Cinanima: A Noble Festival in Its Original Motto
The Espinho Cinanima International Animation Festival is one of the oldest and most traditional festivals of its genre. In its forty-second edition, during a week, presented the most varied short and feature animated films, which enchanted participants, guests and public of all ages.
One of the most important works of this cultural event of Portugal, and (this should be noted) outside the big cities Lisbon-Porto axis, is the creation of public. Its work extends throughout the year with movie screenings and tours of animation sessions for "the little people" and "the big ones".
In this edition, there were 30 sessions dedicated to the school public of the most varied ages. Within this spirit of diversity and dissemination of the animated art, one of the highlights of Cinanima 2018 was precisely its masterclasses and workshops.
These events had the partnership and support of other Portuguese institutions linked to animation, which demonstrates the joint work of the festival production and integration with society.
Cinanima 2018 Masterclass:
- Unsung Women Heroes in Animation - by Nancy Denney-Phelps
- Fantasies From the Past - by Riho Unt
- The Production of Short Animated Films - by Willem Thijssen
- Pronto Era Assim (Thus it was ready ) by Patrícia Rodrigues
- Form and Content by Vera Neubauer
- What Is a Film - by Nuno Amorim
- Filipe Carvalho VS America by Filipe Carvalho
Cinanima 2018 Workshops:
- "Introduction to 3D Character Modelation in Blender"- by Rebeca das Neves
- "Experimentation and Creativity in the Development Of Characters For Animation" by Gabriela Sá
- "Light in multiplan" - by Abi Feijó
- "Introduction to 2d Animation Using After Effects"- by Alexandra Allen
- "Introduction to 3D Animation in BLENDER" - by Luís Félix Alípio
- "Introduction to Special Effects with After Effects" - by Ricardo Adrêgo, Alexandra Allen
- "Monsters of the Boxes" - by Luís Leite
- "Rigging and Skinning in Blender" by Paulo Korpys
Introduction to 3D Character Modelation in Blender, Rebeca das Neves
I spoke with João Católico and Paulo Fernandes (linked to the production of the Festival for more than 20 and nine years respectively), and responsible for the Educational Services of Cinanima.
According to Católico (passionate about animation since 1977, when he attended his first animation session in Espinho), the choice of the workshops had the objective of presenting to the public a diversity of animation techniques. It is to offer the possibility of experimentation to the public, which can then be deepened (if wished to). Thus, it was a decision to present more technological themes, such as Blender and video mapping workshops, not forgetting also the more traditional techniques "because we always want them to be present", says Católico.
"We have a double intention: to bring great animation professionals such as Abi Feijó and to work together to the animation schools - which is the case with the IPCA and ESMAD - bringing the new techniques of animation" explains Paulo Fernandes. We need to put face to face both the "traditional and the future".
In order to be able to produce so many instructive events at the same time, the production process took one year, with effective contact and decisions about those events defined up to the middle of 2018.
The gratification of this work came through the feedback of the participants, who return and form big queues to participate in the workshops in subsequent editions, says Catholic. He also points out that "this is the best place: it is where people talk about animation, about techniques, about processes and software, and how animation is produced, which was the case of this editions masterclass by Willem Thijssen".
The process of a masterclass is simpler as it is shorter. "They are free, and the faculties (ESMAD, ESAD, IPCA, Porto) play a very important role, because they offer both us and he speaker an audience deeply interested in the subject".
The Educational Services is a sector of the Festival effectively created four years ago; since the first edition, it has been concerned to offer animation sessions for schools, "to teach seeing and doing animation", explains Catholic. This initiative made it possible to extend the scope of the festival throughout the year.
View the full list of awards of the 2018 Cinanima festival.
The 42nd edition of Cinanima took place 12-18 November 2018 in Espinho, Portugal.