ANIMACOR 2005 - Presentation

When launched, ANIMACOR´s overall project pursued the joint development of three important areas of the audiovisual sector: training, production, and promotion. The first two areas have already become a reality throughout the activities ANIMACOR has been carrying out for some time now, but the area of promotion is crucial for the consolidation of the project. There is no better event than a Festival to bring the third pillar of our project into the picture. Promotion is necessary not only in order to make the production of animation films a reality (which is already happening in Cordoba), but also to give it continuity, so it is not a temporary situation created as a result of the work and enthusiasm of individuals and institutions.

An animation festival represents an ideal setting to showcase, to Spain and the rest of the world, the enormous talent and energy demonstrated by many of the students who have taken the animation techniques courses in Cordoba over the last 2 years. It is a window of opportunity toward their professional future and a meeting point for professionals from other countries. It also provides a chance to recognize that a project of this sort, considered utopian by many, even myself, may see the light thanks to the right training, enthusiasm, work and sacrifice of everyone involved.

Therefore, I would like to invite all the people from Cordoba to join me in showing their enthusiastic support to Animacor 2005, which we hope to turn into one of the best animation festivals in Europe.

Antonio Zurera Aragón
Festival´s Director

Welcome to the 1^st Internacional Animation Festival, Animacor 2005, which launches its competitive nature and places Cordoba on one of the most important circuits of animation festivals. From the 25^th to the 30^th October, the Filmoteca de Andalucía and the Diputación of Córdoba will host an exhibition open to the public at large and to this emerging competition of feature-lengths, series and shorts films made by professionals and producers from European countries amongst them Germany, France, Portugal, United Kingdom, Poland and, of course, Spain, as well as Canada, Russia and Argentina. We welcome you to this ancient province of Al-Andalus and its capital, which is candidate for the European City of Culture in 2016. ANIMACOR 2005 opens for everyone as a festival including activities and parallel expositions, and a special tribute to El Quijote on the occasion of the 4^th Centennial of its publication. On the behalf of the Cordoba's County Council I invite you to share the festival which seals our bet on animation, an industry based on fantasy, which not only represent development, economic activity and qualified employement for the youth, but also a channel to pass on and to share values of peace, co-existence and human solidarity in the 21^st Century.

What is certain is that, thanks to Animacor 2005, and encouraged by the success of last year's Internacional Exhibition, we continue to make a dream come true, forged from hard worked and deep-rooted shared determination: to establish the territory of Córdoba as a standard for the three pillars of animatiion cinema: production, training and promotion. And so, we must celebrate the fact that the Association for the Development for the Animation Industry (ANIMACOR) has founded a festival that will attract internacional recognition of this future project, not only for the province of Córdoba and its social progress; further yet it will excel in its endeavours as its main field of expertise lies in networking and European alliances, but also for the globalisation scene. In fact, it is in this way that we will proceed with our strategic push into the animation sector of Andalucia, Spain and Europe.

That is why Animacor 2005 promotes the Hispano-Germany Co-Production Animation Meeting (at the previous event Portugal was the country invited), welcomes the 4^th Meeting of Producers and Distributors in the Animation Industry of Andalucis and pays tribute to the Spanish animator Cruz Delgado, creator of the series on the adventures of Don Quijote de la Mancha which was broadcast by RTVE in the 80's. Furthermore, for this same reason, the official tribute section focuses on the CARTOON association, has ties with the MEDIA Programme and is an efficient promoter of the european animation sector. We have, therefore, this fortunate opportunity to hail the achievements of its directors Mark Vanderweyer and Corinne Jenart, whose profiles and whose formidable work have always been present in the Diputación of Córdoba because the ANIMACOR project began to manifiest itself during the CARTOON FORUM celebrated in Córdoba in 1999.

Nevertheless, and despite the great importance diven to its professional dimension and to its project production, ANIMACOR 2005 has, in the way of authentic protagonists, the animation cinema and, more importantly, the public, childhood and citizenship. It is for this reason we must place emphasis on the quality of the competing titles, the high participation achieved for a festival making its debut, as well as the prestige of the jury, where we can count on professionals such as Piero Fortini, José María Albendí and Jesús Hernández, and with a children's section where boys and girls will exhibit their strict and wise judgement. Furthermore, a range of activities as well as a volunteer programme allowing citizens to contribute and to get involved in the Festival, I am certain, spread the social life in Córdoba with the art, the technique and the magic of cartoons.

This setting will be the scenario for the "Animated Sessions", an avant-garde exhibition, which was made possible thanks to the invaluable assistance of the "Reina Sofia" National Museum and Art Center (MNCARS) and the Atlantic Center of Modern Art of Gran Canaria (CAAM); a drawing contest has been called, on the theme Don Quixote, aimed at schoolchildren; in addition, animation workshops will be organizated to reveal not only how the animated characters come to life, but also to highlight the fact that each workshop dozens of young people who received training and have started to work after completing courses at ANIMACOR and participating in the production initiatives of M5 Audiovisual. Many of them have acquired a high degree of specialization in the use of new technologies, an example of which is the participation of some of the students in the short film "Zachary the Zombie", the series RH+ and The Magic Cube, the sequel to La Colina del Dragón/Dragon Hill, which received the "Goya" award from the Spanish Film Industry Academy.

Hence, one of the fundamental driving forces of ANIMACOR is the creation of the European Center for the Development of the Animation Industry in the Mediterranean Region, together with our clear, ongoing and firm support of production and promotion, and our goal to consolidate the Internacional Animation Festival of Córdoba, based on an earned reputation and the loyalty of its audience. Our objective is to move forward in the right direction: garnering the widest collaboration from public institutions, including the ministries of Culture, Foreing Affairs and the Cervantes Institute, with the invaluable support from AEPA and the animation industry, thanks to the experience and entrepreneurial courage of professionals and leaders such as Antonio Zurera, Ángel Izquierdo, Raúl García or Matías Marcos, and opening up to new opportunities in the European and worldwide market.

For all the above, I would like to emphasize our gratitude and to congratulate all the people, institutions, public government bodies, such as the Institute of Science and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), Extenda-Regional Tourism, Trade and Sports Council, the Council for Culture of the Junta de Andalucía, the Andalusian Audiovisual Foundation, and the Andalusian Public TV (RTVA), the sponsors and all the associations from the animation industry that put their trust, their effort and resources in promoting ANIMACOR.

Thus, this 1^st Internacional Animation Festival opens with excellent prospects and great expectations. The people of Cordoba have very high hopes and have given their thumbs-up to this event, which can become a solid asset in obtaining the nomination for "European Cultural Capital" in 2016, and in contributing to social progress, a greater degree of freedom and equality, creativity and happiness for the people of Cordoba throughout this new century, thanks to the assets, the rights and the industry that culture encompasses and provides.

Francisco Pulido Muñoz
President of the Diputación of Córdoba and of the Association for the
Development of Animation Industry (ANIMACOR)