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Holland Animation Film Festival will run between 4 - 8 November 2009 in Utrecht
http://www.haff.nl


The programme of the Holland Animation Film Festival 2009 is ready and online! The 13th edition of the festival takes place from 4 - 8 November in Utrecht. Check the complete programme at www.haff.nl. From 23 October you can order tickets online. At www.haff.nl you’ll find all the information about the festival, the films and programmes. You can download the new Animation Magazine in pdf with all the programme information. If you have ordered tickets for HAFF before, you can easily log in with your email address again.

Highlights HAFF 2009
competition shorts, commissioned, students, webanimation and audience award Dutch animation
The festival comprises six competitions. The beating heart of the competitions are the international competition for shorts, the international competition for commissioned films, the student competition for Dutch and Belgian students and the competition for the Audience Award Dutch animation.


the Cutting Edge
The main programme section The Cutting Edge presents the exciting and pioneering interplay between film, fine art, games and the Internet. As part of this section, Bash of Stash! screens innovative shorts, music videos and a special Naughty Naughty Naughty programme. Attention also goes out to the Berlin-based project Pictoplasma that deals with character design. The new generation of European animation filmmakers introduce themselves in a programme featuring graduation films from European animation schools. And the best from Europe is screened in a programme with the finalists and the award winner of the Cartoon d’Or 2009.
'What the 4K!'
The HAFF is proud of being the first festival in the world presenting a full programme section in 4K. 4K Digital Cinema is the film standard of the (near) future, boasting a spectacular resolution of 4096x2160 pixels. Like in photography, the celluloid will gradually be replaced. The equipment and infrastructure are still costly, rare and complex at this point. However, in one film sector the production is relatively uncomplicated. And that is the animation sector. The programme includes world premières in 4K by Dutch pioneers, like Handelingen by Maarten Isaäk de Heer, Red-End by Robin Noorda and Bethany de Forest and #37 by Joost Rekveld.
features and documentaries
An important part of the programme are the features and the documentaries. The quality and the diversity of the feature-length animation has grown a lot last years. HAFF 2009 presents 20 features, like the new Astro Boy (Japan, 2009) by David Bowers, My Dog Tulip (US, 2009) by Paul Fierlinger and Sandra Fierlinger and the Japanese Russian co-production First Squad: The Moment of Truth (2009) by Yoshiharu Ashino, Aljoscha Klimov and Misha Shprits, the Opening Film of the Holland Animation Film Festival at 4 November.
opening film First Squad: The Moment of Truth
The opening film of the Holland Animation Film Festival First Squad: The Moment of Truth is a combination of fiction and documentary, adapted from the Russian comic strip Pioneer Heroes, from the 1980s.
During the winter of 1942, the Red Army valiantly resists the Nazi invasion. Nadya, a Russian adolescent, has the ability to foresee the moment of truth, the crucial point where all powers converge. This ability becomes indispensable to the ultra-secret 6th Division of Russian Military Intelligence that is waging war against an occult order within the SS.
First Squad is one of the 10 features in the special programme Japan Imagitive Power.
world première Red-End
Not only First Squad will be shown at the Opening Night of HAFF at Wednesday 4 November. Red-end and the Seemingly Symbiotic Society (Arthropod Tales - epic one) by Robin Noorda and Bethany de Forest has his world première at the Opening Night. AND his world première in 4K digital cinema at Friday 6 November. This stopmotion animation leaves a deep impression.
Ants gather sugar cubes in an icy marl cave in order to build a palace. This turns out to be a nursery to cultivate larvae. These grubs grow in a cave and reveal themselves as bizarre, marching gluttons. The ant Red-end is different.


Programme and ticket sale HAFF 2009 online: www.haff.nl