From Ancient Greece to the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America and with Greek anime at the center, Animasyros 2023 returns with international collaborations, new techniques and an emphasis on female creativity.

The largest International Animation Festival in Greece and one of the largest in Europe invites creators from all over the world to submit their films until June 30, 2023. Animasyros 2023 will take place from September 26 to October 1, 2023 in the capital of Cyclades.

The festival program includes 7 competitive sections, special tributes, educational workshops, regional actions, new domestic and international collaborations and the Market which is now a center of reference for the industry of the sector in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The main theme of this year’s event is dedicated to “Animation and Ancient Greece”, entitled “Anima Ancients”, it runs through all the pillars of the Festival and tries to highlight the different ways in which the contemporary creators of the art of animation have talked, negotiated or inspired from this long historical period.

In addition, Animasyros 2023 recognizes the important position of the creative industry among the countries of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America and presents a broad tribute to these countries entitled “La Animacion Iberoamericana”. The tribute puts more emphasis on feature films for children and adults, while also hosting short film programs curated by partnering Festivals from Spain and Latin America.

The educational programs on the theme of “Animation and Ancient Greece” are enriched and experimented with new techniques such as sand animation and are aimed at children, young people, professionals, teenagers, the disabled and the elderly.

The Animasyros 2023 Agora continues its development path by forming international partnerships within the framework of the pitching forum, while the presentations, round tables, seminars, master classes, networking meetings organized by the Agora this year will offer the opportunity to the international audience that is professionally engaged in the art of animation, or simply loves it, to expand his network, promote his work, meet with established professionals in the field, discover the international community and get in touch with the successes of the future . Some of the themes that will be presented this year at the Agora concern female creativity in animated documentary films, masterclasses and discussions by internationally renowned Spanish producers.

Universities are not absent from the program through strategic partnerships with the University of the Aegean, the Technical University of Crete and the Cyprus University of Technology, while for the first time the Market is hosting speed dating activities, i.e. networking between creators and renowned international producers and representatives of institutional bodies of the audiovisual industry . This speed dating enables screenwriters and directors to collaborate on a project, develop a strong creative universe or pitch ideas to the biggest producers in the international industry.

Greek animation continues to have a central position in the organization and in this context special actions are organized, focusing on Greek creators that will start pre-festival as early as the summer of 2023 and will culminate in Syros.

Visual identity

The visual identity of Animasyros 2023 was designed by the award-winning animation studio Odd Bleat, founded in 2015 by Yiannis Zoumakis and Manos Geroyiannis. Odd Bleat has undertaken advertising projects for Dior, Ebay, Google, Revolut, Dow Jones and many cultural projects through the long-term collaboration with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Culture Center. Focusing mainly on the creation of advertising videos, Odd Bleat has been distinguished in competitions such as the ΕΒΒΕΜΕ, the Ermis Awards, the Muse Awards, the Vega Digital Awards.

Speaking about their inspiration, the creators, among other things, state: “We aimed to emphasize the Greekness, the summer character and the creativity of Animasyros. Two arches that refer to the typical Cycladic arches, others to the two opposite hills of Hermoupolis, function as a canvas, within which the rest of the visual elements are unfolded. We distinguish two faces in profile. The first appears to be holding a retractable camera lens, through which the second figure is projected, which looks like an ancient Greek bust of some goddess […]. With this synthesis of the two forms, we wanted to capture the director’s eye and the direction in general, as well as the projection element, thus paying homage to the protagonists of the festival who are none other than the films themselves.”

Call for entries

Applications for the competition sections of this year’s event are submitted exclusively through the page maintained by Animasyros on the Film Freeway platform: https://filmfreeway.com/AnimaSyrosInternationalAnimationFestivalAgora-949575.

The deadline for participation applications is June 30, 2023.

More information: www.animasyros.gr.