The tradition of animation, which has always been a strong cinematic element of Eastern Europe and the Baltics, is again on display at the Animated Dreams Animation Festival, which opens this evening in the cultural heritage city of Tallinn, Estonia. The Festival, one of five under the collective umbrella of POFF, begins its nearly-three week marathon of a diverse slate of films representing every cinematic genre and every corner of the globe.

Animated Dreams, one of the most important animation festivals in the Baltic and Nordic regions, will present scores of films during its run between 19-23 November. Festivities begin this evening with the  World Premiere of Mati Kütt’s beautiful and stunning 45-minute puppet film Sky Song. Kütt, who lives and works in Tallinn, is one of the most respected animators in Estonia, receiving numerous awards for his inventive and breathtaking stop motion films. This latest film, made at the prestigious Estonian animation studio Nukufilm that has existed for more than 50 years, follows the journey of a postman who has to deliver a package to the moon. Full of beautiful imagery and wild innovation the film provides a perfect opening to 5 days of screenings, lectures and special events.

The International Competition section will showcase some of the finest global animated shorts,  selected from more than 400 entries. Among the most anticipated films is  French director Sylvain Chomet’s hugely popular The Illusionist and Los extraños presagios de León Prozak (The Mysterious Presages of León Prozak) a wonderfully accomplished work from Carlos Eduardo Santa, considered one of the pioneers of Colombian Experimental Animation. A hommage entitled  25 Years of the Royal College of Art offers a  dynamic retrospective of UK’s leading animation school that has nurtured numerous successful animators over its storied history.

The overall festival has a country focus on neighboring Finland, which will include the best of contemporary Finnish independent animation, as the Estonian-Finnish joint comics exhibition and Comics Battle. Late night programs on Desire and Sexuality as expressed in animated form will be of keen interest for its subtle yet daring visual imagery. A lecture program entitled Keyframes will be held in parallel with the film screenings. This year’s focus will be on Animated Documentaries with lectures by luminaries such as Andy Glynne, the director of Animated Minds, a series of films dealing with mental illness, and Theodore Ushev, the director of The Lipsett Diaries, an award-winning short about the famed Canadian experimental filmmaker Arthur Lipsett.

Animated Dreams is a sub-festival of the Black Nights Film Festival which also encompasses a main program of feature premieres and retrospectives, the Nokia Mobile Film Festival (MOFF) which invites filmmakers from around the planet to make a short film on their mobiles and upload it to the MOFF website, the Just Film Children and Youth Festival and Sleepwalkers, the Student and Short Film Festival. For more information, visit the website: www.anima.poff.ee

Sandy Mandelberger, POFF Dailies Editor