Holland Animation Festival programme to showcase Norman McLaren Classics

The complete festival programme is online!
Visit the website to browse through more than 400 films and put together your personal festival programme. From hilarious shorts to trail-blazing music videos and art film, from pencil sketch to mouse click. Surprising, inspiring, refreshing. There will be features and shorts, games en cartoons, competitions, special programmes, presentations and talk shows.

The online ticket sales starts Wednesday 12 March at 12:00 hrs.



Norman McLaren Classics
On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the award-winning animation filmmaker Norman McLaren (1914-1987) the Holland Animation Film Festival presents a special film programme with his work. McLaren’s oeuvre includes innovative techniques like scratching and painting on film, cut-out animation and pixelation. The timeless and Oscar-winning parable Neighbours (1952), a distinctly political pamphlet against violence, is part of this programme.

Committed film
McLaren’s film Neighbours was also a source of inspiration for the special theme programme on committed films that HAFF compiled in consultation with Gerrit van Dijk prior to his demise in 2012. Van Dijk was a pioneer in this field, with a poetical film like Butterfly R.I.P. 1975 (1975), but also the more aggressive Jute films (1979). This year too, the festival pays attention to the committed film: from socially engaged to politically oriented. For example:

Getekende mensen (Netherlands, 1984) by Harrie Geelen is a documentary about drug abuse.

Dehors Novembre (Canada, 2005) by Patrick Bouchard. An exploration of death, expressing the unspeakable through dark, striking images. To the song of Les Colocs, a tribute to the band's harmonica player who died of AIDS-related complications.

Freedom for Jafar Panahi (Canada, 2012/2014) is a series of five animations by different creators, who fight for the freedom of Jafar Panahi and all imprisoned Iranian filmmakers. HAFF has the world premiere of the series’ most recent film: Le Cinéaste (2014) van Éléonore Goldberg.