FREDRIKSTAD ANIMATION FESTIVAL 2018

Fredrikstad Animation Festival is the Nordic region’s largest animated film festival and an important industry venue for the Norwegian film industry. The festival will take place from the 25th to the 28^th of October, with an extensive film and seminar program. In addition to over 130 films being screened, highlights also include the industry’s seminars with top international names, including character designer Carter Goodrich and Creative Director of Facebook Social VR Goro Fujita, one of the world’s leading experts in creating creative content for Virtual Reality. Also more filmmakers and producers from the Nordic animation scene will be presented during the festival.

Our latest guest confirmation is Eric Daniels, the technical wizard of Disney, whom enabled Disney to fuse its traditional drawing with the emerging computer technology of the late 90’ies and 00’ies. His creation of certain technologies makes him both a pioneer and a living legend.

HIGHLIGHTS OF FAF 2018

OFFICIAL OPENING WITH OPENING FILM: THE TOWER
Thursday 25.10 at 8:00 p.m.

The Tower – the story of eleven-year-old Wardi and her grandfather Sidi, living with her family in a four-storey high tower, one-room house stacked on top of each other, in a refugee camp in Lebanon, opens this year’s festival. State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture Frida Blomgren stands for the official opening.

NORDIC-BALTIC COMPETITION PROGRAM
Program 1: Thursday 25.10 at. 16:30 & Saturday 27.10 at 14:15
Program 2: Friday 26.10 at 16:15 & Saturday 27.10 at 10:30
Student Film Program: Thursday 25.10 at 13:30 & Saturday 27.10 14:15

Commissioned Films Program Friday 26.10 at 13:00

The festival’s main program for Nordic-Baltic animated short film. The films in the program compete for the festival’s own prize Golden Gunnar in the best film short films, best student films, best assignment films and the Grand Prix in addition to the audience prize.

INDUSTRY SEMINARS
Friday 26.10 at 10:00 – 16:00

Each year, Fredrikstad Animation Festival presents a seminar program for the Norwegian animation and film industry with top international actors in the field of animation and film production. This year’s program presents renowned actors from the American animation industry in Hollywood. The seminar program presents the following lecturers:
Goro Fujita is an artistic director of Facebook’s Oculus Story Studio and a pioneer in animation and drawing for VR. Fujita is coming to present how they develop projects within VR.
Eric Daniels is a technical director in Disney and has been behind the technical development of several of the studio’s feature films. In his presentation, he will focus on how new development of technical solutions can help the creative process of film production.
Carter Goodrich is one of the world’s best in the field of character design and has created and worked with characters from movies like Nemo, Ratatouille and Despicable Me. Goodrich will present the work he has done through his career of over 30 years as an illustrator and designer.

RETROSPECTIVE: ROZE STIEBRA
Saturday 27.10 at 16:00

Honorary guest of the year; an exceptionally creative force and an invaluable resource for the development of the animation as a medium in the Baltics. Despite the fact that she developed and worked as an artist during a period of censorship and ideological pressure, Roze Stiebra pushed the limits of her time for the development of animation in Latvia, where she is a major icon for animation production. The festival shows its own retrospective program dedicated to the films Roze directed.

INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM PROGRAMS
Best of International 1: Friday 26.10 at. 18:00 & Sunday 27.10. at 15:00
Best of International 2: Saturday 27.10 at. 10:00 & Sunday 27.10 at 11:00
Animated Night: Friday 26.10 at 23:00

Programs with the best movies from the international animation scene these days. Compiled by the festival management with the best films from other international animation festivals in Europe. This year’s night program at the Literature House is dedicated to sex and eroticism.

EDUCATIONAL: GHOST & TWINTRASH
Thursday 25.10 at 11:30

In collaboration with Viken Filmsenter AS, a seminar is presented to pupils and students in art and media. Two lectures will provide insight into areas of animation, visual effects, design and film production. The seminar is also open to other interested parties. From Denmark comes Ivan Kondrup Jensen from Ghost VFX, where he works as a VFX supervisor. He will present the work the studio has done for famous productions like Rouge One, Black Panther and smaller Nordic productions. In 2016, the twins Tommy and Markus Vad Flaaten stood out with the film BlueBarry in the student program during the festival. Today they are directing their own animated TV series for Disney. Twintrash, as the boys call themselves, are coming to Fredrikstad to tell us the story about the two youngsters with a love for drawing, in Tønsberg, Norway, that went on to directing a global television production.

MEET THE FILM MAKERS
Student filmmakers: Thursday 25.10 at 3:15 p.m.
Short film creators: Friday 26.10 at. 9:30 p.m.

Meet the filmmakers from the short-term competition programs. In a Q&A, those who compete for Golden Gunnar for best short films and student films will talk about the films they have made, why and how it happened.

NEW NORDIC ANIMATION
Saturday 27.10 at 18:00
In the Nordic forum, directors, producers and studios will present what they have done and what they are currently working on. The forum acts as a gathering arena for the Nordic animation industry and filmmakers get a platform to show what they are currently doing. Confirmed speakers are
Frank Mosvold is Norway’s representative in the forum and will showcase the work in the process of a feature film about Ella Bella Bingo.
Lana Tankosa Nikolic is a producer in the newly started Danish production company Late Love Production. Nikolic will showcase the projects they have just launched and what they are doing.
Christian Rytelnius – director from the Swedish Studio Sl, ugger Films will present his newest feature film project
The finnish studio MRP Matila Röhr Productions will present their lates projects.

SELECTED FEATURE FILM SCREENING

The Breadwinner
Saturday 27.10 12:00
Fredrikstad Kino

Oscar nominated feature from the Irish studio Cartoon Saloon. After the screening there will be an Q&A with Art director Ciaran Duffy.

This Magnificent Cake! 
Thursday 25.10 23:00
Litteraturhuset

An anthology film, set in colonial Africa in the late 19th century, telling the stories of 5 different characters: a troubled king, a middle-aged Pygmy working in a luxury hotel, a failed businessman on an expedition, a lost porter and a young army deserter.

Seder-Masochism 
Sunday 28.10 13:15
Fredrikstad Kino

Loosely following a traditional Passover Seder, events from the Book of Exodus are retold by Moses, Aharon, the Angel of Death, Jesus, and the director’s own father.

Teheran Taboo
Sunday 28.10 17:00
Fredrikstad Kino

The lives of three strong-willed women and a young musician cross paths in Tehran’s schizophrenic society where sex, adultery, corruption, prostitution and drugs coexist with strict religious laws.