Countryside Animafest Cyprus 2024

animafest-cyprus-2024-cfe
Category
ANIMATION & FILM FESTIVALS
Deadline | Event Dates (period)
30 March 2023
City
Salamiou Village, Cyprus
Email
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Edition
23
Final submission deadline
2024-06-16
Submission/Registration Fee
No

Festival Description

Countryside Animafest Cyprus is the official Cyprus Animation Festival. It aims to cultivate the art of animation, by raising audience awareness and promoting cultural, financial and social development in the field of independent animation filmmaking. Its various activities throughout the year include the annual Countryside Animafest Cyprus, expert seminars and workshops, academic forums, special screenings, etc. In this way, the festival initiates international collaborations and provides opportunities for artistic growth.

2024 Call for Entries

Countryside Animafest Cyprus, the International Animation Festival of Cyprus, announces the call for film submissions and invites you to enter your films. 

The festival showcases a selection of the world’s latest productions, focusing on independent, non-commercial films. Countryside Animafest Cyprus, is one of the longest-running film festivals in Cyprus and it’s taking place in the village of Salamiou, a small rural community in the mountainous inland of Paphos. This innovative characteristic of the festival has contributed significantly in the appreciation of independent animation cinema in Cyprus among a very wide audience spectrum and has revitalised many small rural communities around the country.

Films can be submitted to the following categories.

1. International Narrative Shorts (Grand Prix – Dimitri Eipides)

2. International Non-Narrative Shorts (Grand Prix – Dimitri Eipides)

3. International Children Shorts

4. National (Cyprus) Shorts

Short films must not exceed 40 minutes in length. Films submitted for Countryside Animafest Cyprus must have had the première after 1 January 2023. Films from before that date will only be accepted in consultation with the festival. 

2023 Festival Coverage

2022 Festival Coverage

2021 Festival Coverage

2020 Festival Coverage

Winners:

  • The Grand Prix Dimitris Eipides was awarded to the film “Daughter” by Daria Kashcheeva, from the Czech Republic.

Rationale: In telling a universal story of misunderstanding, regret and forgiveness, the artist revitalises a classic form of Papier-mâché puppet animation. The jury were impressed with the artist’s command of the details of facial expression and body language to convey subtle and convincing displays of emotion, and her unexpected use of fluid camera techniques such as handheld movement and shifting depth of field to convey tension between and within her characters, and to bring their conflicting, non-linear, perspectives to life.

  • Honorary Mention: “Deep Love” by Mykyta Lyskov from Ukraine.

Rationale: A powerful cry of anxiety about national and personal identity wrapped in a dense narrative packed with visual gags touching on social, environmental and humanitarian issues whose repetition and subtle subversiveness borders on the poetic.

Special Mentions by the jury members:

Alexis Vasiliou - “Pulsión”, by Pedro Casavecchia, Argentina, France
Elena Alonefti - “Bathhouse of Whales” by Mizuki Kiyama, Japan
Stavros Pamballis - “Signs” by Dustin Rees, Switzerland

  • The award for Best Film in the National Competition was given to the film “In Between” by Eleni Chandriotou.

Rationale: The National competition was a showcase of the early, encouraging steps of a new generation of Cypriot animators who are finding their voice and creative identity within a demanding and competitive international space. In this spirit, the Jury noted “In Between” by Eleni Chandriotou for its precise aesthetic choices and characteristic style, deployed in the service of a clear narrative that convincingly reflected the time and place of its creation.

The members of this year’s jury were Elena Alonefti, film director and president of the Directors Guild of Cyprus, Stavros Pamballis, film director and screenwriter, and Alexis Vassiliou, artistic director of Dance House Lemesos.

Audience awards::
In the International Competition: Physics of Sorrow by Theodore Ushev. Canada.
In the National Competition: Ena tzi ena by Michalis Papanikolaou.
In the childrens’ program: The Kite by Martin Smatana. Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland.

The Grand Prix awards 1000 euros to the winner. The Best Film award for the National competition gives 500 euros to the winner (awards are sponsored by the Bank of Cyprus)

As the festival organizers state, 'during these terrible times for all humanity, international festivals around the world were dealt a huge blow. Animafest Cyprus managed to escape this wave of cancellations because screenings take place outdoors. We count ourselves extremely lucky to have been able to honour the selected films by showing them on the big screen. While it is wonderful that digital platforms have provided so much accessibility in the last few months, making possible the realization of film festivals online, the collective viewing experience that we were able to share these last few days is priceless and must never be taken for granted". 

2019 Festival Coverage

Awards for the 18th edition of Countryside Animafest Cyprus Views of the World:

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION:

  • Grand Prix Dimitris Eipides Award (1000 euro): For its exquisite visual qualities, for the compelling humanity of the story and because all the elements of the film contribute to a strong global cinematographic experience, the jury gives the Grand Prix to UNCLE THOMAS, ACCOUNTING FOR THE DAYS by Regina Pessoa.
  • Special Mention: For its great graphic consistency and for its troubling and erotic character the jury gives a mention to EGG by Martina Scarpelli.
  • Special Mention: For the total freedom of its experimental approach, and for its eloquent use of space, light, sound and music, they jury gives a mention to A SLOWER SPEED OF LIGHT by Stuart Pound.

NATIONAL COMPETITION:

  • Best Film Award (500 euro): Because of a clever storyline that avoids clichés and can touch the hearts of children and adults and because it is a major production accomplishment in the field of animation in Cyprus they jury gives the Best Film Award to DRAGON RECIPES by Maria Pavlou.
  • Special Mention: For its creative approach to an ecological problem, and for the dramatic character of the visual design the jury gives a mention to CAN YOU EAT PLASTIC by Christiana Constantinou.

International Jury committee (International & National competition): Pierre Hébert (Canada), Liu Yi (China) , Petros Charalambous (Cyprus).

2018 Festival Coverage

NB: Exact 2024 Festival Dates are tentative

 
 

Event Dates

  • From 09 August 2024 to 11 August 2024

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