From November 25th through December 12, the City of Pozuelo de Alarcón and the Council of Culture and Sport of the Community of Madrid will organize the 4th International Festival of the Animated Image of Pozuelo de Alarcón – Community of Madrid.

As it does every year, the festival will feature an Official Section of high quality short films, full-length films, TV series, and short shorts as well as an Informative Section with retrospectives and film series aimed at bringing animated film closer to audiences of all tastes and age groups. ANIMADRID will round things off with an offering of Parallel Activities made up of round tables, workshops, presentations, etc.

Animadrid jury of professionals from the world of animation:
The International Competitive Section of Short Films and Short Shorts will have as its Jury members María Trénor, the Valencian animator and the first prize winner at last year’s Animadrid for the short film ¿Con qué la lavaré?, Jerzy Moszkowicz, the director of the children’s film festival Ale Kino! in Poznan (Poland); and Jimi Murakami, Irish filmmaker of Japanese origin whose work has been recognized with the Grand Prize of Annecy on two occasions, one of which for the full-length film When the Wind Blows, as well as BAFTA awards and Oscar nominations.

In addition, the Jury for the International Full-length Film Competition will be made up of Antonio Zurera, the director of the festival Animacor and an animation producer who won the 2003 Goya for Best Animated Film for Dragon Hill; Ilan Nguyen, a French critic and translator with expertise in animated film and Japanese comics who has programmed many festivals including the Festival of Zagreb and the Festival of Annecy; and Juanba Berasategi, a Basque director and producer who has made full-length films such as Kalabaza Tripontzia (The Magic Pumpkin – 1985) and El embrujo del sur (The Magic of the South – 2002).

As far as the Jury for the International Competitive Section of TV Series, this year will feature Jean-Jacques Prunes, the French filmmaker and winner of last year’s Animadrid award for best TV program for his Cheval-Soleil; Sonia Llera, a Mexican producer of short films and TV series such as Cutlas Microfilmes, and Ana González, a programmer for the channels Cartoon Network and Boomerang.

A tribute to a master of animation: Guido Manuli

The festival renders tribute this year to one of the most important and influential animators currently working on the international scene. This time it is GUIDO MANULI, whose vision of Don Quixote is embodied on the magnificent poster made for the 4th edition of ANIMADRID.

Born in 1939, Manuli is one of the most influential artists from Bruno Bozzeto’s team and stood out early on for his talents as a screenwriter, gag writer, and animation director. In the decade of the seventies, he began his independent career making a series of original works that earned him recognition from specialists from all over the world.

Films such as Fantabiblical (1977), SOS (1979), Erezione (a ciascuno la sua) (1981), Solo un bacio (1981), Incubus (1985), Istruzione per l’uso (1989) and Trailer (1993), in the realm of short filmmaking (since he also made several full-length films, such as the splendid Volere Volare – I Want to Fly)

Jan Baca and Toni Garriga, the happy couple

ANIMADRID would also like to demand a reappraisal of key figures in Spanish animated film, so this year we are devoting a retrospective to the duo made up by the Catalonian directors JAN BACA and TONI GARRIGA, two of the most prestigious and award winning filmmakers in the field of animation, and unfortunately largely unknown.

Since their first animated film, Aixo meu, aixo teu (This One Mine, This One Yours), made in 1965, Baca and Garriga have been responsible for an interesting body of work, one full of intelligent humor and one that has alternated between animation techniques and styles: cut-outs, cartoons, painting on film, pixilation, collage, etc., with film titles such as Matermasis (1968), Sex (1970), Habitat (1971), L’home de la poma (The Apple Man, 1972), Blanc i negre (Black and White, 1974) and Boumm (1978), just to name some of their more well-known work in the field of animation (which they alternate with works of fiction).