El Festival Pixelatl

Event Description: The main gathering of Latin American creators and the global animation, comic and videogame industries. Pixelatl summons each year creators from around the globe: professionals, executives, artists, students, and fans.

2023 Call for Entries

The 12th Pixelatl Animation, Videogames, and Comic Festival will take place from September 5 to 9, 2023.

Eligibility criteria:

• The CHINELO ANIMACIÓN is an award that recognizes the best-animated shorts filmed and/or published after January 1st, 2022.
• Finished films can be submitted in one of the following categories:
  a) International animation short film;
  b) Mexican student animated short film; and
  c) International student short film.
• Films of any subject are admissible and from any animation technique, on the condition that they are narrative and animated. In the event it is a mix of Live Action with animation, the frame-by-frame animation should be over 60% of the running time of the film. Abstract films without a story are not admitted.

Categories:

The Chinelo 2023 will award 3 main categories and two additional special awards that are detailed as follows:

I. Chinelo for the best International animation film
- Films can be submitted in any animation format, with a duration of no more than 20 minutes to be considered a short film. - If the language is any other than English, it should have subtitles in this language so it can be understood and evaluated by the international jury.

II. Chinelo for the best International Student animation short film
- Only films realized by students may apply, that are studying for a Bachelor's Degree or equivalent. It will be certified by uploading proof of the studies in the Images section of the submission form (student ID, certificate, etc.) at the time of submission. - Only finalized films are admitted: non-narrative films will not be accepted, or those that have less than 60% animation of the running time of the film. - In this category only films with a minimum duration of 2 minutes, and a maximum of 10 minutes can participate.- If the language is any other than English, it should have subtitles in this language so it can be understood and evaluated by the international jury.

III. Chinelo for the best Mexican Student animation short film.
- Only films realized by students that are studying or recently graduated with their Bachelor's Degree and with Mexican Nationality (living in Mexico or elsewhere) can submit. - In this category foreign students studying for their Bachelor's Degree in Mexico - This will be certified by uploading proof of the studies in the Images section of the submission form (student ID, certificate, etc.) at the time of submission. - Only finalized films are admitted: non-narrative films will not be accepted, or those that have less than 60% animation of the running time of the film. - In this category only films with a minimum duration of 2 minutes, and a maximum of 10 minutes can participate.

IV. Chinelo especial: Eso que nos Une
- All submitted shorts will be considered for this award to the film that best represents or relates to the topic “shared stories” and “that which unites us” - The jury for this prize is formed by members of Pixelatl.

V. Premio SAE México to the Best Audio Design for a Short Film
- It is a technical award for the best audio design for an animation short film, and it will be selected from the Mexican short films submitted, for the best international short film category or best student film category.

• Regulations
• Entry via FilmFreeway
• Deadline: June 19, 2023 at 23:59, Mexico time (GTM -6).
• Fees: There is a fee of US$5 for the International Animated Short Film category. In the case of the Mexican Student Animation Short and Student International Short categories, there is no entry fee.

2020 Festival Coverage (ARCHIVE)

Programme Highlights

With an ambitious program of conferences and business meetings, the Mexican association Pixelatl presented the program of its festival, promising that “it will not be another cycle of online conferences like so many that have emerged lately”, but an international bonding and learning experience for all artists and entrepreneurs in the creative industries of Mexico and Latin America.

The event, which will take place from September 1 to 5 online as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, will be attended by vice presidents and top executives from the main international networks such as Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Netflix, Fox, Discovery Kids, Sony Pictures Animation, Disney Animation Studios, Dreamworks Animation TV, Amazon Studios, the UK’s BBC, PBS, and Televisa, among others, which will be available to participating studios to have business meetings where they will show ideas for new intellectual properties or their capabilities for service work.

In the midst of the economic crisis, a consequence of the COVID pandemic, the creative industry can be an engine of economic recovery for Mexico and Latin America.  Each Festival is part of a process that takes place over the course of the year, the best ten or twelve series or animated film projects that are presented to the networks are selected from the Ideatoon call. Some of the previous year’s projects are already being produced - José Iñesta, Pixelatl’s director.

For the delegates of the studios that attend, a pre-agenda of business meetings is prepared based on information that they fill out after registering their participation. Also, there is a help desk during the networking event to help networks find more appointments with studios from Latin America.

Recruitment
National and international studios participate in the event to recruit new talent. In previous years, for example, Quebec companies have hired Mexican creators both to work remotely from Mexico or to take them to their studios in Canada. Moreover, bigger studios take advantage of the event to meet new talent and emerging artists so that they can hire them. This year major studios will be recruiting and doing portfolio reviews like Laika, Bento Box, Disney, and Nickelodeon,” explained Christian Bermejo, Pixelatl’s Artistic Director.

Women in Animation
During the press conference, Bermejo was in charge of presenting details of the event's program, where he pointed out that it was designed to highlight and promote female talent in the industry. For this reason, among the main guests at the festival are Rebecca Sugar, creator of Steven Universe, or the stellar presentation of Onyx Equinox, an original Crunchyroll series created by Mexican Sofía Alexander.

Other prominent guests include Taneka Stots, who has also been a comic book editor; Julia Pott, creator of the acclaimed HBO Max animated series “Summer Camp Island”; art director Linda Chen, who is currently working at Dreamworks TV on Guillermo del Toro's Tales of Arcadia series; the German-based Dutch illustrator “Loish”, whose illustrations go viral on social media globally; or Matisse Gonzalez Jordán, Bolivian animator who will present a pilot developed for Cartoon Network.

Other highlights
With over one hundred activities that make up the 2020 Pixelatl Festival program, the following also stand out:
• The exclusive premiere of a new Cartoon Network show
• Four talks and panels by Nick animation, from an artistic and business perspective
• A panel with the Supervising Directors of the adult animated series that are icons: Bojack
Horseman, The Simpson, American Dad, Midnight Gospel, Paradise PD.
• Panel with ILM executives and artists about the Star Wars universe
• Disney Animation panel with legendary animators
• Presentation with the creators of “Duncanville”, the new FOX flagship series that is about to be released.

2019 Festival Coverage

NB: 2024  Festival Dates are tentative