ASIFA Bulgaria declares that this “festival” has absolutely nothing in common with above mentioned famous Varna Festival ,organised by the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture,Municipality of the City of Varna,Animated Film Studio “Sofia” and ASIFA Bulgaria ,which was one of the five most important Animated Film Festivals in the world under the patronage of ASIFA and whose last edition was in October 1989 in Varna.

This declaration has the full support of the members of the Assotiation of animators at the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers and of the members of ASIFA Bulgaria as Mr.Stoyan Dukov,Mr.Nikolay Todorov,Mr.Ivan Vesselinov,Mrs.Zdenka Doicheva and others.

ASIFA Bulgaria declares that the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers/UBF/has never given any kind of permission or support to this “festival”.In spite of this its organisers they use illegaly the name of the UBF in their advertising campaign together with the authority and the names of other Bulgarian institutions as their “supporters”.

Behind the back of ASIFA Bulgaria,the organisers of this “event”,who aren’t ASIFA members,they used the addresses of all ASIFA Chapters to advertise the stolen symbol of Varna’s festival.

ASIFA Bulgaria is ready to support any activities which could serve the purpose of spreading the art of animation.In the same time ASIFA Bulgaria is against any kind of initiatives who,following some egoistic goals, are ready to compromise the good image of glorious events from the past and the reputation of Bulgarian animation at all.

Pencho Kunchev

President of ASIFA Bulgaria

I have received good news which I hope will also be a pleasure for ASIFA. A few days ago, I won the Life Achievement Award at SICAF (Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival). The award was presented by the mayor of The Metropolitan City of Seoul. Although I received the award for a lifetime spent working in the animation field, the name ASIFA came to my mind first and foremost. I could not help mentioning ASIFA when I gave my acceptance speech.

Here are some fragments from my speech:

“The most important things in our life are all related to the timing. I have been involved in animation for 50 years, which means Korean animation has a 50 year history also. It is a lucky coincidence for me that ASIFA, a big part of my life, is also celebrating its 50th birthday this year. All three occasions are very meaningful to me and it is an absolute honor for me to receive the award with all of these 50th celebrations this year.”

1,337 films were entered in the festival competition from 54 countries. SICAF is a partner festival with ASIFA. Approximately 500 guests attended the opening ceremony where the award was given. Four members of ASIFA (Luca Raffaelli, Igor Prassel, Zhang Fu Gui, and Nobuhiro Aihara) who were invited as jurors listened to my words with sympathetic smiles.

I would like to think that this prize is not only for me but for ASIFA as well, and I want to share this wonderful moment with my friends of ASIFA. Again thank you for your support and I am very happy to be with you.

Best regards,

Nelson Shin, President of ASIFA

Each year we have “Roll Yer Own”, showcasing independent and student films.

We have two awards for Roll Yer Own:

Best in Show: The Scarf by Carla Veldman
Audience Choice award: Window Pains by Paul Allen Tillery

Runners-up were:

Second place for Audience Choice: Pea on the Screws
Third place for Audience Choice: Dah Cartoon
Fourth place for Audience Choice: Robota

Created in 2008, the International Festival of Diversity is a worldwide celebration of the 21st May as « World Day for Cultural Diversity, Dialogue and Development. »

To highlight this fundamental character of our individual and collective identity, the practice of culture has no equal. That is why the Festival’s events are designed to enable distinctive cultural expressions to gather more closely together, giving voice and visibility to the always captivating wealth of cultural diversity.

This year’s Festival will once again entail a host of musical, artistic and intellectual events at UNESCO’s Headquarters. But its scope will be unprecedented thanks to the involvement of numerous Member States – while China organizes over forty major events in Beijing, Guandong Shenzhen, and the Poiesis Festival of Fabriano (Italia) takes place in Italy, the Fes Sacred Music Festival in Morocco, the Montreal Vision Diversity Festival in Quebec, all in the framework of the International Festival of Diversity, numerous
Latin American and Caribbean countries have joined together to present an exhibition underscoring the diversity that characterizes them on the occasion of the bicentennial of their independences.

As member of the International council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication (IFTC), organization linked with UNESCO, Asifa will present a selection of Latino American films in Paris (France) on Wednesday 19th May.

This selection with films from young filmmakers has been made by Oscar Desplats from Asifa Argentina and the screening will be presented by Juliette Crochu from Asifa France.

• ASIFA Selection FIDC 2010
• FIDC Program 2010

More information: www.unesco.org

Juliette Crochu
2010-05-14

Thomas Renoldner,
Hauptstrasse 59/2/6, A-1140 Wien

austria-@asifa.net

Text coming soon.

Previously named Sheng Song, Te Wei was born in Shanghai on August 22, 1915. As the founder of Chinese animation, he devoted his entire life to its development and was the only artist in the country to receive a lifetime achievement award from the International Animated Film Association. Te Wei’s famous works include “The Conceited General” in 1956, “Where Is Mama?” in 1960, “The Cowboy’s Flute” in 1963, and “Feeling from Mountain and Water” in 1988–all classics that have influenced many generations of Chinese.

Where is Mama, 1960

From about 1960,Te Wei’s animation style was influenced by Chinese painter Qi Baishi. He first applied Chinese brush painting to “Where is Mama?” or “The Little Tadpole Looking for His Mother” in 1960, which stunned the animation world when it was produced. Not permitted to carry on his animation during the Cultural Revolution, Te Wei regained a position of artistic influence in the late 1970s and the 1980s with a series of animated films in painterly style.

As the first president of the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, Te insisted on innovation and introduced new techniques such as incorporating traditional paper-cutting and paper-folding in animated films. While he was in charge of the work, the Shanghai Animation Film Studio produced many other animated films such as “Uproar in Heaven” and “NeZha Riots the Seas”.

