We have kept DCIFF somewhat insular, believing that new ideas and individual attention to filmmakers flourish best if we are not trying to run a film festival based on exactly the same template as all the other film festivals out there.  This approach has worked well: We are community intertwined; we work with, not for, filmmakers; we respond to what our city offers and is interested in; and we take programming and format risks. 

This past year though, we have been visiting animation festivals as we look to expand this section at DCIFF. We now teach animation skills to young people. It is intriguing to see how the animation classroom energy is so focused and detail-oriented, compared to the sometimes all-over-the-place creativity of our filmmaking courses.   The young animators made some great work.

Animation created in DCIFF Summer High School Workshop

Last week I was in Varna, Bulgaria, to attend the 20th World Festival of Animated Film (WFAF) where there was a series of fascinating masterclasses presented by extraordinary established animators such as Boris Labbe, Priit Parn and Lea Vidakovic. There were also edgy, sexual identity and scary films, highlighting the need to screen more animation designed for adults. Netflix is investing heavily in anime and animated series and features, so they may be helping with this.

Many animators will definitely be impacted, even damaged, by AI as it moves into mainstream and commercial production, but I see no dimming of animation as a catalyst of challenging, new and genre-crossing art. This is where many of the next great ideas come from.

Eviction by Alexandre Paquet, screened at DCIFF 2023

Deirdre Evans-Pritchard, DCIFF Executive Director