International Animation Festival 22 - 28.09.2025
Check out ANIMASYROS 2024 highlights!

Opening with the national premiere of the multi-award-winning film Sultana's Dream, the Emile European Animation Awards, a new strategic partnership with the Annecy Festival, "Africa: An Animated Continent" as the main focus of this year’s festival, tributes to the animation scenes of Slovakia, Mexico, and the Czech Republic & Greek Animation Talks are just a few highlights of ANIMASYROS 2024!

Festival’s opening film is the multi-award-winning film Sultana's Dream by Isabel Herguera, a co-production of Germany and Spain, in the presence of the artist. Inés, a Spanish artist, lives in India and stumbles upon Sultana's Dream, a science fiction story written by Rokeya Hossain in 1905. It describes Ladyland, a utopia in which women rule the country while men live in seclusion and are responsible for household chores. Fascinated by the story, Inés embarks on a journey across the country to search for the one place where women can live in peace.
Watch the movie trailer here.

The main focus of this year’s festival, entitled "Africa: An Animated Continent" is dedicated to the African contemporary animation creation and production and will run through all Festival pillars. International guests from Africa such as Ebele Okoye, Raymond Malinga, and Comfort Arthur will be present at ANIMASYROS, while a programme of 40 short and feature films will highlight the rich mosaic of storytelling and artistic innovation that comes from this region of the world. We will also have the opportunity to watch films by significant European filmmakers that pay tribute to Africa and its history, including "The Black Pharaoh, the Savage and the Princess" by the legendary Michel Ocelot.

Furthermore, ANIMASYROS, recognizing the constantly evolving and particularly active animation scene in Central Europe, will screen six animated films from Slovakia selected by Ivana Laučíková, producer, director and professor at the University of Bratislava. The screenings are supported by the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Greece. A tribute to Mexican animation, in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes and the Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía (IMCINE), will present 21 short films by both new and established Mexican filmmakers. Children will have the opportunity to watch 12 new films from the Czech Republic, in collaboration with the Zlín Film Festival. Finally, Greek director Konstantinos Yannaris will select his favourite films from the previous years’ Animapride category, which will be screened at the Drama International Short Film Festival and ANIMASYROS powered by PPC in a unique tribute for everyone.

Among the highlights of this year's feature films screenings are the Oscar-winning film The Boy and the Heron by Hayao Miyazaki and The Peasants by the Oscar-nominated creator Dorota Kobiela of Loving Vincent. The ANIMASYROS powered by PPC programme also includes the award-winning science fiction film White Plastic Sky by Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó, which depicts a future without animals and plants where the remaining humans are living under huge plastic domes.

During the open call for entries for the Competition Sections of the Festival, which began in February 2024 and ended on June 1st, a total of more than 2,600 entries from 115 countries were submitted. Again this year, the ANIMASYROS 2024 International Competition Program includes films distinguished at international festivals, as well as timeless works by world-renowned professionals. Regarding the International Student Program, the Festival welcomes the best student films from internationally recognized schools, while original and ground-breaking works from a technical or directorial point of view from every corner of the planet are also included in the International Panorama. The best Greek films compete, as they do every year, in the Greek Competition Section with a prize awarded by the Greek Film Center. For the first time this year, in collaboration with ERT, the Best Greek New Creator Award (1.500€) and The Best Greek Student Film Award (1.500€) are added. The rich competition program of ANIMASYROS powered by PPC also includes K.ID.S films with animation for the whole family, as well as the films of the Animapride Section with LGBTQI+ content.

The selection of the Competition Sections will be announced on September.

The Emile Awards come for the first time to Greece and to ANIMASYROS

The Emile Awards return, after a four-year absence and come to Greece for the first time! The award ceremony, heralding a new era of the legendary European animation awards, will take place in Syros at the historic Apollo Theatre of Ermoupolis on Monday, September 23, as part of this year's ANIMASYROS Festival.

Following two highly successful editions in Lille, France, in 2018 and 2019, the European Animation Awards, named after French pioneers Emile Reynaud and Emile Cohl, are being revived by a group of esteemed animation professionals from across Europe. Vassilis C. Karamitsanis, president of ANIMASYROS, serves as the president of the Awards' organizing committee.

The grand celebration of European animation returns to award the best films of the year, honor the talent and achievements of creators and professionals from more than 30 countries, and highlight the diversity and creativity of the large European animation community.

