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The Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) is regarded as the biggest and one of the most important festivals for animated film worldwide. From April 23 to April 28, 2013 around 1,000 of the best animated films worldwide, will be shown in Stuttgart representing the whole spectrum of the genre. In addition to the competitions with the newest films from all over the world, the Festival also has an Extensive selection of supporting programme which offers exciting highlights such as the school and Studio presentations, showcases of the works of animation artists like Atsushi Wada and Jakob Schuhand workshops presented by top-class professionals. With its enthusiastic audience, unique locations and numerous national and international guests, the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film is now a fixture in the animation film scene and an outstanding cultural event in Germany.

You will find more information on the festival and the programme at www.itfs.de. Diverse competition programmes The nine competition programmes are endowed with prize money of more than 65,000 Euros in total. More than 2,000 films have been submitted. Pre-selection juries have selcted the best animated films for the competitions. The International Competition will be showing the diversity of animated film including the Oscar-nominated short film “Head over Heels” by Timothy Reckardt and productions from all over the world, for example from Germany, France, Malawi, Australia, China, Japan, Canada, Latvia, and many more. The Stuttgart region is well-represented by two productions from the Film Academy Baden- Wuerttemberg – “Kellerkind” and “Oh Sheep!”. The competition Cartoons for Teens will show films specially targeted for youth.

The Animated Com Award focuses on the areas of advertising, spatial communication and technology. It further includes the special award Mercedes-Benz Classic: Silver Arrows. The Animated Fashion Award, which has been initiated in co-operation with the fashion and lifestyle company Breuninger, addressed to young and inspired talents from the creative and extremely innovative fields of fashion design and animated film. The children’s festival Tricks for Kids presents the best and most recent films and series for children and families. Filmmakers will be present to talk about their films and give the children an insight into their professional secrets. Furthermore, numerous workshops offer the opportunity to be creative. Several jubilees As a matter of course, further aspects of the programmes have to be part of the 20th edition of the ITFS. Twenty important pioneers of the ITFS will give a personal retrospective by presenting twenty films of previous festivals which they have selected on their own. The Mainzelmännchen, Germany’s most popular cartoon characters are celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2013. Guess where their official and exclusive birthday gala will be given? Of course at the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film.

The renaissance of stop-motion films Stop-motion animated films are more up to date than ever before as it is shown by this year’s Oscar nominations “Frankenweenie” and “ParaNorman”, “Head over Heels” and “Fresh Guacamole”. These films and many others will be introduced at the ITFS 2013 by Ron Diamond, member of the Academy Award. Moreover, the festival will show a special programme of “Shaun the Sheep” by Aardman Animation (also known for “Wallace and Gromit”) and WDR, which has developed into a classic bynow. Barry Purves, one of the most prominent authorities of puppet animation, will curate a special programme on the art of stop motion film. Animation worldwide The ITFS will depict the worldwide developments in animated film with several programmes. Anand Gurnani will curate two programmes for the host country India: a programme with short films and a programme with series and commercials. This will also include an introduction of the production company Reliance Entertainment that took over the animation company Digital Domain last year (responsible for the most successful film of the world “Avatar”) – an aspect that is equally addressed to economy, culture and globalization. The programme Animated Africa will be presented by the director of the Zimbabwe Festival of African Inspired Animation in Harare. Another topic will be the Arabic world of animated film. This programme includes a co-production panel for new projects, which will be implemented in cooperation with the Robert Bosch Stiftung. For all fans of the most prominent American family The Simpsons, the ITFS will show the Oscar-nominated short film “Maggie Simpson –

The Longest Daycare”, whose director David Silverman is expected to come. In Persona In the In Persona series, internationally renowned and artistically outstanding animation filmmakers from all over the world provide a personal insight into their work and working methods. Those participating amongst others are the British animator Barry Purves, the most famous filmmaker for animated films of the GDR, Sieglinde Hamacher and Jakob Schuh, the producer of the Gruffalo, graduate of the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg and founder of the animation company Studio Soi in Ludwigsburg, which was already awarded several times. The Festival for professionals Numerous events such as the German Animated Screenplay Award or the Animated Com Award make the ITFS an important meeting place for the industry. Animation studios such as Caligari Film (Munich) with its 3D family film “Knight Rusty” and Studio100/M.AR.K.13 (Stuttgart) with their project “Maya the Bee” as well as the American studios Laika (“ParaNorman”) and Pixar (“Toy Story”, “Merida”) have announced their coming.

This year at the ITFS, representatives from selected national and international film and art schools will again be presenting their institutions and outstanding works of their students. The Baden-Wuerttemberg creators of animated film, the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg, the Stuttgart Media University and the Offenburg University of Applied Science are certainly going to participate in the festival. Simultaneously with the festival in this year the FMX – Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Transmedia (April 23 to 26) will take place again. The Animation Production Day (APD) taking place on April 25 and 26 of April will deal with financing concepts of animated films and series.