The Personal Is the Universal: Report from the Black Sea Animation Workshop 2024

It was the first time attempted, and it already seems a good idea. Animation representatives from 5 Black Sea countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey -excluding Russia) and young animation talents from those countries gathered together in a 5-day Black Sea Animation PItching I Workshop (26-30 November 2024) and pitching process to celebrate the animation artistry from those countries. (Of course, amid severe protests against the government's decision to halt the EU ascension negotiations talks, which were felt heavily outside the serene workshop environment).

Whatever organizing event involves projects in the making (and that goes doubly for animation projects), needs to be configured carefully from the start. The organizers' idea and goal is a process that will have the Annecy Festival and its MIFA Industry event 2025 as the final presentation goal. After an open call for animation short projects, which were judged respectively by Animest Festival (Romania), Linoleum Festival (Ukraine), Anim.Ist platform and festival (Turkey), Sofia Animation Lab (Bulgaria), and Saqanima (Georgia), 10 animation projects (two from each country) were selected.

"The Black Sea Animation Workshop is essential because it focuses on empowering creative voices from a region that often faces unique economic, cultural, and political challenges", Mariam Kandelaki, Founder and director of the Georgian Saqanima association, tells Zippy Frames. "The animation industry in the Black Sea countries has immense talent and potential, but limited access to resources, mentorship, and international platforms". Therefore, a need to connect.

The 5 winning projects (to be determined) will join a special partner's section at the 2025 Annecy Festival and its MIFA Industry Event.  Another best project will receive a one-month NEF residency (calendar year 2025) at Abbaye Royal de Fontevraud. CEE Animation Forum 2025 will also welcome (free accreditation) one more project. (For background information, 70 animation short projects were submitted to the event).

After being mentored by French producer and executive Olivier Catherin (Kiki de Montparnasse, Electra, Granny's Sexual Life among others) and Corinne Destombes (Folimages, Head of Development), the projects were presented on the 29th of November to industry professionals.

"It's all about specifying what the participants are trying to tell: the narration, the intentions", both mentors describe their work to Zippy Frames. "Then, finding the right words and images that will allow the audience of the pitch to enter and understand the project. For this process to work, questions must be asked, so that filmmakers themselves question what they really want to convey. This is generally the work between producer and director, but here in a very condensed form".

Black Sea Workshop participants (c) Saqanima

Olivier Catherin (c) Saqanima

Corinne Destombes / Mariam Kandelaki (c) Saqanima

The premiere edition of the Black Sea Animation Workshop | Pitching was an all-woman pitching event, with all projects to be directed by women animation directors. But this fact alone doesn't give enough information, since what was presented were first or second-film projects -which tend to be personal and autobiographical. And they were; but, as Catherin and Destombes are quick to note about this kind of project in general, "some avoid the intimate and take refuge in generalities, others tend to reveal themselves too much". And the right distance between what you say and your emotions needs to be found.

It seemed that this distance was indeed achieved like the 7-minute Romanian animation short film project 'On the Balcony of A House' by Anna Florea, whose story of a curse being imposed and character separation is accompanied by stark line drawings (in a combination of hand-drawn and 2D digital animation). The bugs that plague the face of one character work as a strong metaphor for a sense of separation (between masculine and feminine) that needs to be met. The dream-like narrative atmosphere aligns with the ink on paper the director plans to use as her main design vehicle.

On the Balcony of A House

Sofio Chincharauli and Elene Tavadze are the two Georgian directors behind the recent stop-motion, Annecy-premiered short 'Elena Dariani'. Their new project, the 10-minute dark stop-motion comedy 'Eva and Adam' transfers in a zany way the Biblical story of Fall (Eve is a blogger, Adam is a scientist trying to turn back time to reverse the consequences); the directors want to address our primal fear of God and his punishment -and the story and its puppets bring the needed lightness suited for the animation medium.

Inspired by the Kosiv ceramic tiles of the 19th century (inscribed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists), the 11-minute Ukrainian 'The Greatest of All Powers' fairy tale by Magda Svitlana, has 6 characters in a classical fairy tale setting with a boy, a girl, and a dragon -yet at the same time, highly symbolic and mixing fairy tale with folklore. The director strongly believes in interpreting our world via fairy tales, and it seems this project has its heart in the right place.

The second Ukrainian project presented, the 12-minute  animation documentary project 'Frescoes of Memory' by Alexandra Dzhiganskaya (her first professional film) is based on an interview and the story of her grandmother Kira, a member of the Bulgarian minority in Bessarabia (south Ukraine), and her life as an immigrant under Soviet rule. Planned to be animated in 2D digital animation with watercolor backgrounds, the project breezes a fresh air of new, colorful life into old, intimate stories.

