Animix comes of age

An especially varied selection of films and workshops is on-offer at this year’s festival of animation.

By HANNAH BROWN
Titles, Amos Ellenbogen (photo credit: Courtesy)
Titles, Amos Ellenbogen
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Animix, the International Animation, Comics and Caricature Festival, is celebrating its bar mitzvah this year.
The 13th Animix Festival will take place from August 9-13, 2013, at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. This year, it will feature an especially varied selection of films and workshops that highlight the new developments and old favorites in animation and related fields, with films and art from Israel and abroad.
There will be screenings of a number of the latest and best animated films. A program of Oscar- winning shorts will include John Kahrs’ Paperman, about an office worker who finds that making paper airplanes is the key to winning the girl of his dreams.
Goran Dukic’s short film, What Do We Have In Our Pockets?, based on a story by Etgar Keret, is about a man who finds that the objects in his pockets have come to life suddenly.
Among the international guests at the festival will be Morton Thorning, a Danish animator who is the general director of the Animation Workshop in Denmark. He will take part in a special discussion on the changes in the technology of the art of animation. Ori Kranot will host the meeting.
Director Ken Kimmelman, who won an Emmy for his film Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana, a screen adaptation of Eli Seigal’s poem, will give a talk on the connection between animation and ethics.
Alain Escalle, an expert in digital compositing and post-production, will share his wealth of experience with workshop participants and will talk about how to create emotional and humane films using a computer. His experimental film Le Livre des Morts (The Book of the Dead) will be shown as part of a program of animated films relating to the Holocaust.
There will be several distinguished Israelis participating this year.
Animator Rony Oren is being honored by the festival for his work in clay animation (claymation). Oren has made over 500 films, including The Egg, Foxy Fables, Tales of a Wise King and Grabbit the Rabbit. Oren was chair of the Animation Department at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and will give workshops on claymation during the festival.
Elad Giladi will give a talk on comics in the Islamic world and the growing popularity of comics in Arabic- speaking countries, as well as the controversy cartoons have generated in the Arab world.
Matan Cohen will speak about the gender revolution in comics in the talk “Heroes Outside the Closet.”
Yehoshua (Jacky) Jackson has made a visual riddle for children in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper every week since 1963. His 50 years of creative work will be celebrated at the festival.
There will also be an exhibit on Israeli media as seen through the eyes of cartoonists. No matter what your political point of view, you should check out this exhibit, which will be on view throughout Animix.
Shai Cherka, who turned three short stories by Agnon into comic-book form, will talk about his work.
The Caricature of the Brain is a special program produced in cooperation with The Hebrew University Center for Brain Research.
This program invites the best Israeli comic artists create a visual and humorous representation of the brain.
Animix is produced in cooperation with the Tel Aviv Municipality Department of Performances, Tel Aviv Cinematheque and the Ministry of Culture – Israeli Cinema Council. Its artistic director is Nissim Hezkiyahu, its animation curator is Dudu Shalita and it is produced by Galit Bersky.
The full program will be available on the Tel Aviv Cinematheque site (www.cinema.co.il). Ticket prices range from NIS 15 to NIS 50, depending on the program. Many workshops and programs do sell out, so order in advance if you want to be sure of getting in. To order, call: (03) 606-0800, ext. 1.