Seoul Int'l Animation Festival growing in renown

Cartoons are generally thought to be exclusively children's entertainment.

Once people grow up they seem to forget how much time they used to spend watching their favorite animations on television.

But for adults who want to go back to their childhood and for children who want to enjoy a variety of cartoons they can go to the 12th Seoul International Animation Festival (SICAF) in May, the biggest annual event of its kind in Asia.

Bringing together fans of animation films and an exhibition of cartoon work, the festival, which is to be held from May 21 to 25, will feature 137 animations from 30 countries, the most in the history of the annual event.

The organizing committee said a total of 1,307 movies from 63 countries competed for the final entry list, demonstrating a growing interest in the festival.

The number of applicants from Europe and Asia has particularly shot up, and South American countries including Argentina, Brazil as well as Southeast Asian countries like Thailand and Malaysia also submitted works.

With this growing interest, the organizers say that the scale of SICAF is now on a par with other international animation events in Europe and Japan.

In other words, that means animation lovers will be able to enjoy high-quality full-length features and shorts from around the world this year.

During the festival, visitors can watch a variety of films that will be screened at Lotte Cinema near Konkuk University.

The finalists this year include award-winning animations such as "The Peace Sister" from Britain, "Ark" from Poland and Canada's "Madam Tutli-Putli".

Also in the full-length feature category, there are excellent European films from Spain, Russia and France that will offer a rare opportunity for local viewers to take a look at the trends there.

In particular, short films from Hungary's Studio Beastarts have received rave reviews from judges due to their simple graphic design with witty story lines.

This year, the festival is also holding a digital cartoon competition section, which is designed to boost the standing of the SICAF.

The organizing committees are now evaluating works submitted in the categories of Web-cartoon, Web-comics and digital illustration.

Those awarded will form part of the exhibitions to be held during the five-day festival.

On the sidelines of the festival, conventions and seminars will be held at the Seoul Trade Exhibition & Convention. A trade fair -- SICAF Promotion Plan (SPP) — is also planned there.

SICAF, launched in 1995, has received formal recognition as an animation event from the Association International Du Film d'Animation in 2005.

For further information, call (02) 3455-8407 or visit Open the link.

By Han Aran
Korea.net Staff Writer