ANIMASYROS 2024 Agora

As part of the Agora, ANIMASYROS powered by PPC launches a new three-year strategic partnership with the International Animation Film Market (MIFA) of the Annecy Festival, the largest animation festival in the world, with the support of the French Institute of Greece and the Institut français (Paris). It is an operation supported by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the French Institute as part of the international export strategy for cultural and creative industries. Specifically, the Agora Pitching Forum of ANIMASYROS this year will become part of the International MIFA Campus, an international programme aimed at supporting young creators and artists from Mediterranean countries, namely Greece and Cyprus, the Balkan countries, Turkey, Egypt and Morocco, by providing them with skills and experience. A total of six (6) professionals from these countries will participate in the programme, selected based on the project plans they submitted by July 15.

From September 25 to 28, the 4-day Pitching Coaching Workshop will be held as part of the International MIFA Campus in Syros. The Pitching Workshop Tutors will be this year acclaimed audiovisual professionals selected by the Annecy International Animation Film Market (MIFA) team, namely Delphine Nicolini, creative producer & mentor, Claire Sichez, writer and director, and Sylvain Grain, head of MIFA Talent Projects. During the workshop, the six participants will develop their projects to meet the challenges of the international market and will be effectively prepared to participate in the Pitch Partenaire to be held in June 2025 in Annecy.

At the same time, as every year, the presentations, roundtables, seminars, masterclasses, networking events organized in the framework of the ANIMASYROS Agora, offer the international audience - whether professionally involved in the art of animation or simply enthusiasts - the opportunity to expand their network, promote their work, meet with professionals in the field, and discover the international community. Of course, this year's Agora will feature the Festival's central theme "Africa: an animated continent", with masterclasses, discussions and presentations by internationally acclaimed producers and artists from Morocco and Ghana to Egypt and Ivory Coast.

Other topics to be presented include new technologies and virtual reality, advertising, architecture and the popular yet demanding technique of stop motion. The presence of ANIMASYROS' institutional partners, such as National Centre of Audiovisual Media and Communication (EKOME), Greek Film Centre (EKK), Enterprise Greece, Creative Europe, and the University of the Aegean, will also be significant at the Agora.

Some prominent figures of the international animation community who will be present at the ANIMASYROS 2024 Agora include:

●       Spanish director Isabel Herguera, creator of the acclaimed feature film Sultana's Dream (2023).

●       Internationally renowned Portuguese animator Regina Pessoa for a particularly interesting creative masterclass.

●       Moroccan producer Mounia Aram, founder of the production and distribution company Mounia Aram Company.

●       Vanessa Ann Sinden, producer at Triggerfish Animation, one of the largest animation studios in Africa.

●       Emmanuel Blanchard, historian and director of the iconic animated documentary Notre-Dame de Paris (2019).

●       Oscar-nominated legendary filmmaker Joanna Quinn and her partner, writer Les Mills, from the UK.

Last but not least, as part of ANIMASYROS' powered by PPC initiatives to strengthen the Greek animation scene, the highly successful Greek Animation Talks will be held again this year. Greek creators will talk about their work, the challenges of the creative process, and share good practices. The host of the Greek Animation Talks will be screenwriter, actor and presenter Yorgos Kapoutzidis.

The speed dating sessions, introduced last year, will continue as well. Greek creators selected by ANIMASYROS will participate in short 20-minute meetings with internationally acclaimed producers and artists from Europe and around the world, pitch their ideas and share their artistic and professional aspirations, aiming to find co-productions or even professional opportunities in the international animation scene.

Educational workshops

The educational workshops, one of the main pillars of ANIMASYROS, draw inspiration this year from the Festival’s main focus "Africa: An Animated Continent". Along with acclaimed artists and professionals such as Ibrahim Saad (Egypt), Tünde Vollenbroek (Netherlands) and Anastasia Michail, Thomas Künstler and Manos Mastorakis, Dimitris Papacharalambous and Matoula Papadimitriou (EKOME), Margarita Simopoulou, Elena Pavlaki, Agisilaos Robolas and Anna Economou, children, teenagers, adults, disabled individuals and our beloved "veterans" (elderly people) will have the opportunity to create their own African masks, animate exotic animals of the African savannah and be transported in the most exciting way to the tropical zones and desert landscapes of our neighbouring continent.

Furthermore, for the first time this year, a three-day intensive workshop for animation and multimedia students and young professionals will take place, dedicated to animation scriptwriting, storytelling, and storyboarding. The instructors will be Oscar-nominee Joanna Quinn and her long-time collaborator Les Mills.

Participation in the educational workshops is free, but reservations are required. Applications can be submitted to the email address education2@animasyros.gr until Friday, September 20th.

“Are you ready to change your story?” workshop
Participation in the workshop is free. Applicants will be selected based on their application by the educators and the ANIMASYROS team. Those selected to attend will be notified via email.
Applications can be submitted to the email address education2@animasyros.gr until Monday, August 19, 2024.

The detailed educational programme and more information have been announced here.

Watch the official trailer of ANIMASYROS 2024 here: