanova, Daria Kashcheeva, Firangiz Baghirova, Muhammad Zare, Elchin Akhundov and Frangiz Kurbanova.
4) In March we held two festive contests (for Novruz and for New Year). The winners of the contests received the book “Azerbaijan Animation” as a gift.
5) In March, with the support of the Toxum.org platform, we launched a crowdfunding campaign for the 3rd ANIMAFILM festival. The successful campaign was supported by 30 people.
6) In May, we created ANIMAFILM Studio with the goal of producing our own animation films and videos. During the year the studio made one small film “Stay at home, Tomato!” and a trailer for the 3rd ANIMAFILM festival. A new studio project, animated series for children “Aydin and Aydan” won first place in the start-up competition “Digital solutions in the field of culture and creativity”. The competition was announced by the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan and the Creative Azerbaijan portal. On December 30, we presented the project “Aydin and Aydan” to the First Deputy and Acting Minister of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan Anar Kerimov.
7) Finally, from 14 to 18 October, the 3rd ANIMAFILM International Animation Festival took place. The festival became the only offline cultural event in our country during the war. The theme of the third festival was “Children of Azerbaijan”. A children’s jury of 31 children was formed and three theater workshops (Ritual Mobil Theater Laboratory), a two-day master class on stop motion animation and online screenings of animated films were organized. Hafiz Akperov, author of the cartoon “A Man in the Forest”, received the Golden Boat award for his contribution to the development of Azerbaijani animation. 15 winners were awarded in 13 international and local competitions. The results of the festival were widely covered in the press. Video reports from the festival were published on the official YouTube channel. This year the ANIMAFILM festival was supported by: The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan Union of Film-makers, Embassy of the Czech Republic to Azerbaijan, Embassy of France in Azerbaijan, French Institute in Azerbaijan, Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Delegation of the European Union to Azerbaijan, US-Educated Azerbaijani Alumni Association, MR Chemical LLC, Salaam Cinema, Mujru Publishing, Chinar Yayimlari, as well as numerous friends and volunteers.
8) An open letter to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, written in October 2019, was signed by 280 people. Unfortunately, the letter remained unanswered. Therefore, in November 2020, we decided to send another letter, in which we outlined important problems of national animation.
9) On September 25 and December 2, on our initiative, two online meetings were organized with the participation of the organizers of Azerbaijani film festivals. The purpose of the meetings is to create friendship connections and cooperation between film festivals in Azerbaijan. The participants of the meetings were: Baku International Film Festival, DokuBaku International Documentary Film Festival, Booktrailer Festival, Salam International Youth Film Festival, SEVIL International Woman Documentary Film Festival, Invisible Festival of Salaam Cinema platform, ANIMAFILM International Animation Festival.
10) On November 6, we organized a screening of the winning films of the 3rd ANIMAFILM festival for students of the Film School at Azerbaijan Union of Film-makers.
11) On December 30, we participated in the discussion “Concept for the development of Cinema in Azerbaijan”, which is being written by the decree of President Ilham Aliyev dated March 1, 2019. The discussion was organized by the Cinematography Department of the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan.
12) At the end of December, with the support of the 27qm gallery and the Azerbaijani society of the visually impaired, we held a New Year’s charity event for children with visual impairments. During the charity event, 11 paintings from the “Eyebrows” series by Olga Yakubovskaya were sold and 600 AZN (around 350 USD) was raised. With these funds we bought New Year’s gifts for 10 children with visual impairments. These children live in the districts of Ganja, Balaken, Zardab and city of Baku.