More than 400 animated films are part of La Monstra

La Monstra, the main animated film festival in Portugal, returns to Lisbon with a program of more than 400 films from 46 countries and with an eye on films from Eastern Europe.

The twenty-first edition of the event, which runs until March 27 in various spaces of the capital, has Bulgaria as its guest country and will honor its classics and contemporaries.

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the creation of the animation department of the National Institute of Bulgarian Cinematographythe Monstra will do a retrospective with eighty films, some of notable figures such as Todor Dinov and Ivan Veselinov.

The event will feature a specific section on Eastern Europe, through collaborations with four festivals: Animeka (Slovenia), Animator (Poland), Animafest (Croatia) and Animest (Romania).

Among the rest of the programming, which revolves around the axis of analog and digital animation, highlights fleefrom Danish Jonas Poher Rasmussen, which will be at the Monstra before reaching cinemas in Portugal.

flee is an animated docudrama that portrays the life of an Afghan refugee in Denmark and is nominated for three Oscars, in the categories of best international film, best documentary and best animated film.

In the feature film competition there will be, among others, Ma Famille Afghanefrom the Czech Michaela Pavlatova; La Traverseefrom the French Florence Miailheand Bob Cuspefrom the Brazilian Caesar Cabral, three distinguished films at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival (France), one of the most important.

Among the competing shorts are Bad Seedsby the Canadian Claude Cloutier; Beastby Chilean Hugo Covarrubias; The Awakening of the Insectsby the French Stéphanie Lansaque and François Leroy, and Affairs of the Artfrom the English Joanna Quinn.

Outside the competition there will be a special program dedicated to Brazilian animation, with films such as Rio 2096by Luiz Bolognesi; O Menino eo Mundoby Ale Abreu; History before a historyby Wilson Lazaretti, or Tito and the Pássarosby Gustavo Steinberg, Gabriel Bitar and André Catoto.

The festival also has a section dedicated to horror and fantasy animation films (TerrorAnim) and another to erotic films (Triple X).

La Monstra also organizes several exhibitions, such as Across the Chamber, my grandfather’s demonswhich shows behind the scenes of the first Portuguese puppet animation film (stop motion).

In this edition there will also be the “Monstrinha”, the section with family films designed for the youngest. (I)