22nd Countryside Animafest Cyprus: the yearly celebration of Animation at Salamiou

22nd Countryside Animafest Cyprus: the yearly celebration of Animation at Salamiou The 22nd edition of Countryside Animafest Views of the World will be hosted once again by the beautiful village of Salamiou, in the Paphos district, from August 9th to the 12th.  The selection includes films that have won accolades in the world’s most important festivals, as well as Oscar-nominated films, alongside new Cypriot films and many sidebar events that include exhibitions, concerts and workshops for children and adults.  This multi-faceted, innovative event that has been constantly renewing itself in these 22 years, will once more present the Cypriot premieres of best of the world’s animated films in its competition programs.

The festival poster Every year we invite an acclaimed artist from the international animation community to create the festival’s poster. This year the poster bears the signature of the legendary Dutch director Μichaël Dudok de Wit, best known for his Oscar-winning 2001 animated short ‘Father and Daughter’ and his more recent feature ‘The Red Turtle’. Both films will be screened during the festival.

International Competition Programmes Programmers Yiorgos Tsangaris and Gerben Schermer (Netherlands) selected 32 films from 19 countries for the international competition programme, among more that 650 submissions from around the world.  The selection aims to present to the Cypriot public the most cutting-edge international films and at the same time to foster and expand the audience through works characterised by universality and humanist values.  The children’s competition programme, targeted towards our ever-increasing younger audience, includes 8 from from 7 countries. The winner of the children’s competition will be decided by a 3-member children’s jury comprised by young school students.  National Competition Programme and Cypriot Artists This year for the first time  and in collaboration with the Cyprus Association of Graphic Designers and Illustrators a selection committee was appointed for the National Competition Programme. The committee members are Eleni Chadriotou, visual artist, Denis Constantinou, brand and motion designer, and Popi Pissouriou, graphic designer. The committee will also curate a panorama of Cypriot films.  Within the framework of the Cyprus programme, visitors will have the opportunity to experience a unique exhibition of animated posters in the streets of Salamiou, organised in collaboration with the Cyprus Association of Graphic Designers and Illustrators, with the participation of twelve graphic designers and animators, as well as an installation by Andri Andreou entitled ‘Mnithi’ and a a VR Installation by Michalis Haralambous and Marios Lizides entitled ‘Anima’, with text by Marios Psaras and VR Developing Panayiotis Kyriakou. Acclaimed Cypriot artist Pantelis Diamantides will present an audiovisual performance on the festival’s big screen. Finally, during the festival we will inaugurate the zero-zero experimental stage, with after-midnight presentations by young Cypriot musicians and visual artists. This year’s performers and artists are Ichomagnetic Thoughts, the duet of Tasos & Panayiotis, Giorgos Y. Tsangaris and Nikolas Karatzas. And finally, we will experience two very special events by two acclaimed Cypriots from the field of creative writing: ‘Walking/Writing Salamiou’, an immersive, site-specific writing workshop through the streets of Salamiou, under the guidance of Nicoletta Demetriou, founder and director of Topos Retreat, and The Writing Room, and ‘Story typer’ Yiorgos Papakonstantinou who will be writing stories on typewriter inspired by conversations by members of the public.  Panorama of student films Another first this year is the screening of a panorama of school student films, created in the workshops for students and teachers led by the festival team in more than 50 secondary education schools all over Cyprus since 2017.

Ιnternational jury and guests  The Grand Prix Dimitris Eipides for Narrative, the Grand Prix Dimitris Eipides for Non-Narrative and the First Prize in the National Competition, will be decided by our international jury. Jury members for 2023 edition are Varya Yakovleva filmmaker and Illustrator (Russia), Andreas Hykade filmmaker (Germany), and Constantinos Kyprianou, creative director of AfroBanana music festival (Cyprus). The best film in Children and Young Audience competition will be decided by the members of the young Jury of the festival.  Many distinguished international guests will honour us with their presence this year, representing festivals and institutions such as Ottawa International Animation Festival, Anima Brussels, National Film Board of Canada and Stop Trick Festival Maribor. As usual we are especially delighted to welcome some of the directors whose films are competing in the international programme.  Exhibition Our yearly exhibition by an acclaimed international artist has become a highly anticipated part of the festival. This year we will host a video and illustration exhibition by Russian artist Varia Yokavleva whose film ‘Oneluv’ won the Grand Prix at Zagreb Animafest this year.  Animation Film Camp The first of its kind in Cyprus, the Animation Film Camp is our new development scheme, with an international orientation and opportunities for connecting young artists and students with international centres and festivals. It is a collaboration between Animafest Cyprus and World Festival of First Animations PRIMANIMA in Budapest.  For this year’s inaugural film camp, ten artists, five from Cyprus and five from Hungary, chosen via open call, will participate in two four-day Animation Film Camps: the first one will take place in Salamiou in the run up to Animafest Cyprus, from the 6th to the 9th of August 2023. The second Film Camp will take place in Budaörs, near Budapest, during the 11th World Festival of First Animations PRIMANIMA in October 2023.

Music programme with 6 Cypriot bands  For our music programme this year we are thrilled to host 6 amazing concerts by Cypriot musicians: new band Buzz’ Ayaz, Evagoras Karagiorgis and his group Mirothkies tou Yiasemiou, Michalis Kouloumis and his band, the six-person a-capella group Kalesma, and music bands NAZ and Spherical Cows.  The full schedule will be announced soon on the Animafest Cyprus website and our social media. The festival is supported by the Deputy Ministry of Culture.  The official selection of films can be found here: www.animafest.com.cy