Feinaki Animation Week Brings Four Packed Days of Screenings to Beijing, Nov 14

Animated film lovers, take note: the inaugural Feinaki Animation Week arrives in Beijing this Thursday, Nov 14. For four packed days, the animated film festival – whose name comes from the phenakistiscope, a 19th-century analog animation device – will take over Jungle Vision inside Langyuan Vintage, close to Guomao, for a stellar lineup of films and works by animators from all around the world.

The short films – 143 in total – will be screened under eight categories, including best film global submissions as well as the best of Russian and Canadian contemporary animation, a special Royal College of Art 30 years retrospective, and an animated music video program.

Highly anticipated entrants include imports like the 26-minute Acid Rain (2019) from Polish director Tomek Popakul, which first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; Bloeistraat 11 by Netherland filmmaker Nienke Deutz, the star of last year’s Festival International du Film d'Animation d'Annecy; stop-motion animation Teofrastus, from Estonian director Sergei Kibus; Japanse black humor cartoon Bath House of Whales (pictured at top); as well as a solid number of domestic stand-outs from Chinese filmmakers like The Coin and The Marriage of A Mouse, to name just a few.

If you're short on time, we'd recommend bagging tickets to the 24 Months Global Festival Pick, which encompasses 13 award-winning films from various established animation festivals around the world, showcasing global trends in world-class animation. Additionally, the Competition Program, shown over four separate screenings, includes 45 shorts chosen from 465 submissions from 27 countries and regions.

Feinake Animation Week runs Nov 14-17, 11am-9pm at Jungle Vision. Tickets cost RMB 60 individual sections or RMB 240 for one-day passes. Click here for full festival lineup (in Chinese) and tickets. Most of the shorts are dialogue-free, and all of those that do include dialogue will be screened with English subtitles.

Click here to see what's on at this year's Festival of German Cinema

Photos courtesy of Feinaki Animation Festival