Top20 Independent Animation Stories from 2020
It has been a bumpy ride throughout 2020; the COVID-19 situation made online animation content more accessible, and the theatrical, festival experience was much limited. Anecdotal reports and discussion show that production in animation (at least in its 2D and 3D variants) did continue, whereas one can safely assume that what the industry calls a 'development stage' for an animation work might have been given an unexpected and more prominent focus; if you are well, just think and meditate -before animate.
At Zippy Frames, we published more than 350 articles on European and independent animation (and excluding our regular animation festival deadlines) during 2020. What follows below is a selection of either the most popular, the most debated, or the community-relevant article published this year. Short film presentations, animation festivals, pitching events reports, animation features, and everything that made a difference.
The entire Zippy Frames team wishes you a safe and wonderful 2021!
(articles in chronological order)
1. Eliane Gordeeff talks to Annick Teninge, director of French animation school La Poudrière. which completed 20 years of existence
2. It proved to be one of our most popular entries in our Shorts Corner. Here's our presentation of Urban Sphinx by animation director María Lorenzo Hernández
3. When COVID-19 arrived, we had to take our own ammunition
4. Canadian experimental filmmaking director Steven Woloshen released his magnum opus, the 26-minute The Dead Sea Scrolls. Vassilis Kroustallis reviewed the film at Zippy Frames
5. The Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film was the first to quickly adapt to an online version. Here are our impressions
6. Dalibor Baric explained in detail his cinematic endeavours in the (very long-titled) Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus animation feature - a film made in the experimental filmmaking tradition, with a lot of personal love
7. Vassilis Kroustallis talked with Michelle Kranot, co-director (along with Uri Kranot), about their new VR and short film project, The Hangman at Home, after their Annecy 2020 online presentation. The VR project (single-user experience) won the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival
8. Korean animation feature Beauty Water dissects the desperation behind the need for appearances. Our review of the feature by Kyung Hun Cho
9. Ilze Burkowska Jakobsen made one of the memorable animation features of the year, coming from the Nordic/Baltic region. Kropka talked to her about My Favorite War
10. UK animation director Shaun Clark reached Ottawa International Animation Festival with his dadaist animation short, Angry Dogs. He talked to Zippy Frames
11. EunJu Ara Choi made a really sensitive and powerful animation short in Happy Ending animation documentary. We presented the film in our Shorts Corner
12. Mikhail Gurevich talked to the Annecy winner Kirill Khachaturov about his intriguing (narratively and technically) animation film, Naked.
13. Joseph Norman watched (online) the Encounters Film Festival and wrote his own report and picks from the British fest.
14. Independent animation films in the making need the most promotion for very practical reasons (of subsequent funding etc.). Here's our own reports from both CEE Animation Forum and Animarkt Stop Motion Forum that took place in October 2020 - with very promising projects
15. An animation feature that deserves to be widely seen. Zippy Frames talked to Eiji Han Shimizu about his 3D film on North Corean concentration camps, True North.
16. Christina S. Neerland is a young independent animation director giving her own feedback to other independent animation directors. She talked to Kropka during the November edition of ReAnima festival
17. Joseph Norman interviews a rather under-appreciated artist and animation director: Paul Cabonj
18. Olga Bobrowska alerted us to the Polish animation community's effort against the generalized abortion ban in Poland.
19. Our Zippy Frames contributors picked up their best animation shorts (already submitted to our Shorts Corner), and presented our first ever Shorts Corner Choice distinction to 4 animation shorts.
20. Cinanima Festival was one of the last big animation festivals to take place (online) in November 2020. Eliane Gordeeff watched and presented the new Portuguese animation films.
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