(Last update: 21^st April)

On 6^th April, the 28^th Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) announced that they cancelled its onsite events in cinemas and other locations. Originally planned to be a hybrid event, they will hold this year’s festival 100% digitally, due to the uncertain situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany at this time.

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The 28^th Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) is planning to be held as a hybrid animation film festival, both on-site at various venues and with an extensive programme online at “OnlineFestival.ITFS.de”, from 4^th to 9^th May. This festival will have the motto “Creating*Diversity”.

The festival’s artistic managing director Prof. Ulrich Wegenast says, “The surveys on last year’s online edition of ITFS clearly showed that both the industry and the audience would like to see a continuation of the online section with its media centre and streaming opportunities.”

Types of festival tickets for ITFS 2021

The festival prepares different types of tickets listed below.

For the public:

• ONLINE+ Festival Pass
• HYBRID Festival Pass
• ONSITE Festival Pass

You can find the details on the three types of passes and purchase them here.

For the industry:

• ONLINE PRO Accreditation Professionals
• HYBRID Accreditation Professionals

You can find the details on the two types of accreditation and purchase them here.

The ITFS VR Hub

ITFS 2021 will be expanded and enhanced in new ways, and one of them is “The ITFS VR Hub”, which will bring the festival feeling to a digital Schlossplatz, a large square where open air screening programmes are held for the public every year. ITFS is realising an amusing VR experience in Mozilla Hubs with the American XR designer and architect Allison Crank and the Swiss VR expert Christophe Merkle, which provides a multi-user 3D world with easy access.

The ITFS VR Hub can be visited simply via a web browser or a VR headset and visitors can experience casual and random interaction among them via self-selected avatars. It is a creative place for everyone, including VR newbies, that shows the unlimited possibilities of animation in an immersive, interactive, and real-time way. The festival will offer exclusive experiences such as presentations, talks and creative DIY activities within The ITFS VR Hub.

ITFS 2021 will also extend the opening period of the festival’s media library from 3^rd to 16^th May 2021, offering even more film enjoyment to ticket holders.

Programme Highlights

1. Focus Programme

“Wonder Women – Women in Games & Animation”: A special-focus programme to present new and historic positions of female creators and their contributions in animation and games, which is based on the “Women in Animation” programme of ITFS 1996 curated by Jayne Pilling.

“Copines! Focus on France”: A special programme focusing on France. Select filmmakers, studios and universities will present themselves and celebrate “la grande nation” of animated films at ITFS.

In Person: Outstanding filmmakers, Jochen Kuhn, Jean-Charles Mbotti Malolo, Monique Renault and Regina Pessoa, present themselves and their works.

Studio Presentations: ed films (Canada), Folimage (France), H5 (France), Laidack Films (France/Germany), Monströös (Germany), Sacrebleu Productions (France) and Ulysses (Germany).

School Presentations: Atelier de Sèvres (France), Bauhaus Universität (Germany), China Academy of Art (China) and La Poudrière (France).

2. Film Programme and Presentations

Competitions

• International Competition – International Short Film Competition
• Young Animation – International Student Film Competition
• Tricks for Kids – International competition for animated short films for children
• Trickstar Nature Award – Competition for animated short films that deal with the issues of climate protection, biodiversity, environment and sustainability.
• AniMovie – International Feature Film Competition
• Trickstar Business Award – Prize for innovative business models in the animation field.
• German Animation Screenplay Award – Award for the best screenplay for a German animated feature-length.
• Animated Games Award Germany – Award for an animation-based computer game with the best visual design and aesthetics from Germany.
• New World Classic Animation Award (former Bechstein Classic Animation Award) – It was announced last year and the nominations were also made within ITFS 2020. This year, the winner will be chosen by a jury.

Feature films in talks

• Wolfwalkers Tomm Moore will give insights into Wolfwalkers, the Oscar nominated film, in a lecture, followed by a Q&A (Friday, May 07, 5 pm, OnlineFestival Pro).
• Extinct David Silverman will talk a little about The Simpsons and a lot more about his new feature film Extinct. David Silverman will present behind-the-scenes production material and discuss the process of bringing the film to the screen (Saturday, May 08, 6 pm, OnlineFestival Pro).
• The Last Whale Singer The webinar Reza Memari (Director and Writer) and Maite Woköck (Producer), both CEOs and founders of Telescope Animation Studios, will share their insights and findings on the development and financing of their ambitious film project The Last Whale Singer (Monday, May 03, 3 pm, free access on OnlineFestival Pro).

“Creating*Diversity”: This film programme takes up current social issues: transgender and sexual orientation, migration and religious as well as cultural diversity.

“Pandemic Animation”: The first-time short-film compilation programme, which shows films about isolation in everyday life, dystopias, diseases, and environmental scenarios to technology and science.

“Animation of the Extreme” and “XPRMTL Animation”: These enrich the supporting programme with exciting thematic worlds and experimental techniques including Revolykus (2020, Germany, Mexico) by Victor Orozco Ramirez and 30 Days of Shoegazing (2019, United Kingdom) by Pei-Hsin Cho.

3. GameZone

Talks, Exhibition and Presentations: The motto “Creating*Diversity” is a common thread running through the programme, including a panel talk on 5^th May. The focus topic “Wonderwomen – Women in Games and Animation” will also be examined in a talk format on 7^th May. Around 13 games by important female game designers and developers will be shown in the exhibition from 30^th April to 9^th May.

GameZone Talents: National and international institutes of higher education including Stuttgart Media University, Zurich University of the Arts and VIA University College Denmark introduce themselves and present the latest games by students.

Focus on EDUTAIN ME 7.0: Developers, publishers, representatives from higher education and training as well as politicians and a student will discuss how games can be used purposefully in school lessons, what criteria should be considered and in what form the introduction of digital media makes sense for the design of lessons in this panel on 6^th May.

GameZone Kids (Workshops for Kids & Teens): Children and teenagers between the ages of 6 and 14 can experience the world of gaming and discover games suitable for children together with friends, parents, and relatives in the GameZone Kids.