Type: Free event

This year from week 39 up to and including 42, Viborg Animation Festival holds a Treasure Hunt for the entire family. Around Viborg’s center you can find pictures of animal-human like creatures who are visiting from their stop-motion universe made by this year’s VAF Artist: Niki Lindroth von Bahr.
Come along on a breezy walk and try to find the different animals around on the streets and the shops.

Keep a cool mind and have a sharp eye for the details because it is exactly the details you should be looking for to answer the questions for each picture. When you have answered all the questions a VAF prize awaits!

Do you want to create animation yourselves? Visit VAF in week 39 and go for the ANIMNOK childrens creative workshop in Student House or dive down in to marvelous Animanimals-univers in the Tinghallen foyer.

Where do I get the Scavenger map?

Get a physical copy of the Scavenger map at Tinghallen during the festival OR save the online version above.

What happens when conditions and circumstances push our will to fight for what’s right for our communities and our world to the breaking point? Mikkel Hørlycks photo series cover migration to Europe, long-running addiction, an orphanage for vulnerable children, the consequences of corona virus, eating disorder and soldiers from Denmark and our allied nations. The common denominator of Hørlyck’s photos is an exploration of the human will to survive, universal emotions connecting the stories of vastly different subjects.

Starting week 40, the exhibition will be shown at Viborg main library, where Mikkel Hørlyck will speak October 11 at 18:30 (more info at viborgbib.dk)

11.-29. september weekdays 08.00-16.00
NB: 27. september 08.00-21.00 & 28. september kl. 08.00-20.00.

Houlkær by Heart is organized as part of and in collaboration with Viborg Animation Festival. During the festival a special venue has been established in the Houlkær district, which, based on Media College Denmark and Viborg Gymnasium, embraces visual creativity in the broadest sense.

THE GARDEN – ceramic mythologies in the open

Exhibition in the Skovgaard Museum courtyard – free access around the clock.

Vernissage Thursday 21 September at 14 in the museum’s courtyard.

During late summer Visuel HF’s 3rd year students have shaped, fired and glazed ceramic sculptures based on a staged mythology in the space between what exists and what does not exist…
Under the guidance of ceramicist Christel Bækgaard and teacher at Visuel HF, Iben Lindebjerg, the young people create an outdoor, mythological universe, which can be experienced in the Skovgaard Museum courtyard during VAF.

About VISUAL HF
Visuel HF is a 3-year combined youth education at The Animation Workshop/
VIA University College and Viborg Gymnasium, where the young people get a high school diploma over the course of three years
HF education combined with a basic visual education in e.g. visual arts, graphic storytelling, animation and photography. Read more at www.visuelhf.dk.

For VAF 2023 Visuel HF’s 1st year will be animating in colored sand during a five-day workshop with interdisciplinary artist Signe Klejs.

Workshop at seven public locations in the center of Viborg – Mon-Fri at 9 – 15. The works can be experienced around the clock – also after the workshop.

Many people might know Signe Klejs’s light installations on the bridges in Bjerringbro and Aarhus, but at the same time Klejs has over the years created a number of ephemeral works in colored sand – among others for the art museum Brandts in Odense and in the coming six months for the art museum ARoS in Aarhus. See Signe’s previous installations and screen-based works here: www.signeklejs.dk.

Based on the same technique, Visuel HF’s young talents now have the opportunity to make their mark in colored sand and thus add a changing narrative to the selected locations. Common to the works by the students is that they undergo change over time, because even though the material is heavy and sturdy, the patterns in which the young people arrange it are fragile to influences by weather and people passing by. Exactly these entropic, random conditions in the system are investigated in the workshop during VAF.

Experience the newly created magical musical short film about Moss-infested Mogens
The children go on an aesthetic journey into the great Nordic Forest, visually created by the local animation studio Ouros with inspiration from the book; Mosbefængte Mogens, for which the film composer Mathias Madsen Munch wrote the soundtrack and recorded it with a full symphony orchestra.
The fantastic, animated orchestra fantasy opens up the children’s ears and eyes in an immersive way, and the children will be guided through the story by Mathias Madsen Munch, a story that speaks directly to current topics such as climate awareness, nature protection and identity and friendship.

Suitable for all ages.

The screening is in Danish

Discover the miniature sets and characters made by internationally recognized stop – motion filmmaker and artist Niki Lindroth Von Bahr in VAF Artist exhibition taking place at Tinghallen foyer during the entire festival duration.

Italian airship engineer Umberto Nobile enjoys a quiet life with his beloved dog Titina, who charmed him into rescuing her from the streets of Rome. One day, Norwegian explorer superstar Roald Amundsen contacts him and orders an airship to conquer the North Pole. Nobile seizes the opportunity to go down in history. He takes Titina with him and the unlikely trio sets off on an expedition to the last undiscovered place on Earth. Their quest is successful, but in the aftermath the two men begin to argue about the glory … Through the eyes of the four-legged celebrity Titina, (re)discover a true story of triumph and defeat.

Screened in Norwegian with English subtitles

Suitable from age 11

Join us for the official opening of Viborg Animation Festival 2023!

Opening feature at VAF 2023!

Shenxiu was abandoned by her mother when she was a child. One day, she travels on a cruise ship with her family. On a stormy night, she falls into the sea and breaks into the magical “Deep Sea” restaurant, an old, transformed submarine. She meets the Chef, Nanhe, and embarks on a journey between dream and reality, life and death. DEEP SEA is the sea of the soul, where painful secrets and beautiful memories are hidden.

Screened in Chinese with English subtitles

The film is screened in 3D

Suitable for age 11+

Viborg UNESCO Creative City invites all of Denmark and the rest of the world to join in an annual drawing campaign!

Drawing is absolutely fundamental to humankind, regardless of background and origin. The earliest traces of our species are drawings in caves, and most of us draw before we speak.
In Viborg, we have a special and long-standing position of strength in drawing, animation, children’s culture and creativity. We know the value of drawing for children, for young people and adults. Unfortunately, most Danish children stop drawing from the third grade and onwards. This is a problem as we are losing creativity. We strive to change that.

For the last two years Viborg UNESCO Creative City has therefore invited children and young people from all over the world to draw through the global drawing campaign TegnHåb, circling around corona and trust. The ambition is to strengthen our understanding of the value and importance drawing has for children and young people’s creativity and development. Because we have to nourish the passion for drawing.

In the same period, Viborg Municipality created Grønne Sammen (Green Together) – together for a sustainable future – with focus on green transition and sustainability. In this year’s edition, we link the two initiatives, inviting Denmark and the rest of the world to join DrawHope – Green Together 2023 – based on 20 drawing challenges.

This year, we received approx. 1200 drawings from 15 countries spread over five continents, once again making the campaign a global event, and animators in Viborg, Columbia and Georgia are currently working on creating series of animated films based on the drawings. Two animated films are being produced by Multara Al-Ameri, who graduated from The Animation Workshop, and a Colombian animator based on drawings from a 7th grade team in visual arts from Vestre Skole in Viborg and a corresponding team from school in Cali, Columbia. Drawings and animations are shown and projected during VAF in the Music School’s large windows and later in the year in Cali Columbia, York England and in Tbilisi Georgia.

Exhibited in the windows at the Kulturskolen foyer in Gravene, 8800 Viborg

The best animated short films from this year, all in one place!

The animated short film is a unique format – neither feature film nor tv series episode, but an intense and concise mini story offering maximum impact per minute. All the films in the program are nominated for VAF Best Short Film at the VAF Award show.