Frescoes of Memories

Petya Zlateva's 6-minute 'Grain of Sand' (Bulgaria) is in turn inspired by the microphotography of grains of sand by Dr. Gary Greenberg; again, the material is used as a metaphor for the infinitesimal to spread a new life in a character's existence that so far looks uninteresting and hopeless. The character's non-human design makes it easier for everyone to identify with in this inspirational-minded project.

Serap Çabuk's 2D animation project  'Umami' (the Japanese word for 'pleasant savory taste') transfers taste to the realm of psychology; the main young woman and character finds it increasingly difficult to cope with the realities of life (University, job interview and current workload). The director in her first effort (in development) draws her characters and their backgrounds in a congenial but slightly unbalanced way -the same way her character feels in her "museum of failure".

"Is something inherently wrong with me"? The other Turkish animation project by Melis Balcı presents the story of a struggling immigrant in France and his daughter; seemingly well-adjusted, Selim's drawings (in the film project, his drawings owe a lot to Francis Bacon) look weird to others, and his wanting his daughter Maya to be proud of him is what drives the story's main storyline. A 6-minute 2D animation film that talks about the shame of being different elegantly.

The Kindergarten

'As I look out the window' by Romanian stop-motion animation director Agata Tabacu is based on her mother's story. The 7-minute stop-motion multiplane film follows  a young girl born in an eastern European town who is fascinated with the community traditions surrounding death -since nothing else of importance happens in her small town. The moody but engaging film project (with its ethereal-looking puppets) immerses into a world where the culture of death is more important than actual living itself -from the viewpoint of a child.

The M.C. Escher’s impossible perspectives atmosphere rules in the 'Members Only' by Lina Kalcheva (Bulgaria); her 5-minute hybrid (2D/stop-motion) animation short has the main male character wanting to go down a waterslide available to members (businessmen in black suits only). Yet the film shies away from the obvious outsider challenges, and contemplates what happens when you gradually become yourself the conformist party. A proposed combination of stop-motion animation and 2D animation (technique still to be determined), the project is as stylized as you would expect from its story.

Members Only

Georgian Mariam Qortua prepares the 6-minute comedy for children, 'Anatomy of Mr. Burda', about a man who likes to disassemble everything and put it back together again; he finally experiments with his own body in the same way, trying to unveil its secret instructions. The film project (the character's name comes from a German fashion magazine) has its motto 'it's OK to be confused'; the comic mishaps and the slick-looking characters and their parts contribute to this disassembling confusion.

Anatomy of Mr. Burda

The projects' diversity (and strength) is a factor that Mariam Kandelaki states when evaluating the workshop's proceedings, adding that "the level of talent and creativity displayed by the participants exceeded our expectations". 5 of those projects will travel to the MIFA Annecy 2025, with NEF Animation and CEE Animation Forum being essential co-partners.

A number of partner presentations followed the pitching event (Linoleum Festival, Sofia Animation Lab, Animest, Animist Istanbul Animation Festival, and our Zippy Frames presentation) -including Chris Robinson's (OIAF artistic director) on Ottawa International Animation Festival and its artistic present. The animation festival and associated industry world are varied, yet its representatives were quick and experienced to communicate the essentials to the participants. 

A day trip excursion to Nikozi village followed (1 December), in which the annual International Animation Film Festival Nikozi takes place; its monastery heads have for almost two decades a strong relationship with indie animation; people like Yuri Norstein, the late Paul Bush, Koji Yamamura, and younger voices, like the Estonian Anu-Laura Tuttelberg have participated, in one way or the other (workshops etc.) in the activities of this isolated but vibrant space. Its warm hospitality is evident throughout. A similar, Tbilisi, day-excursion event was organized earlier in the workshop process by the Georgian National Tourism administration. Tbilisi has its innate charm -not an exotic, but a lived one.

If you had to take a single thing from the premiere Black Sea Workshop | Pitching in Tbilisi is that all 10 projects presented are personal, and intimate, yet at the same time they present a strong voice for individual artistic and cultural freedom. From minority focus to a subtle critique of aggravated power to collective religious traumas, all films have their critical focus alert -and their artistry in their right place. We'll be watching for all of those to come to animated life.

The premiere edition of the Black Sea Animation Workshop took place on 26-30 November in Tbilisi, Georgia. Partners: Annecy International Animated Film Festival France, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Institute Francais de Georgie, LINOLEUM Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival Ukraine, Compote Collective and Sofia Animation LAB Bulgaria, ANIMEST Bucharest Animation Film Festival Romania, Animist Istanbul Animation Festival Türkiye, Film Studio KVALI, Georgian National Film Center, City Hall Tbilisi, Rooms Hotels, Ibis Budget, ACI The Association Of Creative Industries Georgia, NEF Animation France, CEE Animation Forum, Zippy Frames

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