TEHRAN – The 12th edition of the Tehran International Animation Festival plans to review movies from Japan, Switzerland and Czech in its Panorama section.

The festival will take place from May 29 to June 2. The event was scheduled first to be held in March, but it was canceled due to an increase in COVID-19 infections in the country. 

This section in one part will screen and discuss nine short animations by Japanese director Koji Yamamura, the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA-Kanoon), the organizer of the festival, said on Friday.

In his career spanning over 40 years, Yamamura exploits a variety of technics and methods to change fictions into animated films. He is really gifted at doing multi-strata stories in his films, which have been acclaimed at numerous international festivals.

His “Dreams into Drawing” will also be screened in the international competition.

The Panorama section will also review nine movies from the independent Japanese cinema in a subsection entitled “The Land of the Rising Sun: Independent Animation in Japan”.      

Independent animation cinema has a long history in Japan and it dates back to 1917. After World War II, this cinema found itself at a major turning point in the 1960s and reached the acme of perfection in the 1980s.   

The Panorama section will also screen 14 silent animated movies by Georges Schwizgebel, Swiss director of the acclaimed film “The Man with No Shadow”.   

His films are marked by masterful technical execution, a playful approach to narrative, spectacular formalism and the intermingling of visuals and music. 

His first film, “The Flight of Icarus”, launched a prolific career, boasting numerous awards at prestigious international festivals like Cannes, Annecy, Animafest Zagreb, Hiroshima, Stuttgart, Ottawa and Espinho.

Schwizgebel received the Honorary Crystal in Annecy, followed by the honorary award of the Swiss Film Awards in 2018. In 2019, he was awarded the French insignia of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters. He is the most awarded author in the history of Animafest, and was presented with the lifetime achievement award in 2020.

The organizers will also review 13 movies from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU – Filmova a Televizni Fakulta Akademie Muzickych Umeni v Praze).

FAMU is one of the three faculties of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU, FAMU, HAMU) and the fifth oldest film school in Europe.

The academy plays an important role in involving its teachers and researchers in international professional organizations, and collaborates with Czech Television and foreign television companies as well. FAMU is also an institutional member of the Association for Film and Audiovisual Education.

Photo: “Red Shoes”, a short directed by Anna Podskalska at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU).

MMS/YAW