The films in this program are humorous, absurd, sad, poignant. Often, you’ll find yourself wondering “can animation really look like that?”, because the filmmaker has had free hands to experiment with hand-drawn animation, 3D animation, cutout, puppet animation and any conceivable combination of techniques.

VAF Best Short program offers a glimpse into the stunning diversity of the world of animation – and into its future: This is where the directors of tomorrow come up with the ideas and concepts that will define feature films and tv series going forward.

For more information on the films in competition, click here.

Films in the program:

• Slow Light – Katarzyna Kijek, Przemysław Adamski – 2022 – Poland
• Sweet Like Lemons – Jenny Jokela – 2023 – United Kingdom
• Her Dress for the Final – Martina Mestrovic – 2023 – Croatia
• Eeva -Lucija Mrzljak, Morten Tšinakov – 2022 – Estonia, Croatia
• Ice Merchants –  João Gonzalez – 2022 – Portugal
• ‘Think Something Nice – Claudius Gentinetta – 2022 – Swizterland
• Menagerie – Jack Gray – 2022 – United States
• Y -Matea Kovač – 2023 – Croatia
• Misaligned – Marta Magnuska – 2022 – Poland, Latvia

Country: International
Duration: 1 hour 25 min
Language: Multiple languages
Subtitles: English
Age limit: 15+

What happens when conditions and circumstances push our will to fight for what’s right for our communities and our world to the breaking point? Mikkel Hørlycks photo series cover migration to Europe, long-running addiction, an orphanage for vulnerable children, the consequences of corona virus, eating disorder and soldiers from Denmark and our allied nations. The common denominator of Hørlyck’s photos is an exploration of the human will to survive, universal emotions connecting the stories of vastly different subjects.

Starting week 40, the exhibition will be shown at Viborg main library, where Mikkel Hørlyck will speak October 11 at 18:30 (more info at viborgbib.dk)

11.-29. september weekdays 08.00-16.00
NB: 27. september 08.00-21.00 & 28. september kl. 08.00-20.00.

Houlkær by Heart is organized as part of and in collaboration with Viborg Animation Festival. During the festival a special venue has been established in the Houlkær district, which, based on Media College Denmark and Viborg Gymnasium, embraces visual creativity in the broadest sense.

THE GARDEN – ceramic mythologies in the open

Exhibition in the Skovgaard Museum courtyard – free access around the clock.

Vernissage Thursday 21 September at 14 in the museum’s courtyard.

During late summer Visuel HF’s 3rd year students have shaped, fired and glazed ceramic sculptures based on a staged mythology in the space between what exists and what does not exist…
Under the guidance of ceramicist Christel Bækgaard and teacher at Visuel HF, Iben Lindebjerg, the young people create an outdoor, mythological universe, which can be experienced in the Skovgaard Museum courtyard during VAF.

About VISUAL HF
Visuel HF is a 3-year combined youth education at The Animation Workshop/
VIA University College and Viborg Gymnasium, where the young people get a high school diploma over the course of three years
HF education combined with a basic visual education in e.g. visual arts, graphic storytelling, animation and photography. Read more at www.visuelhf.dk.

Charlie the little rabbit is very much looking forward to his birthday, but it seems that the day will be completely different than he imagined. Little sister has fallen ill, and now neither mother nor father have time to celebrate Charlie. Disappointed, he decides to go to his grandmother – he must go straight through the forest!

Fortunately, he has his best friend Monica with him and together they must be brave as they embark on new adventures in the forest.

The event is in Danish

Suitable for all ages

The ANIMOK Youth jury are pupils from the 6th grade

They are taught how to evaluate animated films as members of a jury; what criteria should they judge the films on, how do they analyze films? How do they talk about them? 

They will see a specially selected short film program of Danish and foreign short films, discuss the merits of the nominees, and then select a winner. 

The goal of the ANIMOK Youth Jury is to provide kids with a forum where their ideas and thoughts are taken seriously. Through community building dialogue and group work, they experience different perspectives and views on the world while being challenged to think differently and watch films in new ways together in order to eventually find one winner.

The films in the program:

Tales of Zale – Flickering Lights – Sif Savery – 2022 – Denmark

With a Wool Ball (Con un ovillo de lana) – 2022

The Swineherd (Svinedrengen) – Magnus Igland Møller, Peter Smith – 2022 – Denmark

The Queen of the Foxes (La Reine des Renards) – Marina Rosset – 2022 – Swizterland

Princess Aubergine (Prinzessin Aubergine) – Dina Velikovskaya – 2023 – Germany

Somni – Sonja Rohleder– 2023 – Germany

Letters From the Edge of the Forest – Jelena Oroz – 2023 – Croatia

Closed to participating schools

For the first time, we are opening up the ANIMATION PLAYGROUND, a multi-story playful universe with real animation magic.
We are converting the Student House at VIA University College into ANIMATION PLAYGROUND open for families all weekend.

Experience the storytelling cave, where you can dive into the fantastic illustrative narratives and universes found in Danish literature.

Play with an abundance of creative expressions. Create funny, fantastic, romantic or dramatic animation films with different animation techniques, such as GIFs, turntable animation, collage animation, pixilation, cut out and many more.

Build with Mouse and Crane in the mechanics workshop: Mouse and Crane is a Danish concept consisting of games, films and books, which in a fun and engaging way inspire children to build and come up with ingenious solutions when a problem arises.
In the mechanics workshop, it will be possible to play the game, watch movies and build your very own crazy machines.

A visit to the Animation Playground does not require registration, and you decide for yourself how long you wish to stay.

For VAF 2023 Visuel HF’s 1st year will be animating in colored sand during a five-day workshop with interdisciplinary artist Signe Klejs.

Workshop at seven public locations in the center of Viborg – Mon-Fri at 9 – 15. The works can be experienced around the clock – also after the workshop.

Many people might know Signe Klejs’s light installations on the bridges in Bjerringbro and Aarhus, but at the same time Klejs has over the years created a number of ephemeral works in colored sand – among others for the art museum Brandts in Odense and in the coming six months for the art museum ARoS in Aarhus. See Signe’s previous installations and screen-based works here: www.signeklejs.dk.

Based on the same technique, Visuel HF’s young talents now have the opportunity to make their mark in colored sand and thus add a changing narrative to the selected locations. Common to the works by the students is that they undergo change over time, because even though the material is heavy and sturdy, the patterns in which the young people arrange it are fragile to influences by weather and people passing by. Exactly these entropic, random conditions in the system are investigated in the workshop during VAF.

Attendees can  experience the pieces from 10:00 – to 17:30

26-28.09
Voting

29.09 at 19:30 (Doors open)
Award ceremony at VAF Awards

Film x Dialogue: Faith, hope and love – Young narrator
In this event, students will meet 4 young Danish talents in film and literature. With the programme, we focus on how they use their passion for storytelling and their artistic craft as a voice for and about the youth. The students will see films, read comics, hear readings of youth literature, and there will be plenty of opportunity to ask the young artists questions when we set up a conversation about what matters to young people today and what stories they create through their own youth culture.
The talk will be facilitated by playwright Josephine Eusebius Olhoff-Jakobsen

Meet
Toke Madsen, Animation Director
Michala Elk, Author
Snackbag Studios aka Illustrators Heidi Nat Holmeå & Cecilie “Q” Maintz Thorsen

The Event is in Danish

Suitable for ages 11+ 

This new imaginative Pixar adventure ‘Elemental’ follows Ember and Wade, who live in a city where all the elements – fire, water, land and air – live together. Ember is a cool firebrand, while Wade is a quiet guy who just goes with the flow.

The Screening is closed for booking

Screened in Danish

Suitable from 7+

An exciting program with a selection of films received from art and animation schools around the world

VAF Best Graduation Film celebrates young filmmakers from animation schools around the world. All the films in the program are nominated for the Best Graduation Film at the VAF Award show.
The program is full of playful ideas, profound themes, delirious energy and a lot of courage and desire to create and tell stories. The films show a wide range of styles and techniques, where storytelling and ingenuity create unique ideas and visions from young filmmakers who are ready to go out into the world and bend it to their will.

For more information on the films in competition, click here. 

Films in the program:

• Dede is dead – Philippe Kastner– 2023 – Czech Republic
• Fox Tossing – Zénó Mira– 2023 – Hungary
• Mano – Toke Ringmann – 2022- Denmark
• The Eastern Rain – Milly Yencken – 2023 – Estonia
• La Vita Nuova – Arthur Sevestre – 2022 – France
• Fires – Mohammad Babakoohi – 2023 – France
• The Florist – Joachim Perino-Pegalajar – 2022 – France
• Hercinia – Sameliina Paurson – 2022 – Estonia
• Broken – Léa Pulini – 2022 – France
• Hope – Kanto Randresy, Oualid Laouer, Lucie Jean, Henry Mbouem Mbeck, Maxime Pitrou – 2022 – France
• Doubt – Adela Križovenská – 2023 – Czech republic
• Pussy Love – Linda Krauss – 2023 – Germany
• A Bone To Pick With – Nika Karner – 2022- Slovenia
• Shroomsday – Daniel Denzer, Marius Oelsch, Rita Weiss, Alessa Wolfram – 2022 – Austria

Country: International
Duration: 1 hour 27 min.
Language: No dialogue
Subtitles: None
Age limit: 15+

Viborg UNESCO Creative City invites all of Denmark and the rest of the world to join in an annual drawing campaign!

Drawing is absolutely fundamental to humankind, regardless of background and origin. The earliest traces of our species are drawings in caves, and most of us draw before we speak.
In Viborg, we have a special and long-standing position of strength in drawing, animation, children’s culture and creativity. We know the value of drawing for children, for young people and adults. Unfortunately, most Danish children stop drawing from the third grade and onwards. This is a problem as we are losing creativity. We strive to change that.

For the last two years Viborg UNESCO Creative City has therefore invited children and young people from all over the world to draw through the global drawing campaign TegnHåb, circling around corona and trust. The ambition is to strengthen our understanding of the value and importance drawing has for children and young people’s creativity and development. Because we have to nourish the passion for drawing.

In the same period, Viborg Municipality created Grønne Sammen (Green Together) – together for a sustainable future – with focus on green transition and sustainability. In this year’s edition, we link the two initiatives, inviting Denmark and the rest of the world to join DrawHope – Green Together 2023 – based on 20 drawing challenges.

This year, we received approx. 1200 drawings from 15 countries spread over five continents, once again making the campaign a global event, and animators in Viborg, Columbia and Georgia are currently working on creating series of animated films based on the drawings. Two animated films are being produced by Multara Al-Ameri, who graduated from The Animation Workshop, and a Colombian animator based on drawings from a 7th grade team in visual arts from Vestre Skole in Viborg and a corresponding team from school in Cali, Columbia. Drawings and animations are shown and projected during VAF in the Music School’s large windows and later in the year in Cali Columbia, York England and in Tbilisi Georgia.

Exhibited in the windows at the Kulturskolen foyer in Gravene, 8800 Viborg

Get a beer at the coolest place in town while you watch amazing animation. You can drop by anytime and watch selected programs from this year’s nominated short films in casual surroundings.

Ølluminati has closed of half of the bar to act as an alternative cinema venue during VAF. During the festival week you can drop by and watch amazing short films while you get a drink. Each night you can experience different programs. Make sure to try one of the annual VAF Beers with labels decorated by VAF Artist Niki Linroth von Bahr, and brewed by Ølluminati super-brewer and owner, Theis Bach Nielsen

• Tuesday – Screening VAF Best Short Film – All the nominated titles for this year’s VAF Best Short Film Award
• Wednesday –  Screening VAF Best Graduation Film – All the nominated titles for this year’s VAF Best Graduation Film. Plus, meet VAF Artist 2023, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, in interview at 8.30 pm
• Thurday  – Screening VAF Best Experimental Film – All the nominated titles for this year’s VAF Best Experimental Short Film Award
• Friday – VAF Artist Short Film – A selection of short films by the VAF Artist 2023, Niki Lindroth von Bahr

All bets are off when animators experiment with techniques, formats and materials. 

Experimental films are about testing the limits of what animation can and should do. All the films in the program are nominated for the Best Experimental Short Film at the VAF Award show. 

It is a field defined by filmmakers bold enough to turn classic genres and conventions on their head. To startle the viewer with absurd, abstract, and trippy tales. All while paying due respect to the aesthetics, the technique, the medium and the narrative – not necessarily in a classic chronological sense, but by pushing the boundaries of visual, sensory expression. These films deal with beautiful images, sensual roller coaster rides, and provocations, offering plenty of surprises and food for thought along the way. 

For more information on the films in competition, click here. 

Films in the program:

• Internet Gaga – Reinhold Bidner – 2023 – Austria
• 101 Days of Lockdown – Jelena Sinik – 2022 – Australia
• Dissolution – Sujin Kim – 2023 – United States
• This is not a bath – Pola Lotta Włodarczyk – 2022 – Poland
• The Beatles Vs The Stones – Andrew Kelleher (Dog&Rabbit) – 2022 – UK
• Juice – Mona Keil – 2022 – Germany
• All my scars vanish in the wind – María Angélica Restrepo, Carlos David Velandia – 2022 – Colombia
• EO DE ME – Viktorie Štěpánová – 2023 – Czech Republic
• Help Desk – Edwin Rostron – 2023 – UK
• The Fifth Floor – Tereza Burianová – 2023 – Czech Republic
• Soaked In – Shiyu Tang – 2022 – China
• Floating city – Chit Ng – 2022 – Hong Kong
• Hugging – Adam Wells – 2023 – Sweden

Country: International
Duration: 1 hour 7 min.
Language: No dialogue
Subtitles: None
Age limit: 15+

Discover a playful toy-like world of invention featuring flying machines, kings, queens and sneaky spies, where nothing seems to go right for the world’s greatest inventor, and he is always running out of time. At the centre of it all is the audacious and ever questioning Princess Marguerite  who is the key to solving Leonardo’s quest for the meaning of life. 

Jim Capobianco is bringing the world of Leonardo Da Vinci to life in a new stylized, stop motion puppet and 2D hand drawn animated film for families & children of all ages. Voiced by Stephen Fry (Leonardo), Daisy Ridley (Marguerite), and Marion Cotillard (Louise de Savoy). 

The screening is in English with no subtiltes

Suitable from age 7+

What happens when conditions and circumstances push our will to fight for what’s right for our communities and our world to the breaking point? Mikkel Hørlycks photo series cover migration to Europe, long-running addiction, an orphanage for vulnerable children, the consequences of corona virus, eating disorder and soldiers from Denmark and our allied nations. The common denominator of Hørlyck’s photos is an exploration of the human will to survive, universal emotions connecting the stories of vastly different subjects.

Starting week 40, the exhibition will be shown at Viborg main library, where Mikkel Hørlyck will speak October 11 at 18:30 (more info at viborgbib.dk)

11.-29. september weekdays 08.00-16.00
NB: 27. september 08.00-21.00 & 28. september kl. 08.00-20.00.