Filmography The Conceited General, 1956 Where is Mama, 1960 The Cowboy’s Flute, 1963 Feeling from Mountain and Water, 1988

Meet Daiki Aizawa – 50th Anniversary Logo Designer

Comments by Daiki Aizawa

‘I expressed the number “50″ using five pencils intertwined.
Today, the diffusion of digital technology has enabled us to express our ideas into shapes
easily. I myself sometimes create my artworks using 3D computer graphics software too.
However, it is my wish to maintain the warmth of pencil somewhere in my work even if it
was made completely digital. I am very happy that my design was selected as the 50th
anniversary logo of our historic association. Thank you !’

Daiki AIZAWA
Director, INTERLITERACY® Inc.

Profile:
Born in Nagano Prefecture, and brought up in Aichi Prefecture.
After graduating from the Department of Graphic Design at Tama Art University in 2004,
Aizawa worked at a digital content production company for three years.
In 2007, he participated in the establishment of INTERLITERACY® Inc. and since then,
as the director, he has been dealing with various designs for web, DTP, computer graphics,
etc. Also, he has been lecturing at Ichinomiya Women’s Junior College in 2007, and at
Kyoto University of Art and Design during 2008 – 2010.
Aizawa has been a member of ASIFA-JAPAN since 2009.

Awards:
“Loop Pool” (2004) , an independent animation short :
HIROSHIMA 2004 Special International Jury Prize, PISAF 2004 Jury Prize

“UNLEASH YOURSELF” banner ad:
Grand Prix in Levi’s “LIVE UNBUTTONED.” FLASH Banner Contest

Works:
http://www.interliteracy.com/daw/

Contacts:
INTERLITERACY Inc.
5F, 4-3-1 Sendagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 151-0051 Japan
phone: +81 3 5848 7991 fax: +81 3 5848 7992
e-mail: aizawa@interliteracy.com

Sayoko Kinoshita
2010-03-23

Seoul, Januar 2010

Dear all ASIFA members,

Happy New Year 2010 and Happy 50th Anniversary of ASIFA!

I wish all of board members, chapters, groups as well as individual members the very best year 2010 and New Year bring you health, happiness and prosperities for your animation creativities and activities. It’s a great honor to be a President of ASIFA by majority support of board members.

We hear and see the sufferings by various kinds of disasters all over the world and I’m worrying if any members of ASIFA family also suffer from those difficulties.

Nevertheless, our ASIFA members will continue to exchange our enthusiasm through Animation all over the world. Animation is definitely one of creative arts which precede other genre in media and I’m sure that we will continue to create constant excitements and bring them to humankind.

In 2010, ASIFA celebrates its own 50th anniversary and coincidently the 50th anniversary parallels in my work in animation field too. This means that animation history in Korea also have the same 50th anniversary.

It seems to me that the God gave me a miraculous chance to be a President of ASIFA this year. ASIFA will move ahead with positive changes. However, we should make our own changes, not just waiting for the changes.

I sincerely ask all of you to give me your thoughts and wise advices and join our new changes for ASIFA. I will contribute myself to ASIFA with my experiences from an animator, producer, director, professor and even CEO of company.

I made slogans myself and will promise you them during my service as:
1. Procedure for processing
2. Transparency of administration
3. Harmony between members
4. Consideration for others

We are artists with enthusiasm but also we are artists with wisdom.

Best regards,

Nelson SHIN
President of ASIFA
2010-01-27

It was a unique moment in the history of African Animation and in the history of ASIFA that for first time the appreciated Prize goes to an African animator, Moustapha Alassane, and for the first time it is introduced in an African festival, Animafrik.

In this connection let me thank all ASIFA board members for their great support for this nomination and for urge to upgrade the art of animation in Africa .

We would like to thank very much the great artist, Michel Ocelot, for his kind acceptation to create our 2009 trophy, as a well-known name in Africa due to his numerous African animated films, the audiences and the animators in Animafrik were very surprised to see his genuine work among them.

I thank to our president, Sayoko Kinoshita, for her appreciated letter which she wrote to our 31st laureate, and make him very honored to get this homage from our international organization.
And other thanks go to our secretary general, Vesna Dovnikovic, for contacting Michel and sending the trophy.

We can’t miss the opportunity to thank Mr. Samuel Quartey, the director of Animafrik festival, who organized the successful events of his festival and was very eager to host our Prize in his young festival. He truly deserves our support and a thanks letter from our president.

It was pity that due to bad health condition 78 years old Moustapha Alassane couldn’t be present on the festival Animafrik, but he sent his secretary Ms Rokaiatu Abobaka to be his representative on the festival and to introduce his homage night and his films. Moustapha also greeted ASIFA, the festival and the audiences by telephone, says:

“I took many awards before from many prestigious festivals and academies around the world, but this one is highly appreciated and it is much closer to my heart because this honor comes from the most important organization of animation in the world … I’m thanking ASIFA for its support, and I welcome any cooperation with it in the future”.

Moustapha’s country ambassador who gave a speech about the honor of the great man of his home, Niger, was present on the festival too.

It was a really great moment for the animators in Africa, who finally felt some confidence, that they could be recognized on the international level by an appreciated organization like ASIFA, and that Africa is not ignored or treated a as continent of misery anymore, but also a land of the oldest art tradition.

It’s really a great step of ASIFA towards Africa , and a good sign for the future of our community in its coming golden jubilee next year 2010. The African animators really appreciated this step, and look forward to more supportive steps to the art and industry of animation in Africa .

Thank you ASIFA!

Yours Sincerely,
Mohamed Ghazala
ASIFA Egypt