Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the LINOLEUM Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival will take place from October 4 to 8 in Kyiv, within the first innovation park in Ukraine – UNIT.City. The theme of the event will be ‘Once upon a time…’.

The festival aims to support artists in the animation industry and promote it worldwide, as well as encourage and celebrate their creativity. Inaugurated in 2014 in Kyiv, the event screens around 250 films from around the world each year, organizes workshops, seminars and a special program for children.

The goal is to present and distribute the best short animated films in Ukrainian cities, where there are very limited chances to see them.

The program will be very intensive: 3 competitions (a total of 7 screening blocks), 4 non-competitive sections, 5 special screenings, experimental animation and video art, 6 blocks for children of various ages, 8 lectures and workshops by leading Ukrainian and foreign animators.

Within the largest section – International Competition (42 films), there are five separate film selections named after one of the films in competition. Most of them deal with what permeates our existence: war, horror, anger and separation. But also about the resistance that united the whole country.

National films will be screened in one big block with the NEW FACES program, which presents films by up-and-coming Ukrainian animators. The unified program is called Ukrainian Voices. At the end of the screening there will be a question and answer session with the authors of the films.

Twenty-three animation projects will compete for the first prize in the Commissioned Films Competition. Ther will be music videos by artists who have worked for Thom Yorke and Elton John, educational videos for international organizations and creative commercials.

In addition, during the festival a package of significant films made by children, teenagers, student films and beginners will be screened.

On the weekend of October 7-8, a fair of emerging artists will also be held in the UNIT.Verse pavilion. They will present their works and products for sale and hold master classes.