The Hiroshima International Animation Festival, held biennially in the namesake Japanese city, is to have an intensive focus on Estonian animation this year.
The festival was inspired by the city’s tragic history. Hiroshima was the first city targeted by a nuclear weapon near the end of World War II and the city suffered immensely. To inspire thoughts of unity through the arts and aspire for peace, the international film festival was founded in Hiroshima in 1985. The event is now considered one of the most respected animated festivals in the world, along with the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, the Ottawa International Animation Festival and the Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films.
To coincide with Estonia’s centennial celebrations this year, the 2018 Hiroshima festival has an intensive focus on Estonian animation from its pioneering days to the present. The festival’s organisers claim that such a huge focus on Estonian animated works will be the first time ever in the world.
Altogether 34 Estonian animation programmes will be presented and over 300 films screened. Retrospectives by such legendary Estonian animators as Priit Pärn, Rein Raamat, Riho Unt, Avo Paistik, Elbert Tuganov, among others, will be presented in Hiroshima. Pärn is also a member of the festival’s international jury this year.
The Hiroshima festival will take place from 23-27 August.
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Cover: A still from Priit and Olga Pärn’s animation, “Life without Gabriella Ferri” (2008). Video: “Tyll the Giant” (directed by Rein Raamat in 1980), about the Estonian mythical god, Suur Tõll, will be screened also at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival.
