Blog: Film festivals

Animafest Cyprus Views of the World, started in 2002 as a documentary festival in a small village, and was called the Small Documentary Festival. It was later re-named Countryside Animafest Cyprus – Views of the World focusing exclusively on the art of Animated Film. The festival’s uniqueness is its setting in the countryside, and this continues to this day.

As audiences have grown significantly in recent years the festival has moved to different villages to accommodate the large number of spectators and now at the Lusignian Manor House garden located at the The ancient town of Palaipafos.It continues to draw a very diverse audience, from across the social spectrum. The fact that it draws young people from metropolitan areas to previously unknown rural areas we feel is a very important contribution to the country’s cultural life.

Animafest Cyprus is the main platform for Animated Film in Cyprus and has the official support of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus and ASIFA Cyprus. The Festival is a co – organization between the Hambis Printmaking Museum & Views of the World. HELLENIC BANK is the official award sponsor for both Cypriot and International Competition.

The festival is active through the year. It’s main activities include «Animafest Cyprus on tour», which presents the best of Animafest Cyprus at various locations around the country throughout the year, including schools, film festivals, cinemas, galleries, etc, always in non-commercial screenings; in the context of Animafest on tour we are organizing Lectures & workshops in animation, taking place at Universities and public schools. Every November we organize an Academic forum on Animation at the Cyprus University of Technology, bringing together academics from Cyprus and abroad. This forum is organised in collaboration with Media Desk Cyprus