Houlkær by Heart is organized as part of and in collaboration with Viborg Animation Festival. During the festival a special venue has been established in the Houlkær district, which, based on Media College Denmark and Viborg Gymnasium, embraces visual creativity in the broadest sense.

THE GARDEN – ceramic mythologies in the open

Exhibition in the Skovgaard Museum courtyard – free access around the clock.

Vernissage Thursday 21 September at 14 in the museum’s courtyard.

During late summer Visuel HF’s 3rd year students have shaped, fired and glazed ceramic sculptures based on a staged mythology in the space between what exists and what does not exist…
Under the guidance of ceramicist Christel Bækgaard and teacher at Visuel HF, Iben Lindebjerg, the young people create an outdoor, mythological universe, which can be experienced in the Skovgaard Museum courtyard during VAF.

About VISUAL HF
Visuel HF is a 3-year combined youth education at The Animation Workshop/
VIA University College and Viborg Gymnasium, where the young people get a high school diploma over the course of three years
HF education combined with a basic visual education in e.g. visual arts, graphic storytelling, animation and photography. Read more at www.visuelhf.dk.

At the tail end of the Summer of 2023, photography students from Media College Denmark invited citizens of Houlkær to drop by the school’s studio and have their picture taken – lit, composed, and edited as professional photos are. During the VAF events in Houlkær, large scale reproductions of the portraits are exhibited in the city, inviting visitors to reflect on the diversity of the local community as well as what we have in common.

27.-29. september hele døgnet / all hours

Media College Denmark & Viborg Gymnasium, Skaldehøjvej 2-12, 8800 Viborg
Udendørs areal / Outdoors area

Houlkær by Heart is organized as part of and in collaboration with Viborg Animation Festival. During the festival a special venue has been established in the Houlkær district, which, based on Media College Denmark and Viborg Gymnasium, embraces visual creativity in the broadest sense.

In this film screening GDR – towards new horizons, we show 2 animated documentaries that, in their own way, interweave personal memories and documented facts into gripping stories about everyday life in the GDR. Here we meet socialism, childhood in the GDR, internal conflicts to come to terms with the past, and the students are faced with philosophical and ethical questions and dilemmas.

Films in the programme:

Stumm – Anna Theil – 2020

Katharina’s father used to work for the GDR secret service. In the mid-1990s he was arrested for a murder ordered in connection with his former job … and released. A film about family secrets and the question of whether some things better remain hidden.

Die Weite Suchen – Falk Schuster – 2015

This animated documentary follows a young family through their journey and gives an insight of holidaying close to the border in East Germany (GDR). Personal memories and factual evidence come together to create an illustrated travel journal.

Country: Germany
Duration: 1 hour 3 min.
Language: German
Subtitles: English
Age limit: 10+

For the first time, we are opening up the ANIMATION PLAYGROUND, a multi-story playful universe with real animation magic.
We are converting the Student House at VIA University College into ANIMATION PLAYGROUND open for families all weekend.

Experience the storytelling cave, where you can dive into the fantastic illustrative narratives and universes found in Danish literature.

Play with an abundance of creative expressions. Create funny, fantastic, romantic or dramatic animation films with different animation techniques, such as GIFs, turntable animation, collage animation, pixilation, cut out and many more.

Build with Mouse and Crane in the mechanics workshop: Mouse and Crane is a Danish concept consisting of games, films and books, which in a fun and engaging way inspire children to build and come up with ingenious solutions when a problem arises.
In the mechanics workshop, it will be possible to play the game, watch movies and build your very own crazy machines.

A visit to the Animation Playground does not require registration, and you decide for yourself how long you wish to stay.

For VAF 2023 Visuel HF’s 1st year will be animating in colored sand during a five-day workshop with interdisciplinary artist Signe Klejs.

Workshop at seven public locations in the center of Viborg – Mon-Fri at 9 – 15. The works can be experienced around the clock – also after the workshop.

Many people might know Signe Klejs’s light installations on the bridges in Bjerringbro and Aarhus, but at the same time Klejs has over the years created a number of ephemeral works in colored sand – among others for the art museum Brandts in Odense and in the coming six months for the art museum ARoS in Aarhus. See Signe’s previous installations and screen-based works here: www.signeklejs.dk.

Based on the same technique, Visuel HF’s young talents now have the opportunity to make their mark in colored sand and thus add a changing narrative to the selected locations. Common to the works by the students is that they undergo change over time, because even though the material is heavy and sturdy, the patterns in which the young people arrange it are fragile to influences by weather and people passing by. Exactly these entropic, random conditions in the system are investigated in the workshop during VAF.

Local and national creative visual educations, actors in culture and companies are all invited to Creative Viborg Day during Viborg Animation Festival at Paletten and Tinghallen.

We aim to repeat the successes from previous years, but this time in a different manner. The city of Viborg will become a hub for expressing visual creativity in a variety of fields and to debate the potential and application of new technologies.

There will be a light breakfast, lunch and finally cold drinks and networking.

During the day you can experience:

Anne Stampe – New chairman at Arsenalet

Sofie Hvidvedt, Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies.

Austin, USA – The Music and Media Arts Capital of the world

Viborg F.F.

&Co – AI as creative tool

Kit Monkman – The artists behind ”Peole We Love”

There is also gold in Houlkær!

Cadpeople

Viborg Creative Alliance

See who receives the first Creative Viborg Award

… and much more

The day consist of plenary and breakout sessions, debates and lots of time to network.

The event is supported by Vision Denmark and the Danish Board of Business Development

Films in the programme:

Through the Cosmos – A Short Short Film

Through the Cosmos’ – A Short, Short Film

A cat eats his cereal breakfast, gets transported to the cereal galaxy and goes on an adventure, eventually returning home.

Folk og Røvere i Kardemomme By

The animated film ‘Folk og Røvere i Kardemomme By’ is a film adaptation of Thorbjørns Egner’s well-known children’s book from 1955, which is about the three robbers: Kasper and Jesper and Jonatan.

The robbers live just outside the peaceful Cardamom City, and when they need something, they just sneak into town and steal it. One day the robbers are arrested and put in the city jail. But when a fire breaks out, the trio get another chance to prove to the town that they’re more than just robbers.

Directed by Rasmus A. Sivertsen – 2023

Country: Denmark/Norway
Duration: 1 hour 34 min.
Lanuage: Danish
Subtitles: None
Age limit: No age restrictions

Film in the programme:

Teeth-Rex – A Short Short Film

In a museum filled with impressive smiles, one toothless velociraptor goes on a quest to find his look.

About TAW Short, Short Films:

The Short, Short Film project is a collaboration between the first-year Character Animation and the first-year Computer Graphic Arts students at The Animation Workshop/VIA University College, where they work together to create 45-second short films targeted at children’s audiences.

Yuku and the Himalayan Flower

Yuku loves her grandmother and her many stories from the magic book. But Yuku’s grandmother is old and tired, and will soon have to leave the family.

Country: France
Duration: 1 hour 10 min.
Lanuage: Danish
Subtitles: none
Age: 10+

How do you look when you look at someone you love?

This is explored in the installation People We Love, created by British artist Kit Monkman. The work shows a series of moving and intense video portraits of people looking at a picture of someone they love. A picture that we as viewers will never see.

As audience, we become co-creators of the work, as our interpretation of the facial expressions of those portrayed becomes part of the experience. The artwork is created between the viewer, the visible portrait and the invisible image reflected in the gaze and facial expression.

