This Year’s Highlights and Top Picks

WeAnimate 2024-09-06 | wam#0047

It’s nearly time again for VAF, and this year features another incredible program of film, culture, and industry events. The few short days of the festival are packed with activities and experiences, so we are sharing our top must-see moments that you won’t want to miss at the biggest animation festival in the Nordics.

VAF 2024: Program Overview

As always, there are several simultaneous events during the week of VAF, and the program itself breaks down into four different tracks. Here’s a brief overview of how the festival is organized.

VAF Track: Kids

VAF Kids invites even the youngest audiences to explore animation, storytelling, and creativity with games, activities, and special screenings. This years highlights include:

• Creating your own biodegradable fruit and vegetable trophies with the cabin crew from ‘Det Finurlige Flyselskab’
• Illuminating Tales of the Troll Ella, where fantastic tales of the troll Ella will illuminate the Ellekonebakken

VAF Track: Culture

The VAF Culture track brings the whole city of Viborg into a celebration of culture and creativity, showcasing unique exhibitions and experiences. Highlights of this year’s festival include:

• Artistic interventions in the city, where students participate in a workshop with renowned artist Frederik Næblerød, creating works that can be experienced around the clock in various locations in Viborg
• Imagined islands, an interactive experience of large-scale, generative topographic projections inside the water tower, created by Leon Butler and Mads Vadshold, curated by the PLASTIC Collective. 

VAF Track: Industry

The industry track is a program specifically designed for animation and film professionals, as well as businesses, academics, and other people connected to the industry. This track also includes notable ancillary events, like the CAGA and CAVE conferences, which you can read more about here.  Highlights of the industry track include:

• That’s Pitching 2024, where selected filmmakers pitch concepts for short animated films aimed at an adult audience, and have the opportunity to receive DKK 25,000, sponsored by Danish Film Directors
• Animating for the Public, where guest speaker Morten Skov Hansen speaks on securing great content for a Danish audience.

ANIDOX: VR

Every year, VAF is host to the ANIDOX: VR exhibition, exploring storytelling at the frontiers of VR and emerging media formats.

VAF Track: Film

Of course the festival features a film track, including premieres and classics, and screenings for this year’s competition.

What Not to Miss at this Year’s Viborg Animation Festival

As usual, the festival promises to be inspiring and dynamic, with events and experiences for people of all ages and interests. Some of the events we particularly recommend are:

Flow

VAF proudly presents the exclusive Danish premiere of Flow, the latest feature from Latvian Gints Zibalodis. Flow has been called “one of the most groundbreaking animated films about nature since Bambi”, and was enormously successful at Annecy, winning the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution, as well as both the Audience and Jury Awards for Best Feature Film. VAF attendees are able to see this special screening in advance of the film’s theatrical release in October.

VAF Guest Artist Screenings

VAF guest artist Total Refusal has a number of special events, including a screening of the collective’s films, and a Total Refusal curated program of machinima short films. Total Refusal will also be presenting a special screening of Knit’s Island, a documentary shot entirely in a virtual environment, gently probing the nature of virtual and actual communities.  

Viborg Katedralskole Illuminated

This year, VAF continues the annual tradition of animation in urban spaces with a stunning new piece by Michelle & Uri Kranot, illuminating the exterior walls of Viborg Katedralskole in a must-see experience.

Best Commissioned Short Program

While VAF is rightly celebrated as a festival for animation of all kinds, this year’s Best Commissioned Short competition is especially interesting. It features Høj by Mikkel Mainz, Dutch animator Dario Van Vree’s noted I’m Perfectly Fine, and Stéphane Berla’s latest film, Á Toi, among others.

Like always, VAF promises to be full of information, entertainment, and inspiration for lovers of animation, art, and digital media of all types. It’s going to be action-packed, and we’ll see you there!