The ANIMATOR International Animated Film Festival and the Department of Film, Television and New Media AMU invite you to the international academic conference entitled “From Starewicz to ‘Star Wars’. A Puppet in the Physical and Social Sphere and Cosmic Space” that will be held during the 9th edition of the Festival on July 12-13, 2016, in Poznań.
Władysław Starewicz, the “father” of the puppet animation (whose fiftieth death anniversary will be this year) led the puppet animation technique to perfection. His anthropomorphic puppets had almost human-like facial expressions, and their movements astonished with precision. The later great puppeteers as if moved to the other direction: of simplifying the characters, allusions, cuts. Together with the birth of 3D technology, a kind of return to naturalism, to the roots took place. But a virtual, supernaturalistic puppet also broke unnoticed to the feature film, the symbol of which may be, for example, Yoda from “Star Wars” or the dinosaurs of the not to mention “Avatar“.
We propose to consider the role of a film puppet, also the virtual one, in three spheres: physical, traditional, when the puppet was animated frame by frame in real decorations; social, i.e. the one in which it has interacted with external reality; and cosmic space, that is created by new technologies. Those three spheres as if symbolize the three issues associated with puppets, or more broadly – animation, and its context.These include: tradition, place and role in social and cultural processes, and the digital revolution that is still in progress. Is there a future for traditional puppet animation? Is a virtual puppet still a puppet?
Exemplary subject range of presentations you can find on our website.
The applications (the topic together with a short abstract approx. 1,500 characters) should be sent until March 15, 2016, to the following e-mail address: conference@animator-festival.com. All those who submit their applications until the end of March will be notified of their acceptance. The preferred presentation language is English. Presentation length – approx. 25 minutes. The organizers will provide a one-night accommodation and accreditation for all the events of the 9th edition of the ANIMATOR Festival.