Every year, the Anima Festival spotlights production from one or two European countries, and 2020 is the year of Nordic countries. One thing producers working in these countries have in common is to concentrate their production on quality features mainly for children. Festival participants and audience will be able to see this in particular with the preview in competition screening of Anders Matthesen and Thorbjorn Christoffersen Checkered Ninja, an up-tempo adventure with a great friendship story, not without a touch of social criticism.

The Palace cinema will also host a retrospective of children's films including Gordon & Paddy, Next Door Spy, Rita & Crocodile, etc.

In addition, the Anima audience will have the opportunity to discover what makes independent filmmakers from the North tick through a panorama of four short film programmes for adults entitled Northern Lights. Whether inspired by real events, first-hand accounts or funny and original invented stories, these directors have tackled the subjects with open minds and a bold artistic vision.

Full line-up:

Northern Lights 1 

Ivandoe | The Prince and the Pretty PoodleChristian Bøving-Andersen and Eva Lee Wallberg DK 
Sore Eyes for Infinity Elli Vuorinen FI 
Never like the First Time! Jonas Odell SE 
Live a LittleJenny Jokela FI 
How Long Not Long Michelle Kranot and Uri Kranot DK 
Death of an Insect Pekka Veikkolainen and Hannes Vartiainen FI 
Moms on Fire Joanna Rytel SE
DAD Atle Blakseth and Einar Dunsæd NO 

Northern Lights 2

The Plastic Godzilla of the Baltic Sea Reetta Neittaanmäki and Kaisa Penttilä FI
Interview Mikkel H. Okholm DK
Nocturnal Butterfly Annika Dahlsten FI
Kuhina Joni Männistö FI20117 mn
Absence of Eddy Table (The) Rune Spaans NO
Me and My Moulton Torill Kove NO
Angry Man Anita Killi NO

Northern Lights 3

Penelope Heta Jäälinoja FI 
Vox Lipoma Jane Magnusson and Liv Strömquist SE 
VerminJeremie Becquer DK 
Still Lives Elli Vuorinen 
Marathon Diary (The)Hanne Berkaak NO
Bath House Niki Lindroth Von Bahr SE 
Song Sparrow Farzaneh Omidvarnia DK

Northern Lights 4

Peter Pix - The Car Trine Heller Jensen DK
Somewhere Soft Satoe Yoshinari NO
Eternity Anastasia Melikhova DK
Blame it on the Seagull Julie Engås NO
Mother and Milk Amy Lindholm FI
Less Than HumanSteffen Lindholm DK
Farce Robin Jensen NO 
Most Precise and Nuanced Look into the Life of the Man Legend and Visionary (A) - Martin LutherMagnus Igland Møller DK
Origin of Man Pjotr Sapegin NO

One of them, Swedish filmmaker Jonas Odell, renowned in the industry for his ex-studio FilmTecknarna, prolific in commercial and music video making, and his multi-award-winning Never Like the First Time, will be visiting the professional days to present his new studio The Chapel Films.

Plus a  preview screening to close the Festival of Danish filmmakers Anders Morgenthaler and Mikael Wulff's latest feature Monty and the Street Party, co-produced by the Belgian Caviar Films, giving the Anima 2020 audience one last opportunity to delve into the crazy minds of our friends from the North, and in this case, the Danes, in the presence of the Belgian Team of the film.

TRIBUTE TO THE LUXEMBOURG STUDIO MÉLUSINE PRODUCTIONS
There are little countries that play a big role on a European level and this is definitely the case for Luxembourg. It was high time to take a closer look at two sibling companies, Mélusine Productions and studio 352, one in charge of production and the other looking after the making of the films. Founded 20 years ago by Stéphan Roelants, who is still at the helm, these two studios have produced or co-produced a dozen of the most popular European features of recent years, like Ernest & Celestine, Song of the Seas, The Swallows of Kabul, The Breadwinner, TV series, shorts, documentaries and many more.

They currently have five feature film projects on the go (Molesworth, Slocum, Le Sommet des dieux, Kensukes Kingdom, Wolfwalkers) that founder and studio head Stéphan Roelants will talk more about in the Mélusine, a (co)production model conference. Stéphan Roelants will also be here to defend his editorial line which is based on serving original scripts and quality visuals and content, as well as presenting a preview screening of a film that takes a step off the beaten track of the Anima Festival: the animated documentary denouncing rape used as a weapon of war and its impunity, Zero Impunity. The film, directed by a trio - the Blies brothers and Denis Lambert - is emblematic of the studio's position.

• Stephan Roelants  Focus 26/2, 17:00

  The majority of the feature films from these two Luxembourg studios are set to be screened at Flagey or the Palace for this special tribute.

All schedule times in the official Anima Festival Page