Iranian animation to vie at Animafest

Iranian animation ‘Am I a Wolf?’ will be competing at the 29th annual World Festival of Animated Film Zagreb, also known as Animafest Zagreb, this June in Croatia.

Directed by Amir-Houshang Moein, the 8-minute animation will be taking part in the festival’s Short Film Grand Competition.

The award-winning animation was able to successfully take home numerous awards at the 11th Tehran International Animation Festival (TIAF) last week.

Based on the fantasy book by Afsaneh Shabannejad, the animation is a recreation of the classic fable of ‘The Wolf and the Lamb’,

A brief synopsis of the short reads, ‘The students are performing a theater called 'The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats'. Everybody has a role. They are totally getting carried away by their roles in a way that the borders between reality and theatrical performance in now hardly realized.'

Meanwhile, the child acting as the wolf in the story is scripted to be defeated. That makes him feel lonely and annoyed. As he takes his role too seriously, a bit of chaos startles the group. In the end, the presence of other children and his friends next to him take him out of this atmosphere.

Founded in 1972, the Zagreb Animafest is the world’s second oldest animation film festival.

The event has been one of the world’s go-to film festivals for animation lovers, right next to film festivals in Annecy, Hiroshima, and Ottawa.

Winners of Animafest Zagreb’s Grand Prix awards automatically qualify for the Academy Award and the European Animation Award.

The festival’s 29th annual event will be held on June 3-8, 2019.

MB/FM