Lagos animation feast gets state’s endorsement, receives over 1000 entries
LAGOS International Festival of Animation (LIFANIMA) has received the endorsement of the Lagos State Ministry of Tourism and Culture. The state further pledged the collaboration of its agency, The Lagos State Films and Video Censors Board, with animation festival, which was conveyed in a letter signed by the Executive Secretary of the Board, Mrs. Bukola Agbaminoja. According to her, the endorsement is based on the festival’s strategic intent to to promote the rapid development of the animation industry in Nigeria and across Africa, to improve the movie industry through increased inclusion of animation content, to provide a platform for the promotion of local animators and development of the quality of animation, and to expose animators to the latest technologies in animation hardware and software.
In its fifth year, LIFANIMA has been working for the promotion and development of the animation industry in Lagos State, Nigeria and across Africa. LIFANIMA is scheduled to hold on November 11 – 12 at Freedom Park, Lagos.
Submissions of entries for the 5th edition of Lagos International Festival of Animation, LIFANIMA closed on September 30, 2021 with 1,105 entries from more than 100 countries, including 17 African countries. The festival has also introduced a new category for submissions called Stop Motion Animation category. Before now, the festival had four categories, namely 2D Animation Short, 3D Animation Short, Animation Commercial and Visual Effects.
For the current year, the festival received the highest number of entries in the 2D Animation Short category, which recorded 676 entries, while the newly introduced category, Stop Motion Animation pulled 240 entries.
Festival Director, creator and Executive Producer of multiple award-winning animation series Turtle Taido, Muyiwa Kayode, said, “Last year we had to do a virtual festival due to the pandemic but this year we are excited at the possibility of having an onsite festival. We are also happy at the rapid growth of LIFANIMA into what is today one of the top two animation film festivals in Africa. We are even more excited at what this means for the African film industry. LIFANIMA is bringing African animators together and we are poised to see greater collaboration that will culminate in the successful production of proudly African animation features that tell the African story.”
LIFANIMA has the objectives to promote the rapid development of the animation industry in Nigeria and across Africa, to improve the movie industry through increased inclusion of animation content, to provide a platform for the promotion of local animators and development of the quality of animation and to expose animators to the latest technologies in animation hardware and software.
The animation-specific film festival was founded by Muyiwa Kayode in 2017 to promote the animation genre and support its practitioners in the continent. Over the years, it has seen a steady increase in submission of films across the categories of 2D, 3D animation, animation commercials and visual effects. The 2019 edition received over 400 films from more than 70 countries in the continent and Diaspora while last year, more than 900 entries were submitted.
The festival will feature Screening of Selected Works, Award Presentation, Networking and Entertainment, and will attract animators, local and foreign, filmmakers, investors, financial institutions, advertising agencies, musical video producers, media practitioners, digital marketing professionals, government agencies, information technology companies/manufacturers and the public.
