Fans of animated films and those working in the animation industry are looking forward to this year's Animahenasyon. The festival brings together animated films, long and short, from across the country and around the world, including from Portugal and Bulgaria.
Long before the call center exemplified the Filipino outsourcing scene, there was the local animation firm Fil-Cartoons. The company remains notable for working on Hanna-Barbera's cartoons, but it has also worked on animated shows from Warner Brothers and the Cartoon Network. The animation sector in the country has grown since then, and the Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc. has been holding an annual affair to bring together the best of what this country's animators could do. Animahenasyon 2012 posters have come up in MRT stations and was prominently advertised at the last Cinemalaya film festival. This year's Animahenasyon, held since 2007, will take place at the De La Salle-College of St Benilde School of Design and Arts from November 26 to 29. The festival brings together animated films, long and short, from across the country and around the world, including from Portugal and Bulgaria. Apart from the featured films, there will be a conference featuring speakers from both the animation industry and elsewhere, including AJ Siytangco (who worked on the Academy Award-winning film “Rango”) and film historian Nick Deocampo. Nelson “Blog” Caliguila, an alumnus of this year's host institution, will be formally confirmed as this year's Outstanding Emerging Artist in Animation at the festival. Ricky Orellana, this year's festival programmer, said at a press conference to launch the event, “We believe that it's time to give recognition to the upcoming and new generation of animation artists.” The past festivals mostly focused on lifetime achievement, he added, including such luminaries as Nonoy Marcelo and Larry Alcala. “We used to give awards to the pioneers,” Orellana said, “but we felt it's time to recognize the new pioneers in the field.” Caliguila, a graduate of the Multimedia Arts program at CSB, has made short films that have won him recognition here and elsewhere, including the Puchon International Student Animation festival in 2007 and the Cinemanila Festival in 2008. He has worked with Toon City Animation, Inc., a local subcontractor for Disney, and has been an independent animator since 2008. His short film “Mutya,” a fable on environmentalism and urbanization, was produced by the National Commission on Culture and the Arts in 2009. At the press conference, Caliguila let his work do the talking, showing clips from an upcoming short film “Doon Po Sa Amin.” He is producing the film in cooperation with the Climate Change Commission of the Philippines and the Information and Communications Technology office, formerly the Commission of Information and Communications Technology. “To be honest, I wasn't expecting this award,” Caliguia said, “because I was really looking forward to becoming more active in the festival circuit next year.” The festival will be screening full-length animated films from France, Spain, and Australia, among others, apart from entries to the competition which will cover animated films in different categories, including both narrative film and films made for a professional context. The foreign films are being shown thanks to the support of foreign embassies. Apart from the screenings and the aforementioned conference, there will be a trade fair from different Animation Council of the Philippines organizations and an arts workshop. The festival will be open to the public, but the main audience will be students, a constituency that accounts for a large number of competition entries. “There are 127 entries this year, including entries from the regions,” he said, “but this year, this will be the first time we have received an entry from Davao.” Past festivals have been staged in Ateneo de Naga, which is also known for its animation program, and the next festival in 2013 will be in Iloilo City. No details have yet to be given on the cost of ticket packages or festival passes. Apart from the ACPI, the festival is also supported by the Film Development Council of the Philippines and the International Academy of Film and Television (a campus of which is based in Cebu City).
— KG, GMA News For more information on the festival, visit the Animahenasyon 2012 site http://www.animahenasyon.com/2012 
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