In portrait art, the artists often desire to show not only the exterior, but also the interior and the personality of the person being portrayed. This ambition becomes very clear in People We Love. The work invites us to look with empathy and read the emotions of the portrayed through the micro-expressions of the face. How is love reflected in looks and facial expressions? And what kind of love is it? Are the loving feelings linked to joy, sadness, tenderness, infatuation or desire? At the same time, the work gives us an opportunity to reflect on how we ourselves look when we look at someone we love. Or how our loved ones look when they think of us.

On five floor-mounted, beautifully lit high-resolution screens, installed in the crypt in Viborg Cathedral, People We Love presents portraits of local residents. Each person gazing at a image of someone they love or loved. An image the viewers never see. We feel untold stories as the faces tell the story of someone the participants love and care about. This community-inspired artwork, created by artist Kit Monkman (KMA), has toured internationally (York, England and Pittsburgh, USA) and has been shown in a smaller version at Viborg Kunsthal with people filmed in England.

In the version presented in Viborg Cathedral, residents from Viborg participate in this global work of art. The work presents a contemporary and modern take on portraits and, not least, celebrates the greatest treasure of human life, love. The participants were filmed during Snapsting in Viborg, June 2023. The work will have its world premiere in connection with Viborg Animation Festival 2023, week 39 2023.

Body Time is an animation project for kids and families made in collaboration with the Belgian artist Katrien Oosterlinck. An animation film and a hoodie with coloured shapes guide your hands to make contact, to create contact. Come and try a different experience of calmness, presence and togetherness.

Program: 

Wednesday 27/9

• kl 16.00 – 16.45

Thursday 28/9

• kl 16.00 – 16.45

Saturday 30/9

• kl 10.00 – 10-45
• kl 11.00 – 11.45
• kl 13.00 – 13.45
• kl 14.00 – 14.45

The movers and shakers of Houlkær open their doors for a lovely afternoon of activities for attendees of all ages. Following a session of communal dining and song, participants are invited to explore exhibitions, installations, workshops and more in the city. As the light fades, a new “burning sculpture” is unveiled, and photos and drawing made by students at Houlkær-based Media College Denmark and Viborg Gymnasium are projected at scale.

27. september 16.00-21.00
Forskellige steder i Houlkær / Various locations in Houlkær

Houlkær by Heart is organized as part of and in collaboration with Viborg Animation Festival. During the festival a special venue has been established in the Houlkær district, which, based on Media College Denmark and Viborg Gymnasium, embraces visual creativity in the broadest sense.

Check the full programme for Houlkær by Night here

An exciting program with a selection of films received from art and animation schools around the world

VAF Best Graduation Film celebrates young filmmakers from animation schools around the world. All the films in the program are nominated for the Best Graduation Film at the VAF Award show.

The program is full of playful ideas, profound themes, delirious energy and a lot of courage and desire to create and tell stories. The films show a wide range of styles and techniques, where storytelling and ingenuity create unique ideas and visions from young filmmakers who are ready to go out into the world and bend it to their will.

For more information on the films in competition, click here. 

Films in the program:

• Follow My Steps – Nils Balleydier – 2022 – France
• Funeral at Nine – Mamadou Barry, Rodrigo Veras, Ziyu Wang, Junhao Xiang, Wang Yu, Linfeng Zhou – 2022 – France
• Unscarfed – Anita Bruneburg – 2022 – Germany
• Horse – Jass Kaselan – 2022 – Estonia
• A World in Chaos – David Crisp – 2023 – Hungary
• Cow! Woof! Splash! – Lamprini Loukaidi – 2022 – UK
• Furrie – Lucie Grannec – 2022 – France
• Primitive Times – Hao Yu – 2023 – Germany
• Above The Clouds – Vivien Hárshegyi – 2022 – Hungary
• Memories of Monsoon – Dolker Angotsang, ManFei Li, Pimonwan Poli – 2023 – Switzerland
• Anscht – Matthias Huber – 2022 – Switzerland
• The Harbourmaster – Mia Ludvigsen Henriksen, Konrad Hjemli – 2022 – Norway

Q&A with Directors: 

• David Crisp (A World In Chaos)
• Lamprini Loukaidi (Caw! Woof! Splash!)

Country: International
Duration: 1 hour 35 min.
Language: No dialogue
Subtitles: None
Age limit: 15+

VAF Best Commissioned Work celebrates the best in animated communication and education from Denmark and abroad. Beautiful imagery, compelling narratives and useful information – or sweet temptation – to boot.

The competition and award are organized in collaboration with Creative Viborg, focusing on how animation can be used within professions such as service, learning, advertising and more. All the films in the program are nominated for the Best Commissioned Work at the VAF Award show.

For more information on the films in competition, click here. 

Films in the program:

• Røgfri Fremtid – Sunit Parekh, Tonni Zinck – 2022 – Denmark
• The Dependency Trap – Henrik Malmgren – 2022 – Denmark
• Sou a Tigresa – Jairo Neto – 2021 – Brazil
• Design & Transformation: TON – Barbora Halířová – 2022 – Czech Republic
• Viborg Varme – Susanne Bækby Gerges – 2022 – Denmark
• Pulse At The Centre Of Being – Tsz-wing Ho – 2022 – Hong Kong
• Design & Transformation: Bomma – Magdalena Hejzlarová – 2022 – Czech Republic
• Hidden Heroes – Anna Levinson – 2022 – Germany
• Stare – Impérieux – Nikola Radulovikj – 2023 – Bulgaria
• What causes yeast infections, and how do you get rid of them? – Mette Ilene Holmriis – 2022 – Denmark
• Potato Falls – Janina Putzker – 2022 – Austria
• Ride on Joyfulness – Lei Lei – 2022 – China
• Screen Time Guidelines – Nicolaj Larsson – 2022 – Denmark
• Paul Roux – Bapteme – Alessandro Amaducci – 2022 – Italy

Country: International
Duration: 49 min.
Language: Multiple languages
Subtitles: English
Age limit: 15+

Viborg UNESCO Creative City invites all of Denmark and the rest of the world to join in an annual drawing campaign!

Drawing is absolutely fundamental to humankind, regardless of background and origin. The earliest traces of our species are drawings in caves, and most of us draw before we speak.
In Viborg, we have a special and long-standing position of strength in drawing, animation, children’s culture and creativity. We know the value of drawing for children, for young people and adults. Unfortunately, most Danish children stop drawing from the third grade and onwards. This is a problem as we are losing creativity. We strive to change that.

For the last two years Viborg UNESCO Creative City has therefore invited children and young people from all over the world to draw through the global drawing campaign TegnHåb, circling around corona and trust. The ambition is to strengthen our understanding of the value and importance drawing has for children and young people’s creativity and development. Because we have to nourish the passion for drawing.

In the same period, Viborg Municipality created Grønne Sammen (Green Together) – together for a sustainable future – with focus on green transition and sustainability. In this year’s edition, we link the two initiatives, inviting Denmark and the rest of the world to join DrawHope – Green Together 2023 – based on 20 drawing challenges.

This year, we received approx. 1200 drawings from 15 countries spread over five continents, once again making the campaign a global event, and animators in Viborg, Columbia and Georgia are currently working on creating series of animated films based on the drawings. Two animated films are being produced by Multara Al-Ameri, who graduated from The Animation Workshop, and a Colombian animator based on drawings from a 7th grade team in visual arts from Vestre Skole in Viborg and a corresponding team from school in Cali, Columbia. Drawings and animations are shown and projected during VAF in the Music School’s large windows and later in the year in Cali Columbia, York England and in Tbilisi Georgia.

