The festival is celebrating its 20th year – plus one, because of the 2020 version– and at age 20, it is a force to be reckoned with in Israel’s cultural landscape and one of the most purely fun events all year.
All events will take place in accordance with Health Ministry Regulations and the festival will include screenings of feature-length and short animated films from Israel and all over the world; master classes with distinguished artists and animators; art exhibitions; tributes to leading Israeli arts figures; and a market with stalls selling comics and lots of other merchandise. Animix provides a wonderful opportunity for people to learn about the world of animation and comics and for those who are deeply involved in this world to get together and share ideas.
The opening night program is a visual and musical tribute to the iconic Israeli comedy trio, Hagashash Hahiver (literally The Pale Tracker), in which Shaike Levi of Hagashash will take part. Another program that looks back at Israel’s cultural heritage will be a tribute to poet Leah Goldberg, whose poems have so often been set to music and who wrote a number of beloved children’s books, by comic artists and musicians. Another tribute will honor distinguished political cartoonist and frequent Animix participant Itamar Daube.
The Oscar Celebration is a compilation of Oscar-nominated animated shorts. Documentation 2021 is a program of recent animated documentaries, a form that is very much in the headlines this year following the premiere of Ari Folman’s animated docudrama Where is Anne Frank at the Cannes Film Festival.
Political cartoons are always part of the mix and this year there is a look back on cartoons inspired by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Tower of Babel Falls is a program of short animated films that look at society from an off-kilter perspective.
Director Alon Gur Arye, who made the movie Mossad, will give a talk on achievements of the Pixar Animation Studio, which has been creating commercial films that delight children and adults for more than 30 years.
In addition, there are many high-quality events, including workshops and screenings, aimed at children. Considering their low cost compared to so much children’s entertainment, these workshops and other programs are a wonderful opportunity to take kids out of the house during the late-summer doldrums and give them a special experience.
This year, Animix’s offerings aimed at children include the “Shy Robots and Nervous Aliens” lecture and workshop given by Uri Goldberg, an animator who is a member of the TOHU animation collective based in Jerusalem, and Gilat Parag, a veteran film and television animator. The workshop will teach children five and up how to play a character in animation and how to make the characters they create express emotions and appear real and appealing. Another program, this one for adults, the TOHU Crushes, features the work of the TOHU animators.
Artist Uri Fink is giving a workshop called “Anyone Can Create Comics,” in which he will teach comics basics and help participants create their own characters.
The clay (plastilina) workshop with Noam Raz teaches different ways to play and create with the very popular malleable children’s art material. You may have seen Raz appear on children’s programs or bought his books which teach easy techniques to make just about anything out of clay, and the chance to learn from him in person will be fun for the entire family.
There will be a tribute to Japanese animator/director Hayao Miyazaki with screenings of Ponyo, Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle, all films best seen on the big screen.
And because we are into our second coronavirus year, artist Erez Zadok will give a workshop called “Enough Masks!” about how to create appealing facial expressions, suitable for decorating masks.
There are dozens of other offerings at the festival and the workshops – in particular – fill up quickly, so it is important to register for them in advance. The Animix website is animixfest.co.il