The Celebration of A Consistent Festival: Piccolo Festival dell'Animazione 2022 Highlights

The Celebration of A Consistent Festival: Piccolo Festival dell'Animazione 2022 Highlights

In a world full of hysteria and ignorance -both induced and voluntary -, that seems to fall apart day by day, it is good to know that consistent art can keep you sane. That is why this year the Piccolo Festival dell'Animazione is especially awaited in northern Italy. A festival like few others, with an ambitious program, curated conscientiously and meticulously, always in search of the finest animated art. PFA also offers musical events, performances, exhibitions, masterclasses, and workshops. All these activities push us to find our answers to these surreal moments, in which we are living as individuals and as part of an increasingly strange society.

From November 12th to 20th the Piccolo Festival dell'Animazione celebrates its 15th year bringing the best of international animation to northern Italian audiences. This year 82 short films from around the world will be screened in many places around the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region, such as San Vito al Tagliamento, Pordenone, Udine, Trieste, Gorizia among others.

This year the trailer and the visual identity of the festival were carried out by Lucija Mrzljak, a Croatian multi-award-winning animator and illustrator. The inspiration for this year's trailer has been taken from the fifteenth-century frescoes of San Vito's Castle. Lucija has also created the acronym for the festival that pays tribute to the ex-voto, elaborated in the book "The miracles of Val Morel" by Dino Buzzati, poet, writer, journalist, and illustrator whose 50th anniversary is celebrated this year.

To warm up the audience, the PFA prepared animation workshops for children and teenagers on November 5th and 6th in San Vito al Tagliamento. An unmissable appointment for lovers of animation, as well as for all those who seek to approach animated art. These workshops provide both theoretical and practical tools for the participants that will enrich their knowledge and understanding of art; we must remember that animation has all the arts on it. The program competition AnimaKids and AnimaYoungs will start on November 12th. The programs are overflowing with great titles for the whole family.

Before the opening ceremony, will take place the inauguration of the exhibition "Disegni Animati" with works made by a bunch of great artists and animators such as Lucija Mrzljak, Manfredo Manfredi, Francesco Tullio Altan, Alessandro Baronciani, Simone Angelini, Upata (Elisa Turrin), Virginia Mori, Sofiya Kruglikova&Mauro Carraro, Romeo Toffanetti and Massimo Giacon.

The official opening will be on November 12th with the very special Banda Rulli Frulli that will set a concert at 18:00 hrs. Just right after will be screened a special program with films by Beatrice Pucci, Roberto Paganelli, and Michele Bernardi. 

Only 82 films from the 700 received from all around the world will show Italian audiences what is going on in the international and national scene of animation. As every year the PFA will offer an intensive and invaluable cultural offer; with its five different programs: Main Competition, AnimaKids, AnimaYoung, the Green Animation section created in collaboration with Aeson and the Visual & Music, the festival will cover the main cities in FVG region, fulfilling the hungry for the animated art.

Letter to a Pig, Tal Kantor

The jury for the Main Competition is formed by the professor of History of Animation at the University of Padua, Marco Bellano, the journalist of "Il Manifesto" Irene Mossa, and the sculptor, designer, and animator, Beatrice Pucci. While for the Green Animation and Visual & Music competitions the jury members are: the comic artist Simone Angelini, the cult designer artist and illustrator Massimo Giacon, Eva Poles, ex-vocalist of the famous Italian band Prozac +, and the video artist Elisabetta Di Sopra; all of them will have the hard duty to choose the winners of the PFA 2022 edition.

Among the selected titles are some masterpieces of international animation, many of which refer to history, wars, and contemporary topics. Some examples are the last work of Tal Kantor, Letter to a Pig, winner of several prizes in the most important international festivals. The Italian film 'In as for us' by Simone Massi was presented at the Venice Biennale. 'Dell'attesa' by Adriano Vessichelli is the most successful film not screened yet in Italy.

This year's program will be able to give an overview of the different perceptions of young authors and unquestionable masters of the animation world. The short films from Estonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, and Russia, but also from Japan, China, the United States, Argentina, France, Germany, England, and Portugal ... address issues related to interpersonal relationships, they explore the relationship between humans and the environment; the environments that surround us. They do it with great reflection capacity and imagination that open new, unexpected and original gazes” - Paola Bristot, Festival director

 

The 15th edition of the PFA promises to be very special because it will hold the Lifetime Achievement Award to Francesco Tullio Altan, a very well-known artist who created Pimpa, a female puppy with red polka dots (it was later made into a series directed by Osvaldo Cavandoli). The ceremony will take place in his hometown San Vito al Tagliamento.

 

It is noteworthy the screening of Educazione Sessuale Triestina, an homage to “Comizi d'amore” the legendary documentary by Pier Paolo Pasolini. This is a project produced by the PFA and DobiaLab with the collaboration of Musiche di Sconfine.

Elisabetta Di Sopra, a multidisciplinary artist, will also present her film "Pietas", a personal interpretation of Medea. With this project, the PFA shows its will and dedication to produce cultural content that goes beyond aesthetics to carry necessary and forceful messages in these troubled times.

Another show that promises to be unforgettable is the concert of the band Rulli Frulli, a band that was born in pretty difficult circumstances just after the earthquake suffered in the Emilia Romagna region in 2012. This peculiar and brave band is composed of children and adults with a range of ages from eight to thirty years old.

The PFA will feature a concert by Nygel Panasco, a singer, songwriter, and illustrator having success at the last Comic Salon in Hamburg. Among the great artists attending the festival stands Romeo Toffanetti, a cult comic artist very celebrated in the comic world for "Nathan Never". 

 

Not to be missed are the workshops and masterclasses led by the animators and artists: Alessandra Quaroni - she collaborates with the studio that realized the tv series directed by Zero Calcare "Strappare Lungo I Bordi" - and Upata aka Elisa Turrin, an emerging talent in the region. 

The 15th edition of the Piccolo Festival of Animazione is a great opportunity to restart this emblematic festival without the restrictions from the last two years. It is remarkable the will of the PFA team and the local governments that bet on art in its different manifestations; in a coherent and constant way, the local cultural players and the PFA improve the artistic education of the northern Italian audience. It is clear that the cultural agenda that the PFA will offer, invites us to reflect and perhaps mitigate a bit the maelstrom of catastrophic events that befall us, of course without failing to stimulate our critical thinking. For this reason, let's all celebrate its 15th anniversary by attending as many events as we can.  

contributed by: Kropka

SIGN UP: Want to read more free articles like this? Sign up for Our Newsletter

Related Articles

FIND THE RIGHT FESTIVAL

Image

Zippy Frames is the premier online animation journal promoting European and Independent Animation animation since 2011

[email protected]

Zippy Frames

Quick Links