Animation Calling

The Ottawa International Animation Festival announces its selections for its Young Audiences 7+ and its new Teen Audiences 13+ competitions, both categories to be judged by members of their respective audiences at the Festival

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) announces the Official Selections for its Young Audiences 7+ and for its new competition category, Teen Audiences 13+. The new competition category includes 11 animated worlds that bridge the gap between adult and child audiences, exploring themes and interests relevant to today’s teens. This year’s Young Audiences 7+ includes seven selections, with representation from eight different countries. The Teen Audiences 13+ will be judged by teens in attendance at the Festival, while the Young Audiences 7+ will be judged by the OIAF Kids Jury.

“We’re shaking things up a bit this year. We’ve replaced the preschool category with a competition aimed at those beings called teens”, says OIAF Artistic Director Chris Robinson. “We hope that we can encourage high school viewers to use critical thinking skills as they judge the work, in addition to creating a space for animated shorts that often fall between adult and child audiences. The Young Audiences competition, as always, is filled with a wealth of beautiful and inspiring animated works that you won’t easily find on your go-to streaming service.”

The inaugural Teen Audience 13+ competition includes:

• Boat People (dirs. Thao Lam, Kjell Boersma, Canada)
• Ça décale (Let's Roll) (dirs. Chloé Musa, Annabelle Tamic, Alexandre Terrier, Louis Lukasik, Yann Laurent, Camille Flinois, Philip Gonçalves, France)
• Daffy in Wackyland (dir. Max Winston, United States)
• Deniska umřela (Dede Is Dead) (dir. Philippe Kastner, Czech Republic)
• First Period (dir. Julianna Romero, United States)
• Hottest Tokyo (dir. Miho Kidoguchi, Japan)
• Our Uniform (dir. Yegane Moghaddam, Iran)
• Pressure (dir. Jennah Kips, Netherlands)
• Taiyo ga Mizu wo Kundeiru (Glow in the Water) (dir. Kagami Honoka, Japan)
• Yellow Light (dir. Tal Kantor, Israel)
• 單人遊戲 (Me and Me) (dir. ChiuLing Chen, Taiwan)

The Teen Audiences 13+ competition will be judged by teens in attendance at the Festival, on Teens @ OIAF day, which takes place on September 22, in addition to an encore screening of the competition on September 23.

The Young Audiences 7+ category includes:

• Aaaah ! (dir. Osman Cerfon, France)
• Ciranda Feiticeira (dirs. Lula Gonzaga, Tiago Delácio, Brazil)
• Entre deux sœurs (To Be Sisters) (dirs. Clément Céard, Anne-Sophie Gousset, France)
• Harvey (dir. Janice Nadeau, Canada, France)
• Indlela Yokuphila (The Soul's Journey) (dirs. Dylan McGarry, Marc Moynihan, South Africa)
• Swimming With Wings (dir. Daphna Awadish Golan, Netherlands, Israel)
• The Goose (dir. Jan Mika, Czech Republic, France)
• Va-t'en, Alfred ! (Go Away, Alfred!) (dirs. Célia Tisserant, Arnaud Demuynck, France, Belgium)

The Young Audiences 7+ category is judged by the OIAF 2023 Kids Jury, which is coordinated by New York-based animator and OIAF 2022 Jury Member, Pilar Newton-Katz. The 2023 Kids Jury is accepting applications until July 21, 2023. Interested young animation enthusiasts can submit their application, including a short paragraph or video about their favourite animated film or series, through the OIAF website.