Exhibited in the windows at the Kulturskolen foyer in Gravene, 8800 Viborg

In the last ten years, Niki has made four films, Tord and Tord, Bath House, The Burden and Something to Remember. Her latest project was a part of the animated anthology The House for Netflix, which was released in 2022.

Niki’s films have been shown and awarded at festivals worldwide, such as Cannes, Berlinale, Toronto and Sundance. Since its premiere in 2017, The Burden has received 85 awards, including Le Cristal for Best Short Film in Annecy, Best International Short Film in Toronto and Guldbaggen for Best Short Film 2018. In 2019, she was named in Variety magazine as one of “10 Animators to Watch for” and nominated for Swedens biggest newspaper Dagens Nyheter’s Culture Award. Niki is a member of The Oscar Academy and part of the short film jury for Guldbaggegalan.

Parallel to Niki’s film productions, she makes sculpture and costume design and has worked with artists such as Fever Ray and David Bowie. She has taught animation and modeling at schools such as CalArts in Los Angeles and Tokyo University of Art, Film and New Media.

In recent years, Niki has had several solo exhibitions. Her exhibition “Something to remember” at Färgfabriken in Stockholm 2019 became the art gallery’s most visited ever.

Film program

• Something To Remember

A lullaby before the great disaster. Two pigeons visit a zoo without animals, a snail measures his blood pressure at the doctor, in the CERN laboratory something has gone terribly wrong. Six moments from our age, like memories of the world we leave behind.

• The Burden

A dark musical enacted in a modern market place, situated next to a large freeway. The employees of the various commercial venues deal with boredom and existential anxiety by performing cheerful musical turns. The apocalypse is a tempting liberator.

• Bath House

Six characters meet in a bath house. The pedant bath house manager, a couple with a strange way of communicating and a gang with shady intentions. Something goes wrong.

• Tord and Tord

One day, Tord accidentally walks in to the apartment next to his own. Another person named Tord lives there, he has just moved in.

Country: International
Duration: 48 min.
Lanuage: Swedish
Subtitles: English
Age limit: 15+

Get a beer at the coolest place in town while you watch amazing animation. You can drop by anytime and watch selected programs from this year’s nominated short films in casual surroundings.

Ølluminati has closed of half of the bar to act as an alternative cinema venue during VAF. During the festival week you can drop by and watch amazing short films while you get a drink. Each night you can experience different programs. Make sure to try one of the annual VAF Beers with labels decorated by VAF Artist Niki Linroth von Bahr, and brewed by Ølluminati super-brewer and owner, Theis Bach Nielsen

• Tuesday – Screening VAF Best Short Film – All the nominated titles for this year’s VAF Best Short Film Award
• Wednesday –  Screening VAF Best Graduation Film – All the nominated titles for this year’s VAF Best Graduation Film. Plus, meet VAF Artist 2023, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, in interview at 8.30 pm
• Thurday  – Screening VAF Best Experimental Film – All the nominated titles for this year’s VAF Best Experimental Short Film Award
• Friday – VAF Artist Short Film – A selection of short films by the VAF Artist 2023, Niki Lindroth von Bahr

At only 14 years old, Aurora lost everything during the horror of the Armenian genocide. Two years later, through luck and extraordinary courage, she escaped to New York, where her story became a media sensation. Starring as herself in Auction of Souls, an early Hollywood blockbuster, Aurora became the face of one of the largest charity campaigns in American history.

With a blend of vivid animation, interviews with Aurora herself, and 18 minutes of surviving footage from her lost silent epic, Aurora’s Sunrise revives a forgotten story of survival.

Directed by: Inna Sahakyan

Country: Armenia, Lithuania, Germany
Duration: 1 hour 36 min.
Language: Armenian/English
Subtitles: English
Age limit: 15+

Meet VAF Artist, internationally recognized Swedish filmmaker and artist Niki Lindroth von Bahr in a conversation with filmmaker Philip Piaget. Right after the screening of Niki’s short film program in Fotorama, the audience have a chance to meet the filmmaker and hear about her career in stop-motion animation. The talk is set in a cozy atmosphere of a local brewery and pub “Ølluminati”, where VAF will launch a selection of VAF beers inspired by dark, existential, yet humorous universe of Niki’s films created in collaboration with “Ølluminati’s” brewmaster Theis.

What happens when conditions and circumstances push our will to fight for what’s right for our communities and our world to the breaking point? Mikkel Hørlycks photo series cover migration to Europe, long-running addiction, an orphanage for vulnerable children, the consequences of corona virus, eating disorder and soldiers from Denmark and our allied nations. The common denominator of Hørlyck’s photos is an exploration of the human will to survive, universal emotions connecting the stories of vastly different subjects.

Starting week 40, the exhibition will be shown at Viborg main library, where Mikkel Hørlyck will speak October 11 at 18:30 (more info at viborgbib.dk)

11.-29. september weekdays 08.00-16.00
NB: 27. september 08.00-21.00 & 28. september kl. 08.00-20.00.

Houlkær by Heart is organized as part of and in collaboration with Viborg Animation Festival. During the festival a special venue has been established in the Houlkær district, which, based on Media College Denmark and Viborg Gymnasium, embraces visual creativity in the broadest sense.

THE GARDEN – ceramic mythologies in the open

Exhibition in the Skovgaard Museum courtyard – free access around the clock.

Vernissage Thursday 21 September at 14 in the museum’s courtyard.

During late summer Visuel HF’s 3rd year students have shaped, fired and glazed ceramic sculptures based on a staged mythology in the space between what exists and what does not exist…
Under the guidance of ceramicist Christel Bækgaard and teacher at Visuel HF, Iben Lindebjerg, the young people create an outdoor, mythological universe, which can be experienced in the Skovgaard Museum courtyard during VAF.

About VISUAL HF
Visuel HF is a 3-year combined youth education at The Animation Workshop/
VIA University College and Viborg Gymnasium, where the young people get a high school diploma over the course of three years
HF education combined with a basic visual education in e.g. visual arts, graphic storytelling, animation and photography. Read more at www.visuelhf.dk.

At the tail end of the Summer of 2023, photography students from Media College Denmark invited citizens of Houlkær to drop by the school’s studio and have their picture taken – lit, composed, and edited as professional photos are. During the VAF events in Houlkær, large scale reproductions of the portraits are exhibited in the city, inviting visitors to reflect on the diversity of the local community as well as what we have in common.

27.-29. september hele døgnet / all hours

Media College Denmark & Viborg Gymnasium, Skaldehøjvej 2-12, 8800 Viborg
Udendørs areal / Outdoors area

Houlkær by Heart is organized as part of and in collaboration with Viborg Animation Festival. During the festival a special venue has been established in the Houlkær district, which, based on Media College Denmark and Viborg Gymnasium, embraces visual creativity in the broadest sense.

Shabholm is a new Danish film by the satire collective Gigis, who in 2020 were behind the animated comedy “Blokhavn”, and subsequently made the TV series Gigis “100 problems”, which can be seen on DR.

In their new film, an oil sheik has bought Bornholm and turned the island into a Middle Eastern holiday paradise for foreigners only. Hassan is tired of Denmark and discrimination, so he gathers his Shabbas and together they head for the sunny island. But is paradise too good to be true?

• Screening of Shabholm
• Q&A after the film

Directed by: Gigis

Country: Denmark
Duration: 1 hour 46 min.
Lanuage: Danish
Subtitles: None
Age limit: 15+

For the first time, we are opening up the ANIMATION PLAYGROUND, a multi-story playful universe with real animation magic.
We are converting the Student House at VIA University College into ANIMATION PLAYGROUND open for families all weekend.

