Last year was Anima Mundi’s 18th birthday. During all this time, the festival has grown side by side to Brazilian animation industry, which has only achieved the status of solid economic sector in recent years. Nowadays, we can affirm that the animation produced in Brazil is high qualified, what allows us getting new responsibilities. On the other hand, we are now mature enough to identify the obstacles and challenges that remain in the horizon, separating us from being an international platform of animation content. We have grown, yes. But that doesn’t mean that we are ready. So the question is: what now?

Trying to solve this tuff puzzle was Anima Forum’s job. This four day event runs at the same time than Anima Mundi and is specially designed to professional animators. Besides open debates about Brazil's animation industry and ways to develop it, the participants also learn a lot in the Masterclasses. “Teachers” from all around the world come to share a little bit of their experience in the animation field. This year we had American David Daniels, who invented an incredible technique with clay, called Strata Cut, Tom Cordone, who came to talk about the movie Rio’s design and art project and Ryan Woodward, a storyboard artist that has made draws to films like Ironman 2 and Spiderman 2 and 3.

In 2011, our main priority was to create a space where free speech could flourish and in which we were all able to discuss what should be done to guarantee the rights achieved so far. In many ways we have achieved this goals and now is time to put then in practice and stood up for the things we believe. Animation is one of modern life’s main cultural spots and is very important that we fight to maintain it. In the next posts you can check more information about the classes and lectures of Anima Forum.