26.08.2024
TAFF 2024 was full of big emotions and celebrating animation!
The 2024 Turku Animated Film Festival has now come to an end. It’s time to take off our festival passes and store the newly-made memories in a safe place.
Once again, TAFF brought together many old friends, but also new acquaintances in the animation world. Not only the invited guests but also the public enjoyed the festival, and TAFF set a new attendance record again this year.
“This year’s TAFF was all about people and encounters. In addition to many of the visiting directors, the festival saw a happy mix of other guests and artists. One of the best aspects of TAFF has always been the conversations, and this year I had the privilege of interviewing several great guests”, says Annika Dahlsten, Festival Director at TAFF for the second year.
Our popular TAFF Junior programme was again welcomed with open arms. The school screenings on Thursday and Friday were attended by an enthusiastic young audience who enjoyed a cultural experience in a safe atmosphere.
Ten films were awarded this year. The level of international competition was high, but the winner of the top prize was quickly made clear to our jury: this year’s Grand Prix went to Gianluigi Toccafondo’s vibrantly atmospheric La Voix des Sirènes that took advantage of cleverly mixing techniques. The overall picture of the TAFF programme was highlighted by puppet animation: every screening of the year saw the use of this challenging and expensive animation technique.
Our thanks go to our professional and charismatic jury, which this year consisted of Pernille Kjaer, Katariina Lillqvist and Slave Lukarov. Thanks also go to our TAFF Junior jury, the arts-oriented eighth class at Luostarinvuori School, who selected My Name is Edgar and I Have a Cow, directed by Filip Diviak, as the winner of the TAFF Junior Award.
You can read about all the films awarded at the festival here.
Special milestones were also commemorated at the 9th edition of TAFF. Animation education in Turku is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and to mark the occasion, TAFF featured a couple of screenings with gems from the Academy’s archives. The 20th anniversary of the cooperative Animaatiokopla was also celebrated with a special screening.
This summer, TAFF offered a record number of free pop-up events open to all, which we arranged in locations easily accessible to the citizens, such as libraries. The events were part of the pop-up art programme organised by the city of Turku’s Cultural spearhead project.
We were happy to offer a space at Vanha viinatehdas in Manilla for an exhibition of some students from the Turku Arts Academy. We also opened our own exhibition in Galleria Aski, Art House Turku just before the festival week. The exhibition, which features a wide range of animation art, will be on display until Sunday 1 September.
TAFF’s professional programme TAFF Pro once again attracted a large number of animation and film professionals. Thanks to Leo Viirret, Katariina Lillqvist, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, CHRZU, Katja Kettu and Mika Koskinen for providing a high quality programme for our guests!
Thank you to the hard-working production team, volunteers and everyone who has been involved in building TAFF. Thank you, our dear audience and guests, for making our work especially meaningful!
In her speech at the opening of TAFF, Elina Rantanen, Deputy Mayor of the City of Turku, pointed out that cities and their inhabitants would be almost nothing without culture. We cannot but agree with this.
Thank you TAIKE, City of Turku, AVEK, Liedon Säästöpankkisäätiö, SES, Oskar Öflunds Stiftelse, Pro Manilla Foundation, Finnish-Swedish Cultural Foundation and Finnish-Danish Cultural Foundation for supporting our festival and animation culture.
A big thank you also to TAFF’s sponsors Scene Turku, Yle, SET, Pyjama, Rajupaja and Animaatiokilta.
Thank you to Panimoyhtiö X, ship hostel S/S Bore and Bagelhouse for keeping our production team and guests going!
Have a happy and colourful autumn everyone – and see you again next year!