Experience the storytelling cave, where you can dive into the fantastic illustrative narratives and universes found in Danish literature.

Play with an abundance of creative expressions. Create funny, fantastic, romantic or dramatic animation films with different animation techniques, such as GIFs, turntable animation, collage animation, pixilation, cut out and many more.

Build with Mouse and Crane in the mechanics workshop: Mouse and Crane is a Danish concept consisting of games, films and books, which in a fun and engaging way inspire children to build and come up with ingenious solutions when a problem arises.
In the mechanics workshop, it will be possible to play the game, watch movies and build your very own crazy machines.

A visit to the Animation Playground does not require registration, and you decide for yourself how long you wish to stay.

For VAF 2023 Visuel HF’s 1st year will be animating in colored sand during a five-day workshop with interdisciplinary artist Signe Klejs.

Workshop at seven public locations in the center of Viborg – Mon-Fri at 9 – 15. The works can be experienced around the clock – also after the workshop.

Many people might know Signe Klejs’s light installations on the bridges in Bjerringbro and Aarhus, but at the same time Klejs has over the years created a number of ephemeral works in colored sand – among others for the art museum Brandts in Odense and in the coming six months for the art museum ARoS in Aarhus. See Signe’s previous installations and screen-based works here: www.signeklejs.dk.

Based on the same technique, Visuel HF’s young talents now have the opportunity to make their mark in colored sand and thus add a changing narrative to the selected locations. Common to the works by the students is that they undergo change over time, because even though the material is heavy and sturdy, the patterns in which the young people arrange it are fragile to influences by weather and people passing by. Exactly these entropic, random conditions in the system are investigated in the workshop during VAF.

Animanimals (Danish title: Dyttelidyr) is a fantastically original and lovely TV series, where we guarantee plenty of laughs for both children and adults. In each episode, a very charismatic animal embarks on an absurd adventure that can only happen to them. As they try to find a solution, each animal learns a little more about the world and life.

Country: Denmark
Duration: 37 min.
Language: Danish
Subtitles: None
Age group: 4-6 year olds

With expert guests and inspiring artists – the day is geared towards students and media industry audience. We discussed VR art, distribution, reaching new audiences, and personal approaches to making work.

10:00 – 12:00 Student screening
14:00 – 15:00 ‘Meet the artists’: Melanie Courtinat (FR) and Darren Emerson (UK)
15:00 – 15:30 Artist talk: Abner Preis, VR creator (NL)

Mélanie Courtinat

Mélanie Courtinat is an award-winning immersive art director and artist, born and based in Paris, France. Considering video games as a major medium, she focuses on their extraordinary immersive properties, and seeks to push back their limits. As an art director, she works on commissioned projects or clients in the Luxury, Fashion, Culture & Music fields. Mélanie also teaches video game theory at Écal in Lausanne.

Darren Emerson

Darren Emerson is an Immersive Artist, Director, Writer, and Producer and the Co-Founder of London production company East city films. His works had been shown at Venice biennale, IDFA Doc Lab, Tribeca Film Festival, Sheffield Doc Fest and won the awards for Best Immersive Storytelling at Sandbox Immersive Festival, the Grand Prix Innovation at Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Best VR Experience at the Broadcast Awards, and Best VR Narrative at the World.

Abner Preis

Abner Preis is a story-teller whose work is rooted in personal aspirations to give one hope in a situation that seems hopeless, to transfer the ability to laugh at sadness. What his extensive research, sensitivity and awareness provide is the simple and extremely difficult ability to tell a story with visuals that can be felt before they are understood. Abner was awarded tur ANIDOX:VR Award for his work ‘The Wind Through the Curtains’ in 2020 and is presenting his current work as part of the Expanded Animation Lab at VAF.

The film ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Part One’ is the sequel to the Oscar-winning animated film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”.

In the film, we meet Miles Morales again, who has taken over the Spider-Man suit after Peter Parker dies. In this adventure, Spider-Man is transported through The Multiverse along with Gwen Stacy and a new team of Spider-people to fight a villain more powerful than any they’ve faced before.

The screening is in English with English subtitles

Suitables from age 7+

How do you look when you look at someone you love?

This is explored in the installation People We Love, created by British artist Kit Monkman. The work shows a series of moving and intense video portraits of people looking at a picture of someone they love. A picture that we as viewers will never see.

As audience, we become co-creators of the work, as our interpretation of the facial expressions of those portrayed becomes part of the experience. The artwork is created between the viewer, the visible portrait and the invisible image reflected in the gaze and facial expression.

In portrait art, the artists often desire to show not only the exterior, but also the interior and the personality of the person being portrayed. This ambition becomes very clear in People We Love. The work invites us to look with empathy and read the emotions of the portrayed through the micro-expressions of the face. How is love reflected in looks and facial expressions? And what kind of love is it? Are the loving feelings linked to joy, sadness, tenderness, infatuation or desire? At the same time, the work gives us an opportunity to reflect on how we ourselves look when we look at someone we love. Or how our loved ones look when they think of us.

On five floor-mounted, beautifully lit high-resolution screens, installed in the crypt in Viborg Cathedral, People We Love presents portraits of local residents. Each person gazing at a image of someone they love or loved. An image the viewers never see. We feel untold stories as the faces tell the story of someone the participants love and care about. This community-inspired artwork, created by artist Kit Monkman (KMA), has toured internationally (York, England and Pittsburgh, USA) and has been shown in a smaller version at Viborg Kunsthal with people filmed in England.

In the version presented in Viborg Cathedral, residents from Viborg participate in this global work of art. The work presents a contemporary and modern take on portraits and, not least, celebrates the greatest treasure of human life, love. The participants were filmed during Snapsting in Viborg, June 2023. The work will have its world premiere in connection with Viborg Animation Festival 2023, week 39 2023.

ANIDOX is a creative platform for the development, production and exhibition of animated documentary projects. Returning with a special exhibition at Gallery NB: Viborg Animation Festival celebrates factual, animated stories in emerging media / Virtual Reality. Presenting a selection of contemporary works focused on outstanding storytelling and craftsmanship.
Exhibition

Selection

House of Moiré
By Chloe Alexandra Thompson, Matthew Edwards (CA)
House of Moiré invites users into a void-like realm, where one’s experience is defined by the curiosity of their eyes and ears. In self-directed exploration, the viewer advances through a succession of rooms dressed in optical patterns, audio-visual programming, and minimalist spatial design.

All unsaved progress will be lost
By Mélanie Courtinat (FR)
All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost is a melancholic journey through a ghost town made of concrete and fog, based on the testimony of a woman who refused to evacuate her hometown village after a terrible disaster.

In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats
By Darren Emerson (UK)
A euphoric, interactive VR adventure that transports you into the heart of the Acid House movement, where finding the party is the only thing that matters.

MLK: Now is the time
By Limbert Fabian (USA)
An immersive journey that explores key themes of Dr. King’s speech and highlights systemic inequities that persist in our society.

Body Time is an animation project for kids and families made in collaboration with the Belgian artist Katrien Oosterlinck. An animation film and a hoodie with coloured shapes guide your hands to make contact, to create contact. Come and try a different experience of calmness, presence and togetherness.

Program: 

Wednesday 27/9

• kl 16.00 – 16.45

Thursday 28/9

• kl 16.00 – 16.45

Saturday 30/9

• kl 10.00 – 10-45
• kl 11.00 – 11.45
• kl 13.00 – 13.45
• kl 14.00 – 14.45

Viborg UNESCO Creative City invites all of Denmark and the rest of the world to join in an annual drawing campaign!

