For the second time VIS presents, in close cooperation with ASIFA Austria, the international competition “Animation Avantgarde”, showing works from the fields of animation, experimental film, digital media and all other imaginable hybrids of these genres of contemporary audiovisual art. In this category we are looking for films that can broaden our horizons of experience and we are dedicated to further the exchange between the most diverse artistic practices – from avant-garde to pop culture, from animation to found footage and 3D computer animation. The international jury will award the ASIFA Austria Award worth 2.000 Euro and will also nominate a female director for the Elfi von Dassanowsky Prize, while the audience will choose the winner of the Skip Audience Award. 33 works from 14 countries made it into the competition, from 700 films that were submitted or discovered at festivals. Among the films running in the Animation Avantgarde competition, three longer works from internationally renowned artists can be seen as representative for this interdisciplinary line-up.

Coming Attractions by Peter Tscherkassky, with his love for cinema and film material, represents a prominent stance of avant-garde films. Similarly important and predominant in the field of animation is Priit Pärn, who demonstrates with Olga Pärn in Divers in the Rain just how “experimental” the graphic depiction and montage of diverse narrative strands can be. And the high-profile outsiders Brothers Quay celebrate the art of surrealist films in their new puppet animation Maska. A range of works by younger artists, who open up diverse and not less innovative pathways, are grouped around these three aforementioned films.

Jury: Pierre Hébert (CA), Veronika Schubert (A), Karin Wehn (D)