Animix’s 20th animation, comics and caricature festival to go online
The festival normally takes place at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. Everything that can be moved online will be moved online this year.
By HANNAH BROWNA montage of political cartoon faces drawn by Itamar Daube.(photo credit: Courtesy)
Animix, the Israeli international animation, comics and caricature festival, will celebrate its 20th year with an online version that will run from August 18-31. An in-person edition of the festival will be held whenever the coronavirus crisis ends.The festival normally takes place at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and features a space where cartoonists, comics enthusiasts and graphic artists share and sell their work, as well as workshops and master classes with animators and artists. Everything that can be moved online will be moved online this year.In addition to the cinematheque, the festival has a number of sponsors, including the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality, the Israel Film Council and the Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts.The Animix organizers announced earlier this month that the Gross Prize, an award given in memory of Israeli animator Yoram Gross, would go to animator and artist Eran Hilleli, as part of the Asif Competition. The award comes with a prize of NIS 10,000. Hilleli’s work, and all the prize-winning films from the competition, will be screened at the festival.Itamar Daube, an animator and cartoonist whose drawings accompany the Sima Kadmon column in Yediot Aharonot, will present an online meeting, called “The Face of the Country,” in which he will discuss political cartooning in this time of a constantly shifting political reality, as well as the pressure of creating on deadline.Tal Lotan, a musician, animator and illustrator, has just released a new clip called, “Evening of Strawberries,” which presents her song of the same name. Lotan will appear at the festival to discuss and sing about the creation of the clip and the song, and talk about what it’s like to be both an animator and a musician.Noa Katz, an illustrator, comic-book artist and bird lover, will present her new clip, “The Book of Birds 2,” and will talk about how LGBT people can use their lives as inspiration for autobiographical comics.Animator/illustrator Yoni Salmon will talk about the film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and how it presents an alternate version of the superhero.There will be a meeting with comic artist and illustrator Erez Tzadok, who turned an immigration interrogation in Houston, Texas, into an autobiographical graphic novel, Tranquillo, about a situation in which it was impossible to remain tranquil.Cartoonist Michel Kichka will present a master class in which he celebrates the work of his father, Henri Kichka, who passed away in April at the age of 94 from the novel coronavirus. Henri painted all his life and was already an illustrator as a teenager in Belgium, before the Holocaust. A concentration camp survivor, he studied art following the war. He also wrote an autobiography about his Holocaust experiences. Michel will speak about how his father inspired him and present cartoons he drew about his father.
Shoshke Englemeyer is the big blonde super-heroine created by Ze’ev Englemeyer, who has been donning the Shoshke costume and drawing attention and laughs around the world for the past few years. Englemeyer will present videos that detail the meteoric rise of the character and will show the first black-and-white paintings he created of the character.Wallace and Gromit, plasticine characters created by animator Nick Park, have made the films of Aardman Studios among the most popular animated movies of all time. In such movies as The Wrong Trousers and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, they have charmed audiences with their antics and clever, subversive jokes all over the world. Israeli cartoonist Nir Molad (Nirmo), will present a tribute to the characters and their creator.Animation workshops are always a highlight of Animix, and this year, Uri Fink, the creator of the “Zbang!” will present a workshop on creating comics. Participants can print out worksheets from the Tel Aviv Cinematheque website and work alongside Fink from home. The workshop is about showing people how you don’t need to be able to draw classically beautiful figures in order to be a comics artist.There will be much more available at Animix, so go to the website atanimixfest.co.il for more information.