Drawing is absolutely fundamental to humankind, regardless of background and origin. The earliest traces of our species are drawings in caves, and most of us draw before we speak.
In Viborg, we have a special and long-standing position of strength in drawing, animation, children’s culture and creativity. We know the value of drawing for children, for young people and adults. Unfortunately, most Danish children stop drawing from the third grade and onwards. This is a problem as we are losing creativity. We strive to change that.

For the last two years Viborg UNESCO Creative City has therefore invited children and young people from all over the world to draw through the global drawing campaign TegnHåb, circling around corona and trust. The ambition is to strengthen our understanding of the value and importance drawing has for children and young people’s creativity and development. Because we have to nourish the passion for drawing.

In the same period, Viborg Municipality created Grønne Sammen (Green Together) – together for a sustainable future – with focus on green transition and sustainability. In this year’s edition, we link the two initiatives, inviting Denmark and the rest of the world to join DrawHope – Green Together 2023 – based on 20 drawing challenges.

This year, we received approx. 1200 drawings from 15 countries spread over five continents, once again making the campaign a global event, and animators in Viborg, Columbia and Georgia are currently working on creating series of animated films based on the drawings. Two animated films are being produced by Multara Al-Ameri, who graduated from The Animation Workshop, and a Colombian animator based on drawings from a 7th grade team in visual arts from Vestre Skole in Viborg and a corresponding team from school in Cali, Columbia. Drawings and animations are shown and projected during VAF in the Music School’s large windows and later in the year in Cali Columbia, York England and in Tbilisi Georgia.

Exhibited in the windows at the Kulturskolen foyer in Gravene, 8800 Viborg

Open Workshop focuses its talent development efforts in animation film and games talents. All the films in the program are nominated for the Open Workshop Danish Animation Talent Award at the VAF Award show.

Films in the programme:

The TOBOS – Tobias Rud – 2023

The Great Connection – Christen Bach – 2023

Tales of Zale – Flickering Lights – Sif Savery – 2022

Let Them Eat Cake – Mathias Rodrigues Bjerre – 2023

Spring – Pernille Kjaer – 2023

The Swineherd – Magnus Igland Møller, Peter Smith – 2022

Dream – Snobar Avani – 2023

Mano – Toke Ringmann – 2022

Beanboy – Emily Hanning, Dora Grents, Anastazja Konczakowska, Ines Riquelme, Isabel Kohlmann, Nabil Afnan-Samandari, Alex Goncalves – 2022

Country: Multiple nationalities
Duration: 1 hour 33 min.
Lanuage: Different languages
Subtitles: English
Age limit: 15+

Get a beer at the coolest place in town while you watch amazing animation. You can drop by anytime and watch selected programs from this year’s nominated short films in casual surroundings.

Ølluminati has closed of half of the bar to act as an alternative cinema venue during VAF. During the festival week you can drop by and watch amazing short films while you get a drink. Each night you can experience different programs. Make sure to try one of the annual VAF Beers with labels decorated by VAF Artist Niki Linroth von Bahr, and brewed by Ølluminati super-brewer and owner, Theis Bach Nielsen

• Tuesday – Screening VAF Best Short Film – All the nominated titles for this year’s VAF Best Short Film Award
• Wednesday –  Screening VAF Best Graduation Film – All the nominated titles for this year’s VAF Best Graduation Film. Plus, meet VAF Artist 2023, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, in interview at 8.30 pm
• Thurday  – Screening VAF Best Experimental Film – All the nominated titles for this year’s VAF Best Experimental Short Film Award
• Friday – VAF Artist Short Film – A selection of short films by the VAF Artist 2023, Niki Lindroth von Bahr

In the near future, private detective Aline Ruby and her android partner are hired by a wealthy businessman to track down a notorious hacker. On Mars, they descend deep into the underbelly of the planet’s capital city where they uncover a darker story of brain farms, corruption, and a missing girl who holds a secret about the robots that threaten to change the face of the universe. 

Combining 2D and 3D animation, this stylish, smart and futuristic film noir is an adrenaline-fuelled, cinematic adventure, packed with humor and exhilarating action sequences. 

The screening is in French with English subtitles

Suitable from age 15+

The best animated short films from this year, all in one place!

The animated short film is a unique format – neither feature film nor tv series episode, but an intense and concise mini story offering maximum impact per minute. All the films in the program are nominated for VAF Best Short Film at the VAF Award show.

The films in this program are humorous, absurd, sad, poignant. Often, you’ll find yourself wondering “can animation really look like that?”, because the filmmaker has had free hands to experiment with hand-drawn animation, 3D animation, cutout, puppet animation and any conceivable combination of techniques.

VAF Best Short program offers a glimpse into the stunning diversity of the world of animation – and into its future: This is where the directors of tomorrow come up with the ideas and concepts that will define feature films and tv series going forward.

For more information on the films in competition, click here.

Films in the program:

• Letter to a Pig – Tal Kantor – 2022 – France
• 11 – Vuk Jevremovic – 2022 – Croatia
• The Skatebook – Sofia Negri – 2022 – UK
• The Borderline – Christian Arredondo Narváez – 2022 – Mexico
• Money and Happiness – Ana Nedeljković, Nikola Majdak Jr – 2022 – Serbia
• Blush – An Extraordinary Voyage – Iiti Yli-Harja – 2022 – Finland
• The Lost Courier – 子东 马 – 2022 – China
• Spring – Pernille Kjaer – 2023 – Denmark

Country: International
Duration: 1 hour 20 min
Language: Multiple languages
Subtitles: English
Age limit: 15+

The event is organized in collaboration with CAVE Conference and Viborg Animation Festival.

20:00
Doors Open & Live Music
The doors to Palette Mixer opens!
Concert with Twins of June; closing event for Animation Boot Camp

21:00
Welcome & Networking Session
– Marie Munch Burski of Creative Viborg
– Christian Rasmussen of Vizlab Studios
To kick off conversations our hosts Marie & Christian will share insights and highlights from VAF & CAVE and invite you to participate in a brief networking session to break the ice to get the talks going. We’ll make sure you’ll get introduced to new contacts, expand your network and have some interesting topics to talk about for the rest of the evening

21:15 – 23:59
Networking, Party & DJ (DJ Morten Hampenberg)
DJ Morten Hampenberg
It’s time to get the party started! It’s all up to you, whether you want to keep talking or get on the dancefloor. There will be room for both! DJ Morten Hampenberg will be making sure everyone is having fun, mixing the best music of past and present. Have fun, chat, get on the dancefloor, enjoy the drinks and music, and share an unforgettable evening in great company.

What happens when conditions and circumstances push our will to fight for what’s right for our communities and our world to the breaking point? Mikkel Hørlycks photo series cover migration to Europe, long-running addiction, an orphanage for vulnerable children, the consequences of corona virus, eating disorder and soldiers from Denmark and our allied nations. The common denominator of Hørlyck’s photos is an exploration of the human will to survive, universal emotions connecting the stories of vastly different subjects.

Starting week 40, the exhibition will be shown at Viborg main library, where Mikkel Hørlyck will speak October 11 at 18:30 (more info at viborgbib.dk)

11.-29. september weekdays 08.00-16.00
NB: 27. september 08.00-21.00 & 28. september kl. 08.00-20.00.

Houlkær by Heart is organized as part of and in collaboration with Viborg Animation Festival. During the festival a special venue has been established in the Houlkær district, which, based on Media College Denmark and Viborg Gymnasium, embraces visual creativity in the broadest sense.