GREECE ANIMATED DURING CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

The first “victims” of COVID-19 in Greece were the festivals scheduled to take place in March, such as the 15th Athens Animfest, the oldest international animation festival in Greece, and the 22nd Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which included an international tribute to animated documentaries. The first was postponed until further notice, the latter held its Market initiatives online (Thessaloniki Pitching Forum, Docs in Progress, digitized library in collaboration with Cinando). The festival continued breaking ground by inviting 8 Greek and 14 award-winning foreign directors to create short films inspired by the book Species of Spaces by George Perec and the days of the quarantine. The shorts were uploaded on the festival’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLyV-YuEjU8&feature=emb_title

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAEfh3U7EZg

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival managed to transform in a short period of time its physical version into a fully digital one and went online during 19 to 28 of May 2020 becoming internationally the 1st film festival that made this transformation possible.

The Hellenic Film Academy IRIS Awards winners’ announcement ceremony, which was to be held at the STEGI Onassis Cultural Centre in April, had to be postponed. An online announcement took place instead with the promise of an appropriate festive event when the conditions allow for it. This year’s nominations for the Best Animation Short Film, were Heatwave by Fokion Xenos, The White Wings by Penelope Bekiari & Vivi Markatos and Violent Equation by Antonis Doussias. The IRIS 2020 Award for the best animated short went to Heatwave by Fokion Xenos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6vwYyqJVqM

Τhe Hellenic Animation Association ASIFA Hellas elections of the 15-member General Assembly, the Board of Directors and the President was scheduled to take place without physical presence of the voters in 17th of May with the help of online voting technology. During quarantine, ASIFA Hellas encouraged people through its social media to use their free time to watch Greek animation films that are available for free on the Greekanimation.com web portal and to read the bilingual (Greek-English) book 70 Years of Greek Animation (ASIFA Hellas-Greekanimation.com, 2016). From its social media, ASIFA Hellas provided information on initiatives by the Greek government and the Ministry of Culture that include horizontal support measures of all sectors affected by the spread of coronavirus, companies and professionals engaging in the production and distribution of movies, videos and TV shows/programs. The Ministry of Culture has announced, among other things, special invitations: a) for the development and subsidy of Digital Culture activities with the dual aim of stimulating the market and creating an immediately available digital cultural product; b) for the development of short films and the production of documentaries in collaboration with the Greek Film Center in terms of managing the available resources from the Ministry of Culture; c) for supporting the work of animation and gaming creators to be promoted in international markets. The Greek Ministry of Culture initiative supporting financially animated short films that are at least 5 minutes long is the first of its kind. A three-member committee will evaluate the submissions and the first 25 of them will be financed with 10.000 to 20.000 euros each.

ASIFA Hellas was working online for the fourth consecutive national mission participating in the 60th Annecy International Animation Film Festival MIFA with a booth. This mission was once again powered by EKOME (National Center for Audiovisual Media and Communication) which also uses all the available technological tools and ensures the smooth operation of the 40% Cash Rebate program from July on to support audiovisual producers so that the day after the COVID-19 pandemic “Studio Greece can be ready for action!”. The Annecy 2020 edition had to be cancelled giving all visitors, creators, and professionals a new rendezvous in June 2021. Fortunately, this decision was overturned in favor of holding the Annecy 2020 festival online starting from 15th to 30th of June.

As part of the campaign #StayHome #MenoumeSpiti, one of the world’s 20 most important animation festivals, Animasyros International Animation Festival, shared on its FB page and its website some of the best films ever screened on Syros island during its 13 years of existence. All films are available online for free. On the context of #StayHome campaign Animasyros also produced an animated spot created by Konstantinos P. Kakarountas (DaHouse productions):

https://www.facebook.com/15933022132/videos/269914850672687/

TAF Thessaloniki Animation Festival and Chaniartoon International Comic & Animation Festival announced that their Call for Film Submissions is open. TAF made the following announcement: “We hope you’re all safe & sound and more importantly chilling home. Since you’re indoors anyway, why not work on that animated film you’ve always wanted? Well… go do that!“ An optimistic perspective during quarantine and beyond.

One of the first measures taken in Greece to manage the health crisis caused by COVID-19 was the nationwide closure of schools and universities. For the best possible collaboration between teachers and students during quarantine, the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs has activated digital tools that allow distance learning. To this end, it has secured, in cooperation with the Greek Ministry of Digital Governance and the country’s mobile phone providers Cosmote, Vodafone, Wind, free access to data (zero-rating) from mobile networks on ministry’s distance learning digital platforms.

The award-winning TV series A Letter – A Story (Ena Gramma Mia Istoria) created by the distinguished author-educational technologist Sophia Madouvalou (concept-screenplay-educational supervision) and cartoon creator Aristarchos Papadaniel (direction-character design-animation) is the first Greek educational animated TV series (executive production: Syllipsis Ltd.) produced by the Educational Radiotelevision of the Greek Ministry of Education. Through this series pre-school and primary school children are effectively taught the strongest feature of our culture and identity: the Greek alphabet and language. The series was screened on TV by ERT and ERT World with English subtitles (translated by Pierra Fotiadou | Cosmos Translations) for foreigners and expatriates and has been used online for years with great success (millions of views on YouTube) in schools via computers and interactive smartboards. The animated TV series A Letter – A Story is a valuable edutainment tool for the modern teacher used via PC, tablet and mobile phones and combined with the award-winning (Medea Awards, highly commended) pilot of interactive games for the letter A based on the TV series, an innovative multimedia learning environment for children’s digital literacy, which proves in practice that cartoons -even under these special circumstances- have a great way to educate and animate!  #Greeceanimated


A LETTER – A STORY | The Teary-eyed Dragon (Letter Delta)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ-Ebg-8d6I&t=2s

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A LETTER – A STORY | Three Skinny Candies (Letter Kappa) English subtitles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GHXl5tdCqw

 

by ARISTARCHOS PAPADANIEL  SYLLIPSIS Ltd. Director-Producer, ASIFA HELLAS Founding member

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