Meet the Festivals: LINOLEUM
Linoleum Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival, based in Kyiv, begins at the end of September. This Ukrainian animation festival – now in its 13th edition – will help you shake off the melancholy of the fading summer in no time, offering around 250 short films divided into 23 blocks.
The festival will take place from 29 September and run until 4 October. The overarching theme of the festival is Blind Spot, which the organisers explain in both physiological and metaphorical terms. From a physiological perspective, it refers to a point on the retina that lacks photoreceptors, meaning that the part of the image disappears from our field of vision. Metaphorically, it is a space in which we are unable to perceive our prejudices, doubts and distorted perceptions of reality. Through this theme, LINOLEUM aims to draw attention to the increasing difficulty in distinguishing between truth and manipulation, and to the weakening of critical thinking in society.
The festival also invited curators from three countries – Chi-Sui Wang from Taiwan, Fanny Leiva Torres from Chile and Joni Männistö from Finland – to put together a film programme exploring the theme of blind spots through the lens of their respective identities, cultures and social changes in their countries. The festival’s visual concept, which highlights the ways in which we view the world, politics and art nowadays was created by the Ukrainian artist and animator Stas Santimov.
LINOLEUM, which is also a BAFTA-qualifying festival, will feature several competitive and non-competitive categories. The competitive categories are the International Competition, the Ukrainian Competition and Commissioned Films. The non-competitive categories include Experimental Animation and Video Art, Animation made for and by children and teenagers, and Ladies First (for female directors).
The International Competition will feature 32 films from 15 countries and will be divided into four sections named after songs by the band Tears for Fears. Make sure to see sections such as Worn-out Places, Worn-out Faces, Memories Fade, Sowing the Seeds of Love and Belief Is Our Relief.
The winner of the International Competition will be chosen by Arthur Venayre, a French producer and founder of Loqidor Productions, who has also worked as a production manager on an animated series produced by Netflix; Polish animation filmmaker and visual artist Pola Lotta Włodarczyk; and Swiss illustrator and animation film director Samel Patthey.
The winner of the Ukrainian Competition will be selected by Alexandra Hroncová, a Czech film distribution manager and festival strategist; Nadja Andrasev, a Hungarian animation filmmaker and production manager; and Vitalii Nebelskyi, a Ukrainian co-founder and creative director of the and action creative agency.
The best film from the Commissioned Film Competition will be chosen by Belgian film director and 3D artist Simon Breeveld, French illustrator and animation director Lucie Grannec, and finally Ukrainian director and representative of the new wave of Ukrainian music video filmmakers, Illia Dutsyk.
This year, the Experimental Animation and Video Art category will focus on work with textiles, photo collages on clay, VHS horror parodies and more. It will feature film programmes such as Contra Spem Spiro, which offers a comic perspective that eases the anxiety brought on by nuclear war, economic changes and an AI apocalypse. The category will also feature Felix Culpa, a film programme focused on the path to the greater good, which can only be achieved through shock, frustration, and the process of trauma.
You can look forward to a varied selection of workshops, lectures and special screenings. Among other things, the festival will feature a session entitled A Crawlspace of Perseverance: Exploring Ukrainian Animation, focusing on the first English-language book dedicated to the history of Ukrainian animation. You shouldn’t miss the LINOLEUM Festival, as it has long supported and celebrated the creativity of film animators and media artists in Ukraine and beyond.
Discover more about Linoleum.
Linoleum is partner of Animation HUB and as such is supported by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grant from International Visegrad Fund.
