How Creative They Are

“Come and enjoy the Puchon International Student Animation Festival (PISAF), a cartoon feast for students.”

The fifth Puchon International Student Animation Festival will take place from November 8 to 12 at Boksagol Cultural Center in Puchon City, Gyeonggi Province. For the 2003 PISAF event, 299 experimental works of university students and animation college students from 21 countries will be displayed. 45 works chosen for the final competition have received outstanding comments that they were as good as the professional artists in terms of subjects and skills. The winner, who will receive 10 million won in prize money, will be selected on November 11.

Last year at PISAF, 200 works from 25 countries participated and “The Cat Returns,” directed by Morita Hiroyuki, was selected as an opening film screening. The number of audience was approximately 90, 000.

The opening film screening for this year is France’s first three-dimension animation movie “Caena”; A tree with 100 miles (160 kilometers) named “Axis” is getting withered and a little girl, Caena, starts her adventure for the sake of the tree and the village that depends on it. This big film, which creates an imaginary atmosphere with 1200 pieces of mixed images, cost 20 billion won over four years. Kirsten Dunst who had starred at the movie “Bring it On” and “Spiderman” was the voice of Caena.

There are also some long animations that are hard to find in the country. Italy’s 3D animation “The Egg” is one of those which drew great attention during the International Animation Festival held in Annecy of France. A Japanese film, “The Castle of the Sky, Laputa” directed in 1986 by Miyajaki Hayao will be also screened in the nation for the first time. This work has been previously introduced in Korea by video.

In the “Resfest Digital Film Festival,” we can see 16 works of animation music video, and the 17 prize winners of Japan’s ICAF this year that reveals the trend of Japanese animation these days will also be screened during the festival.

In addition, famous Korean director Lee Sung-gang’s special screening, which will show 10 new short films including “Oneuli” are worthwhile to see.

On November 9, there will be a cartoon contest for students of elementary, middle and high schools from 1 to 3 p.m. at Boksagol Cultural Center, and on November 12, an academic seminar titled “Economic Strategy of Disney Animations,” sponsored by the Korea Cartoon Animation Academy, will be held from 1-4 p.m.

suhchoi@donga.com