Celebrating 75 years and a new era in Greek animation

2020 was a milestone year for Greek animation. In September 2020 on Syros island #Animasyros13live: The Phygital Edition and its Agora made history by launching Animasyros‘ collaboration with the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and its Market MIFA (Animation du Monde), which is the major international event in the field of professional animation. As part of this collaboration, the Pitching Forum was held –a 4-day coaching workshop for six very interesting projects, led by Géraldine Baché (Head of Projects, MIFA) and Antoine Liétout (Producer, Laïdak Films). At the same time, presentations were made by professionals, organizations and institutions representatives on contemporary issues in the field of animation. The two Pitching Forum Agora winning projects, Mesut by Michalis Kalopaidis & Alexia Roider (Zedem Media, Cyprus) and Oscar by Polyxeni Katsari & Matina Fykari (Greece), are included and presented at this year’s Animation du Monde MIFA Pitches.

The Greek presence at Annecy is powered by the National Centre of Audiovisual Media and Communication (EKOME), in which Greece participates for the 5^th consecutive year -online due to public health measures- with a digital pavilion in MIFA and 17 animation projects, including the ASIFA Hellas Stratos Stasinos 2020 Award-winning films Sevarambes by George Kontos/Marni Films (Best Professional) and All You Can Eat by Dimitris Armenakis/Royal College of Art (Best Student). In July 2020, EKOME raised the Greek cash rebate that covers part of the eligible costs for national and international audiovisual productions in Greece, up to 40%. For more info about the 40% Cash Rebate program contact ASIFA Hellas #Greeceanimated pavilion and cashrebate@ekome.media .

In 2020, ASIFA Hellas – Hellenic Animation Association celebrated the 75^th Anniversary of Greek Animation (1945-2020) with various actions, such as webinars, round tables, the Microwaves television tribute on the Greek Parliament Vouli TV and more. A special part of the celebration was the production of the 4-episode mini-series Digital Portraits and the 4 anthologies (Best of Decade, Women in Animation, Social Issues, Commissioned Films), which the organizers of international animation festivals worldwide can include in their program by contacting asifagreece@gmail.com .

The celebration’s highlight is the anniversary edition Creative Action and Production in Animation (ASIFA Hellas, 2021), which comes to complement the publishing activity of the Association, which began with the bilingual (Greek-English) book 70 Years of Greek Animation (ASIFA Hellas-Greekanimation.com, 2016). Both this year’s publication, and all previous anniversary celebrations have been funded by the Greek Ministry of Culture.

In 2020, the Greek Ministry of Culture, announced a Special Program to be implemented by the Greek Film Centre for the support of Greek short films and –for the first time– animation. The initiative of the Greek Ministry of Culture was an urgent and special action to support of the Greek cinema community due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From the submitted proposals for animated short films, 25 were selected, which received funds between €10,000 and €20,000 euros, depending on their technique and duration. The selected directors (in the officially announced order) Aristarchos Papadaniel, Antonis Ntoussias, Effie Pappa, Charalambos Margaritis, Marios Ioannidis, Dimitris Patrikios, Panagiotis Rappas, Chryssoula Korovessi & Marios Gampierakis, Spyros Siakas, Angelos Spartalis, Aikaterini Papageorgiou & Christos Livaditis, Giorgos Nikoloulias, Sergio Kotsovoulos, Alexandra Tagali, Giorgos Farazis, Aristotelis Maragkos, Jordan Ananiadis, Thomas Künstler, Konstantinos Economou, Kostas Katrakis, Fokion Xenos, Eleni Xoupa, Konstantina-Daphne Xourafi, Zacharias Mavroeidis, Vivi Markatos, are creators from different generations, whose films have been distinguished in Greece and abroad.

In the future, ASIFA Hellas aims to establish a regular funding scheme for animation projects implemented by the Greek Film Centre. The scheme will take into account, the peculiarities of our industry and the dynamics that it has developed in Greece and abroad –especially in the last four decades– through a course of 75 years. The catalytic role of the 25 films that will be produced by the Special Program in 2021 will pave the way forward. During the year that the Greek community celebrates its own 75 years of history, something new is born in the Greek animation as well! Stay tuned! #Greeceanimated

By ARISTARCHOS PAPADANIEL

Syllipsis Ltd. Director-Producer, ASIFA Hellas Founding member