Ottawa International Animation Festival Reveals "Defiant" Official Selection

The  Ottawa International Animation Festival returns for its 41st year September 20-24. Long considered North America's leading Animation Festival, OIAF is a magnet for the cream of the world's animation talent. This year, 92 films were selected for the official competition, chosen from a mammoth 1992 entries. The competing films come from 20 countries, including  China, Turkey, Japan, India and Sweden.

The selection includes features, narrative and non-narrative shorts, commercial, student films and more. Of the five features selected, two were directed by the same man- Japan's Masaaki Yuasa. Yuasa's The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl and Lu Over The Wall will compete with each other and two features from South Korea (I'll Just Live In Bando and My Dogs, Jinjin and Akida) and Torrey Pines, which is from the United States.

The Festival organisers note that a theme to this year's entries is defiance. " Not just in terms of content, but also through stylistic choices and a rejection of conventional narrative storytelling. All in all, a refreshing, timely and much needed blast of fresh air from the international animation community", says OIAF Artistic Director, Chris Robinson. Issues tackled by the selection include race relations, sexual diversity and societal apathy. The first of these is represented by The Story Of OJ, "a beautifully animated and brutally honest music video about race relations in America" co-directed by JAY-Z and Mark Romanek. You can watch the video here, (Contains explicit lyrics and imagery that may offend).

You can view the entire selection here.

The festival will take place at various venues around Ottawa. Passes are now available from the Festival website. The 2017 poster is designed by Montreal-based animator and film director, Elise Simard.