Keep Festive: animation festivals commit to make their attendees feel easy

During the last six months, several festivals and professionals teamed up to form a new collective called “Keep Festive”. The launch of this initiative was first announced publicly at Animateka December 2021 by Luce Grosjean (Miyu Distribution) and Clemence Bragard (AFCA).

Animation festivals are places where misconducts can unfortunately happen – such as racism, sexism or sexual harassment. “Keep Festive” has been created to prevent the participants from these situations by offering reliable tools and contacts that attendees or organizers can reach out to while continuing to celebrate animation. The collective will focus on issues related to events gathering amateurs and professionals of all ages, genres, cultures and nationalities. It is also meant to follow other remarkable initiatives that have been actively working for several years.

To do so, the collective seeks to reach several milestones within the next two years, that will be revealed and used progressively, such as :

• Online resources on festivals’ websites available for attendees and organizers
• Common communication material to be used by the participating festivals
• A guest welcome kit
• Festivals’ team training program
• A code of conduct to be signed by the organizers

The following professionals are already committed to “Keep Festive”, representing major events:

Clémence Bragard, programmer | AFCA – France

Raphael Cahuzac, project manager | CITIA/Annecy international animation film festival – France

Waltraud Grausgruber, director | Tricky Women – Austria

Luce Grosjean, director | Miyu Distribution – France

Arba Hatashi, Festival director | Anibar – Kosovo

Katja Hohler, executive producer | Animateka – Slovenia

Pavel Horáček, director | Anifilm – Tchek republic

Ivana Kvesić, director | Fantoche – Switzerland

Jane Lyngbye Hvid Jensen, director | VAF – Denmark

Joni Männistö, director | TAFF – Finland

Matea Milic, festival producer | Zagreb World Festival of Animated Film – Croatia

Kelly Neall, managing director | OIAF – Canada

Annette Schindler, independent consultant – Switzerland

Aneta Ozorek, artistic director | Kaboom – The Netherlands

Any participation request from festivals, organizations or independents related to the animation industry are welcome at: contact@keepfestive.org