Best of Animation

A classic and a highlight of the festival is the section Best of Animation which presents the most important and interesting animated films of the past ten years.This year the programm is curated by the animation filmmaker Tsvika Oren.

"Growing in a city, my childhood dream was to be a farmer. So I left the city, studied agriculture and became a farmer. From there it was a short way to getting into animation. From growing plants to growing films. It’s fun realizing some of the similarities between the two – both require planning ahead for future results, working long hours alone, doing quite some routine work and, above all, both involve the magic of creation.

The materials of which animation magic is made of are almost unlimited. Among them are: movement, time, light, color, sound, all of the arts, observations (including social and cultural ones), memory, relations and invented realities. The latter four serve as themes for the following programs." (Tsvika Oren)

„Observations” includes humorous and tragic observations of kids’ innocence and inventiveness as well as of adults’ interests such as Paul Driessen’s playful observations of the animation medium.

The films in „Memory” can be regarded as documentaries of the un-documentable: emotions, thoughts, recollections. Each film with its different choices of visual, audio and emotional expression is mirroring a different social and cultural picture.

„Relations“ are an excellent flour to bake stories from. The films here offer a look at relations based on love, fear, play, hunger (physical, emotional), sensuality, curiosity and creativity.

„Invented Realities” presents animated worlds of poetry, social criticism and fantasy. . Three films of the project „DichtVorm” ( „PoemForm”), based on contemporary Belgian poetry, are included here. Each of the other films invites us to a different ‘reality’. Enjoy the trip.

Pity that I could not include more excellent films here. Either because they were already shown in previous ITFS-best-of-animation programs or due to technical reasons.

Many outstanding artists invest a lot of effort into creating films in order to make me happy and to supply me with wonderful stimuli. Yes, I take it personally. I’m very grateful to all of you. THANKS! (Tsvika Oren)