Logo provided by OIAF.
The Canadian Film Institute’s Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) begins on Wednesday, Sept. 20 and runs to Sunday, Sept. 24. The first OIAF was in 1976, rapidly growing to be the largest animation festival in North America and one of the largest in the world. It has screenings, workshops, and entertainment for everyone, including kids. How big is it this year? An astounding 211 films by my count!
Most of the screenings will be at the ByTowne, the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) in the state-of-the-art Alma Duncan Theatre and the Arts Court Theatre. There are other events elsewhere in the OAG and Arts Court, at the Chateau Laurier, and at the National Arts Centre.
The audience will be professional animators from around the world (last year I met a fascinating young woman from Budapest), students from animation schools (mostly from Canada and the US), and a large contingent of animation fans. There’s even a Kids Day on Sept. 23 with free tickets for kids 12 and under, a Teen Pass, and free animation workshops, including an opportunity for kids to make their own animation with Ottawa filmmaker Pixie Cram.
At the ByTowne, 2021. Photo by Petr Maur.
Every possible animation technique, from hand-drawn cels to virtual reality, is represented at the festival. And it’s all at reasonable prices—a ticket to a screening is $14. There are also various passes, all of which are a good deal if you’re seeing multiple screenings (which you should).
There is a brief description of each film on the Film Catalogue page. The day-by-day Festival Schedule can be found here.
Where to begin? Let me be your guide to introduce you to days of wonderful animation!
I always circle films from Estonia (a tiny country that punches above its weight in animation) and from Canada, especially from the National Film Board (NFB) and Sheridan College. I love stop-motion—think Wallace and Gromit. Beautifully drawn impressionistic films attract me, and it wouldn’t be the OIAF if there weren’t films that made me laugh or left me with a lump in my throat.
In the Alma Duncan Salon. Photo by Thomas Duncan.
I usually start with the short films that are in competition. A ticket to a short film competition screening gets you into a curated collection of six-to-ten short films lasting a total of about an hour. There are five Short Film Competitions, a Canadian Student Competition, a Teen Audiences 13+ Competition, a Young Audiences 7+ Competition, and an Animated Series Competition. There are also four other collections of short films and a Feature Competition—I’ll get to them in a moment. Of all the short film competitions, here are the ones that I’m most eager to see:
- Short Film Competition 2, because of three of its films: The Beatles “I’m Only Sleeping,” which is entirely hand-painted and, of course, has Beatles songs on the soundtrack; “The Girl with the Red Beret” in which a girl takes a wild ride on the Montreal Metro, and “The Miracle” with its multiple animation techniques and intriguing synopsis.
- Short Film Competition 4, because it has three films from Estonia, one of my favourite sources of animated films. And one of them looks like it was inspired by Edward Gorey.
- Teen Audiences 13+ Competition, because it includes a film from Iran about a schoolgirl’s memories. Iranian films are rare at the OIAF.
- Young Audiences 7+ Competition, because there are several films about immigration, plus a football contest between a boy and a goose.
Four other short film compilations aren’t in competition—Canadian Panorama, World Student Panorama, World Panorama, and Virtual Reality. The latter has an intriguing film called Caves, a choral experience inside a gigantic prehistoric cave. The World Panorama has several films which promise to be beautiful examples of animation art, so that’s a screening on my must-see list. Additionally, the Canadian Panorama has a flick called Madeleine about two friends, 67 years apart in age, exchanging stories from their lives.
Still from The Girl with the Red Beret. Image provided by OIAF.
Then there are the seven Feature Competition films. Each feature is screened separately—they range from 70 to 115 minutes long. Try at least one! The ones I plan to see are White Plastic Sky (an ageist dystopian future), No Dogs or Italians Allowed (a stop-motion film about poor Italian immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century) and Chicken for Linda! (which looks as if it will be a lot of fun). Incidentally, each feature is preceded by one or two short films. This is a chance to see some little gems from past OIAFs.
Wait, there’s more! The OIAF always has at least one retrospective: this year, it’s a tribute to the Japanese animator Masaaki Yuasa.
To wrap everything up, there are two Best of the OIAF screenings on Sept. 24 at the ByTowne of the short films that won prizes.
Well, that should get you started. Have fun at the OIAF!
The Ottawa International Animation Festival’s website is www.animationfestival.ca. The film catalogue is at vp.eventival.com/oiaf/2023/film-catalogue, the daily festival schedule is at vp.eventival.com/oiaf/2023/film-schedule, the young audiences info is at www.animationfestival.ca/youngaudiences, and you can buy tickets and passes at www.animationfestival.ca/boxoffice.
