North America’s Largest Animation Event Turns 40

_ (press release) _ This year’s event,  which runs from

September 21-25, 2016

, will be a mixture of past, present and future. To start things off, the release of the OIAF 16 poster. Fittingly, organizers turned to a dynamic local artist, Michael Zavacky (responsible for numerous popular campaign ads for the OIAF during the last few years) to come up with something bold and fresh that would honour our past.

“It was a great honour, “says Zavacky, “to be asked to design the OIAF 40th anniversary poster and I really wanted to create something that paid tribute to the long and illustrious history of this amazing event. I also wanted to design something that people who attend OIAF would hopefully appreciate and enjoy exploring. So I started packing it full visual references to characters and objects that have played a starring role in the history of OIAF. It’s a veritable “Where’s Waldo” of things to find and try to identify."

The OIAF is also pleased to announce that for the first time in its history there will be screenings of every Grand Prize winning film since 1976. “True to the OIAF’s edgy, eclectic nature,” says OIAF Artistic Director, Chris Robinson,  “the winners include a mix of animation classics (e.g. The Street, The Man Who Planted Trees, The Wrong Trousers, Ryan), controversial choices (e.g. Jerzy Kucia’s Chips at Ottawa 82, Igor Kovalyov’s Hen, His Wife from Ottawa 90 and last year’s winner, Small People with Hats), along with an assortment of innovative picks that have helped solidify the OIAF as a festival that dances to its own beat.”

Many of the Grand Prize winners will also be in attendance, including Igor Kovalyov who won the Festival’s top award an unprecedented three times. The Festival has also commissioned a number of international animation historians, programmers and critics to write essays about each of the winning films.

The OIAF40 Grand Prize retrospective will take up six distinct, chronological screenings during this year’s Festival. Full details and more programming announcements will be available soon at animationfestival.ca For a look at this year’s poster: https://www.animationfestival.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=262&Itemid=1041#Poster The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is one of the world’s leading animation events providing screenings, talks, workshops and entertainment since 1976. OIAF is an annual five- day event bringing art and industry together in a vibrant hub and attracting more than 30,000 artists, producers, students and animation fans from around the world. For more information, visit the OIAF website at: www.animationfestival.ca .