After receiving raves and awards for her wildly original animated feature Marona’s Fantastic Tale—the film received its NY premiere at Animation First 2020—, Anca Damian went to the Mediterranean for her next film, The Island.
She describes her new project as a musical comedy and “upside-down Robinson Crusoe” story mixed with elements of The Little Prince and Monty Python. However, this update of Daniel Defoe’s classic novel addresses Europe’s present-day refugee crisis, enveloping the viewer through augmented reality-like technology.
In this work in progress talk, Damian will speak about her writing process, her rich mixed-media approach to the material, and her collaboration with the Romanian avant-garde Balanescu Quartet to create an entirely original score.
Anca Damian
Anca Damian has written, directed, and produced more than seven award-winning feature films, both live-action and animated, each with a distinctive and innovative visual style.
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Anca Damian hails from Romania where she studied cinematography. Her second feature, the animated Crulic – The Path To Beyond (2011), premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and won 35 awards, including the Crystal Award at the 2012 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Other directorial credits in animation include The Magic Mountain (2015), for which she received the 2016 Audentia Award for Best Female Director from Eurimages, and The Call (2018), selections at the Toronto and Sundance Film Festivals. Marona’s Fantastic Tale, her latest feature, premiered at the 2019 Annecy Film Festival and went on to screen at many others, including Rotterdam IFF as well as Tokyo IFF, and received prizes at Los Angeles’s Animation is Film, Bucheon IAF, and Tokyo Anime Award. It was also nominated for an European Film Award. The film made its New York premiere at Animation First 2020.
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