International Animations by Students Highlighted in Puchon Festival

By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter

Animated works from all over the world by both students and professionals will be screened from tomorrow to Nov. 9 at Boksagol Cultural Center in Puchon, Kyonggi province to show the current trend in animations and promote the industry.

Focusing on creative works by college students, the 6th Puchon International Student Animation Festival (PISAF) will show 129 animations from 23 different countries such as Japan, Germany and France along with 16 local creations. It will also hold various other events such as an exhibition, forum and recruitment fair.

The opening film on Nov. 5 is "Sinamhaengosa (Phantom Master _ Dark Hero from Ruined Empire)" and the closing animation will be the winner film from the festival's competition section.

Co-produced by Japanese and Korean companies, "Phantom Master", which will premiere here before its official release in both countries on Nov. 26, takes characters from Korean folk tales to a futuristic setting.

All the animated works in the festival will show in five different sections according to their characteristics _ Recommendation, Trend, Notice, Vision and Memorial.

The only competition section in the festival, Recommendation will show 49 college students' works from 12 different countries, which were selected from a preliminary examination in which 352 works from 20 countries competed. This year, the section is distinguished by an increasing number of quality three-dimensional animations, such as "Birthday Boy", a story about the Korean War and "Nuit Blance", a story about a psychiatrist and a patient.

Aiming to show the current trends of the world animation industry, the Trend section displays not only works by professional and non-professional animators but also animations used in commercials, music videos and other media. In particular, the section will present a collection of animations produced by French animation school Supinfocom.

The Notice section will give the audience their first chance to see upcoming animations. This year's section includes "Steam Boy" by Katsuhiro Otomo, who made "Akira" and "Memories".

Animations from East Asian countries in the Vision section will show where Asia's animation industry is heading and the retrospective section Memorial will show how animations have evolved by screening works of world famous animation studios and animators of the past.

In addition to the screenings, the festival is also holding a series of forums and seminars. To promote exchanges between academics in cartoon and animation from East Asian countries, a cartoon animation forum on Nov. 6 and academic seminars on Nov. 7 and 8 are scheduled. And 17 animation experts from 7 different countries will visit Puchon, meet visitors and share their experience with them.

And during the festival period, visitors will have the chance to participate in an event called "cosplay" where people dress up as their favorite character from cartoons, animations and video games and can take photos with them. The word is a compound word made up of "costume" and "play".

And on Nov. 5, 6, 8 and 9, there will be a recruitment fair for those who majored in cartoon and animation at college and want to build their careers in the fields of animation, cartoon and character design.

6th Puchon International
Student Animation Festival
Where: Boksagol Cultural Center in Puchon, Kyonggi province

When: From Nov. 5 to 9

How much: 4,000 won to 10,000 won

Info: (032) 325-2061

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