Everything is ready for the 10th edition of Animaphix – New Contemporary Languages Film Festival. The event, scheduled from July 22 to 28 in Bagheria (Pa) at Villa Cattolica, home of the Guttuso Museum, will once again offer the best of the international production of authorial animation cinema, showing the prolificity and liveliness of this form of cinema increasingly capable of being a vehicle and bearer of new artistic and narrative languages.
In 6 days of the festival, a total of 92 films will be presented, including 52 films in competition – 33 premieres, including national and international – divided into 5 sections (National, International, Animated Painting, Anidoc, Experimental) to offer a broad overview of the various declinations of the animation sector, enhancing authors and productions of high quality and giving ample space to emerging cinematographies, independent productions, films of difficult circulation, penalized by the market logic of film distribution. 40 films out of competition presented as part of retrospectives, focuses and special screenings.
A special retrospective will be dedicated to Theodore Ushev, an award-winning Bulgarian director, Canadian by adoption, who will be presented with the Renato Guttuso Award 2024 for his extraordinary production of works in animated painting. A Sicilian premiere will be presented of Invelle, the long-awaited feature film by award-winning Marche-based animation director Simone Massi, produced by Minimum Fax and distributed by Lucky Red, to be released in theaters next August 29.
The Festival continues its important collaboration with Palermo’s Instituto Cervantes this year, presenting Isabel Herguera’s feature film El sueño de la Sultana, as well as in-depth looks at Eastern European productions, in collaboration with Krakow’s Etiuda&Anima International Film Festival for the Focus Polish School of Animation Male Eye, Female Heart, dedicated to young female authors in Polish animation cinema, which will be introduced by director Marta Magnuska.
A magnifying glass will also focus on Italian animation with the special program “A mano libera – Arte e animazione in Italia” through a lectio magistralis by film historian and critic Bruno di Marino, who will take us into the multifaceted world little known to the general public of the extraordinary season of art and animation in Italy in the two decades 1957-1977.
An absolute novelty of this edition of Animaphix, intended to develop even more attention to new contemporary languages is the VR Zone, the section dedicated to films made in Virtual Reality by Wiola Sowa, Théodore Ushev and Leonardo Carrano.
Educational activities will be represented by several panels including “Hyper-Reality: New Forms of Animation Beyond the Screen,” an in-depth look at the potential of virtual reality in the creation of digital and audiovisual content; “Beyond Painting, Beyond Film: Animation,” investigating the relationship between animated cinema and the visual arts as a means of pictorial abstraction in motion; ‘Film Festivals and Local Development: Enhancement Processes and Spillovers to the Territory,’ an investigation of film festivals as catalysts for local development and urban regeneration, from analyses of territorial identity to project strategies and public-private cooperation.
The “Visual Arts” section will feature Idèe, a solo exhibition by Théodore Ushev, presented exclusively at the Festival, which draws inspiration from Franz Masarel’s graphic novel of the same name and Berthold Bartosch’s 1932 animated film. The exhibition transforms the exhibition space into a visual narrative of elements, frames, paintings, portraits and nude female figures, linked in a new, non-linear interpretation of Masarel’s graphic novel. Animaphix will also host Fiber Art artist Filly Cusenza’s installation Spazio Oltre, Dario Denso Andriolo’s video-sculpture installation Orma, and Nicola Scafidi’s photography exhibition on film sets in Sicily.
The space reserved for the dialogue between music and animated cinema will present Sonámbulo, a cine-concert by Giovanni Sollima-one of the greatest virtuosos of the cello and an internationally renowned composer-who will open the Festival, tracing the pictorial works of Bulgarian director and artist of Canadian adoption Theodore Ushev, through sounds ranging from baroque to rock and metal, for a performance of extraordinary energy; the cine-concert Visionaria, by the artistic duo composed of visual Gianluca Abbate and musician and composer Alessandro D’Alessandro, who will bring to life a visual narrative characterized by sounds that mix tradition and modernity, through the use of computer graphics, live footage, film inserts and archival images. Among the special events is the performance “Il Cunto” by and with the “cuntastorie” Mimmo Cuticchio, where the tale is entrusted to memory and a metrical scansion, body gestures, and facial expressions that transcend the textuality of the tale and are inscribed in the ephemeral art of the show. The performance, scheduled for Tuesday, July 23, 8:45 p.m., will introduce the film Invelle, in which the Palermo-based storyteller is a performer.
Finally, numerous will be in-depth meetings, talks and workshops. As always, a special focus will be on young audiences with the “Animaphix Kids” section; the “New Lands” format will be renewed, an extraordinary exploration to discover “New Territories,” with the special guidance of local actors who will involve citizens and artists from all over the world in order to create an enlarged, inclusive and intercultural community.

Animaphix 2024 officially opens on Monday, July 22 at 6 p.m. at the Museo Guttuso with a presentation of the Festival to the press, institutional greetings and a guided tour of the Museum. At 9 p.m. at Villa Cattolica’s Anifiteatro / Museo Guttuso there will be an exclusive presentation of Sonámbulo, a cine-concert by Giovanni Sollima – one of the greatest virtuosos of the cello and an internationally renowned composer – who will open the Festival, tracing the pictorial works of Bulgarian director and artist, Canadian adopted Theodore Ushev, through sounds ranging from baroque to rock, to metal, for a performance of extraordinary energy.

Animaphix – Nuovi Linguaggi Contemporanei Film Festival is made possible thanks to the contribution and patronage of the Ministry of Culture – General Directorate for Cinema and Audiovisual; the Sicilia Film Commission – which operates within the Department of Tourism, Sports and Entertainment of the Sicilian Region; and the Municipality of Bagheria. With the support of the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection of Sicily (Arpa Sicilia), the Arts and Humanities Council of the Quebéc Ministry of Culture and Communications, the Quebéc Delegation in Rome, the Instituto Cervantes in Palermo, the Embassy of the Czech Republic, the Czech Center in Rome, and the Polish Institute in Rome.

FREE ADMISSION SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY