Diretores do Anima Mundi posam para fotos na Cidade das Artes, sede carioca da 23ª edição do festival. Em sentido horário, Lea Zagury, Cesar Coelho, Aída Queiroz e Marcos Magalhães Directors of Anima Mundi pose for photos at Cidades das Artes, which is hosting the Rio de Janeiro portion of the festival’s 23rd edition. Clockwise: Lea Zagury, Cesar Coelho, Aída Queiroz, and Marcos Magalhães
The numbers prove the theory: in just over two decades, the event’s audience grew from 7,000 to over 100,000 people. The number of films submitted, which at first was a few dozen, has exceeded 1,500 titles. And Anima Mundi was established as the largest festival of its kind in the Americas, and the second largest in the world, behind only the Annecy Festival in France. Far from allowing themselves to become complacent by success, however, they promise a renewed edition. New features include the venue of the festival, which will be held July 10th–15th in Rio de Janeiro and July 17th–22nd in São Paulo. In Rio, the attractions will take place at the enormous Cidade das Artes, in Barra da Tijuca, and there will also be screenings at the Odeon, Oi Futuro Ipanema, and Ponto Cine. In São Paulo, workshops and debates will be concentrated at Cinemateca Brasileira, located in Vila Clementino, which – along with Caixa Belas Artes – will also show the selected titles. “This change will allow the festival to grow and evolve,” says Marcos, who stresses the introduction of a new competitive category this year: commercials. The plurality of what will be shown is guaranteed. In all, 450 films will be screened, from countries as the United States, Ukraine, Jamaica and Iran. “We were always concerned with having the greatest possible number of techniques and styles,” says Aída. “We represent a judging panel of around 60 people, because we have very different artistic identities,” jokes Lea. The 2015 edition also proves that the goal of promoting domestic production has been achieved: 108 titles are Brazilian. If, previously, the Nation exported professionals, today our studios employ hundreds of people and send content abroad. Another source of pride is the fact that older festival-goers now walk on their own feet in the world of animation. Names like Carlos Saldanha (director of the Ice Age and Rio franchises), and Guilherme Marcondes (director of the short film Tyger, winner of over 20 awards) discovered their calling at the event. Just as Pedro Ivo Carvalho, 28, who was introduced to Anima Mundi as a child, and is now seeing his short film Vagabond as part of this edition’s programming.
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