The Spanish animation festival Animac has selected “Female Futures” as the theme for its 2016 edition, which will take place in Lleida, Spain, next week.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, Animac will highlight female creators at a key moment in animation history when there is increased awareness of their place within the art form. “On one hand, we celebrate the extraordinary incorporation of female filmmakers, new themes and sensibilities on the independent field,” the festival stated in a press release. But, the festival’s focus “also highlights the fact that this relevance–also found in the academic field–is still far away from a correspondence in the equal participation in filmmaking, TV production, or videogames–in other words, the industry.”
For its “Female Futures” theme, Animac will present six programs of recent animation work by female filmmakers, in addition to a masterclasses by Portuguese filmmaker Regina Pessoa, and three lectures by women artists: Romanian filmmaker Anca Damian, whose feature Magic Mountain also screens in competition, Spanish stop motion costume designer Flora Cuevas (Pos Eso), and Belgian animator An Vrombraut, who created the popular TV series 64 Zoo Lane.