Ukraine’s largest animation festival will take place from 29 September to 4 October. The programme will open with a restored version of Volodymyr Dakhno’s acclaimed Eneida.
Special screenings will include the feature-length animated film The Magic Atlas from the programme of the prestigious Locarno Film Festival, as well as the classic anime Mind Game by cult director Masaaki Yuasa.
Overall, the festival programme will feature 250 animated films from around the world, 17 educational events, five workshops, two networking events, pitching sessions and a fair.
“LINOLEUM is first and foremost dedicated to promoting animation and introducing audiences to it as a fully fledged and highly diverse art form. But today, an equally important part of our work is supporting Ukrainian creators and the industry: connecting them with international professionals, creating opportunities to find work and new partnerships, and helping them present their own projects. At the same time, animation is an extraordinarily versatile medium that can work equally powerfully for children and adults, so we try to build the programme in a way that allows everyone to find something for themselves in a short and accessible format,” festival director Anastasiia Verlinska said.
This year’s theme of the LINOLEUM festival is “Blind Spot”, exploring hidden processes in society, memory, relationships and personal perceptions of the world.
The festival’s main programmes and competitions include:
- International Competition: 32 of the best independent animated shorts from the Czech Republic, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries.
- Ukrainian Competition: 14 new works exploring urban rhythms, family conflicts, reflections on the experience of war, fantasy and mental health.
- Commercial Animation Competition: 24 projects ranging from punk music videos and advertising to festival teasers and video game excerpts.
- AI Animation Competition: Seven innovative works selected together with HOLYWATER TECH from 33 submissions.
- #killmeplease: A selection of unusual and experimental animation curated by Skwigly Magazine editor Aaron Wood.
- New Faces: New satirical, personal and imaginative shorts by emerging Ukrainian creators.
- Ladies First: Feminist animation exploring resistance to social pressure, self-acceptance and the search for freedom.
- Skeleton in the Closet: Ukrainian Animated Propaganda: A retrospective of Kyivnaukfilm works examining how ideology functioned in Soviet animation.
- Blind Spot Focus Programme: An international selection curated by professionals from Chile, Finland and Taiwan exploring borders, memory and choice.
- Experimental Animation and Video Art: The Felix Culpa and Contra Spem Spiro programmes for audiences interested in bold formal experimentation.
- Children’s and Teen Programme: Six age categories, from 3 to 16, as well as a selection from Poland’s O!PLA festival and children’s media workshops.
- Lectures and Workshops: Educational events at UNIT.City from 29 September to 3 October and at the Ukrainian-Danish Youth House on 4 October.
Festival screenings will take place at UNIT.City from 29 September to 3 October and at the Oscar cinema on 4 October. Children’s programmes will also be screened at Kyiv’s municipal cinemas.
The LINOLEUM Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival is supported by the Ukrainian State Film Agency, the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation through its Flagship Events programme, the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine, Switzerland and Belgium, and the Polish Institute in Kyiv.
