Organizers of the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) have revealed that the thirty second version will shine a highlight on hand-crafted movies, significantly the artwork of stop-motion animation. The 2025 fest may also supply a particular concentrate on the artistry and trade of Switzerland, amongst many different highlights. The fest can be held this yr from May 6-11.
ITFS factors out that puppet animation particularly has been again in vogue prior to now few years. Its renaissance can be mirrored within the pageant movie submissions and, subsequently, within the competitors packages of Tricks for Kids and the International Competition. Olga Bobrowska from the StopTrik Festival (Łódź and Maribor) is placing collectively two packages for the Focus on Stop Motion with a best-of choice and historic puppet animation movies.
The program may also embody current stop-motion options. Audiences can stay up for Memory Hotel (2024) by German animator Heinrich Sabl, a undertaking 25 years within the making, in addition to the buddy comedy Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) by the famend British animation studio Aardman. Aardman animator and director Will Becher will attend ITFS 2025 to host a masterclass and share some behind-the-scenes insights, together with the brand new movie.
Despite its small measurement, Switzerland has ramped as much as an unlimited output of animation movies, which have attained worldwide success. In collaboration with the promotion company SWISS FILMS, the Swiss Consulate General and the skilled affiliation of Swiss animation filmmakers GSFA (Groupement Suisse du Film d’Animation), ITFS will current nationwide focus packages reminiscent of Women in Swiss Animation and Future Minds: Films by Upcoming Talents.
The Swiss focus brings recent discoveries alongside acquainted faces, together with animator Elie Chapuis, who introduced his movie No Dogs or Italians Allowed at ITFS 2024 and hosted a masterclass. In 2025, he’ll manage a puppet and set exhibition for the stop-motion movie Sauvages (Claude Barras, 2024), which can be on show in the course of the pageant week in Stuttgart.
ITFS’s business-focused sibling occasion Animation Production Days (APD) may also pay particular consideration to Switzerland’s animation trade.
The occasion trailers for ITFS and APD are an annual deal with for animation lovers. While final yr the trailers got here from one supply, in 2025 a number of groups can be liable for the trailers. Once once more, they have been all produced by the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.
The ITFS trailer (primarily based on Knubbles by Ilya Barret) is tremendous dynamic and reveals how wild animation may be. The trailer for the APD 2025, however, is extra about dialog and alternate, suited to the co-production market the place folks come collectively. The trailer is predicated on the quick movie Song of a Toad. Both trailers can be found now on the occasion web sites and on YouTube.
Speaking of internet sites, itfs.de underwent a full relaunch in the beginning of the yr. In collaboration with Stuttgart’s studio panorama, each design and performance have been modernized and improved. The web site affords up-to-date data, together with requires submissions:
New this yr: Projects competing for the Trickstar Business Award can pitch to trade professionals in the course of the newly launched Professional Afternoon (Thursday, May 9, 2 p.m.) on the Festival Centre. The AniX Awards ceremony at 7 p.m. within the Eugen Bolz Hall will announce the winners of the screenplay awards and the €7,500 Trickstar Business Award, funded by the Stuttgart Region Association.
Families with kids additionally get their cash’s price on the ITFS. And for individuals who wish to be extra than simply there: 10- to 12-year olds can apply for the ITFS kids’s jury till March 1. All details about Tricks for Kids, the best way to apply and what the youngsters can anticipate on the jury may be discovered at itfs.de/familien/tricks-for-kids.
ITFS is Germany’s largest animation pageant and one of the vital vital worldwide. As an Oscar-qualifying pageant, winners of the Grand Prix are mechanically longlisted for the Academy Awards. With prize cash totaling practically €60,000, ITFS options 5 competitions:
- International Competition for Animated Short Films
- Student Competition for movie and artwork college college students
- Tricks for Kids – Animated Short Films for Children
- Trickstar Nature Award – Animated Short Films on Nature and Environment
- AniMovie – International Feature Film Competition
As a significant trade occasion, ITFS additionally supplies a key platform for networking and alternate. The APD and FMX – Film & Media Exchange happen parallel to the ITFS. The Stuttgart Animated Week, a singular mixture of movie pageant, co-production market and convention affords a platform for animation tasks and transforms Stuttgart into the hub of the animation world every May.
ITFS additionally attracts a broad viewers from the area, remodeling Stuttgart’s metropolis middle right into a free open-air cinema. Gaming fans can join with others within the GameZone, whereas the family-friendly and low-threshold supply of the ITFS contains packages for everybody.
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