Chile’s Chilemonos International Animation Festival, the country’s largest event dedicated to celebrating its rapidly expanding animation scene, kicked off its second entirely online edition last week, and will run through July 25.
2021 is a milestone year for the festival, marking a decade since its inaugural edition. Since then, the festival has grown exponentially and become the only Academy Award qualifying event for animated shorts in Latin America. Once again this year, organizers are predicting record numbers of attendees on the event’s digital platform and are eagerly looking forward to an in-person event in 2022.
Uniquely, and excitingly for animation fans across Central and South America, Chilemonos’ entire competition and events lineup will be accessible across Latin America free of charge, supported by an alliance with the OndaMedia platform – which hosts the online version of the fest – and the Department of Culture at Chile’s Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage.
This year’s official festival sections include both international and Latin American short film competitions, international and Latin American student short competitions, a Latin American series competition and a Latin America-Spain animated feature competition. Three features fill out 2021’s feature film competition: Celia Catunda and Kiko Mistrorigo’s “Tarsilinha” from Brazil, Toni García’s “Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds” from Spain, and Leopoldo Aguilar’s Mexican feature “Monster Zone.”
Charades
Supplementing the festival’s competition sections, Chilemonos will also host several public conversations and conferences as well as masterclasses and workshops hosted by established industry professionals from around the world including the likes of Fernando Salem, the two-time International Emmy-nominated writer of “Siesta Z” and “La asombrosa excursión de Zamba,” as well as 2018 Annecy competition series “Petit”; Christian Andrade, Latin American ambassador for Unreal Engine; and Emmy-winning filmmaker Jorge Gutierrez, creator of Nickelodeon’s “El Tigre,” animated feature “The Book of Life” and Netflix’s upcoming “Maya and the Three.”
Gutierrez will also be honored as this year’s Chilemonos Icon Director in recognition not only of his career achievements, but for maintaining his identity throughout the years and establishing a distinct means of artistic expression recognized around the world.
The Cuphead Show!
Annecy Festival
Other speakers include Chilean Netflix artistic director Andrea Fernández, who has worked on major productions such as Cartoon Network’s “Unikitty!” and Netflix’s upcoming “The Cuphead Show,” and illustrator and screenwriter Amancay Nahuelpan, who currently illustrates for DC Comics.
A point of pride for this year’s 10th edition, Chilemonos has selected an almost evenly split competition jury which features more women than men by one. Among this year’s jurors are four-time Mexican Academy Award winner Rita Basuilto, who is currently collaborating on Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio”; Antonia Herrera, who lead the art department on Chile’s first-ever Oscar-winning film “Bear Story”; and former Chilemonos best Latin American short winner Daniela Fiore (“Un Oscuro Día de Injusticia”).