Organized for the tenth time, the festival is the only event in the Baltic States that unites professionals and fans of video games, digital art and animation. During the festival, the audience will be presented with the latest award-winning feature and short animated films, 3 competitive animated film programs, an international exhibition of VR works and the Aware Game Awards program for video games.
According to the head of the festival, Laura Almantaitė, the festival will immerse you in unforgettable, special and enriching experiences for four days.
“The festive, tenth program is perfectly rounded and balanced for a versatile audience experience. The strongest recent virtual reality works, an impressive and belief-shattering augmented reality exhibition by the Danish artist and animation creator Sara Koppel, other mind-bending games, an extremely rare opportunity to hear the mastery of Irish artist David O’Reilly in his creative workshop. And this is only a part of what we have prepared this year”, says L.Almantaitė.
Event participants are invited to various discussions, seminars, creative workshops and meetings with foreign and Lithuanian creators, where they can make contacts and gain experience for future projects. These events are free for students.
L.Almantaitė emphasizes that the festival program is made in an effort to offer activities to everyone – both young and old.
“From the very beginning, our festival has been interdisciplinary in terms of both content and activities. In addition to films, video games, VR works, we have always worked very strongly with educational activities, in which we involve children and young people, to help them discover a new world of creativity. Our VR program, which does not have any age limits, is also of great interest to everyone,” says the festival manager.
Photo of the organizers/BLON moments of the festival
She notices that over the past 10 years, the attitude towards animation and video games has gradually changed – people are beginning to understand that they can be a great tool to talk about serious, relevant topics and are not intended only for entertainment or children.
Video games like we’re not used to seeing
The gaming program will feature the international gaming program Aware Game Awards for the second time. The aim of this competition is to showcase games that we are not used to seeing.
“These are short, easy-to-understand and learn-to-play works by artists, each focused on a narrative or game object. The international audience will choose the best work of the competition, evaluating not only the artistic expression, but also how suggestively the game reveals the theme, what feelings or reflections it is able to evoke. This year’s works also include two installations – games that you can only experience at festivals or biennales,” says Artūras Rumiancevs, coordinator of the BLON Games Program.
10 works from Germany, Estonia, Finland, Czech Republic, Japan, Latvia, Greece, Switzerland and Lithuania will be presented in the BLON “Aware Game Awards” game collection.
Among them is a Latvian developer’s sensitive and critical approach to the Mariupol tragedy in the game “Peresvet”, Estonian developers will present a game inspired by their hometown, German artists will be invited to take part in the provocation in the game “Veritatis” – to empathize with the censor of an authoritarian regime, deciding what and how to communicate to the public , role.
Photo of the organizers/BLON moments of the festival
In addition to works analyzing today’s social problems – sexuality, climate change, psychological health – works with a lighter content will also be demonstrated – games that seek to look at furniture or Kafka in a new way.
The festival, which will be held on the second weekend of September, will present a wide program of animated films. It includes 3 competitive programs of short films: international, competitive programs of Lithuanian and Ukrainian creators, an impressive program of feature-length animated films for the whole family and a special retrospective program of Lithuanian animation dedicated to celebrating the tenth anniversary of the festival. The festival will also present several free movie screenings to Klaipėda residents and guests of the city.
A separate part of the festival program is dedicated to families – creative workshops will be organized, and there will be film screenings showing films specially selected for young visitors. The organizers also invite you to visit the exhibition in the Klaipėda Puppet Theater – there they will be able to discover the characters of Igna Meilūnas’ animated film “Hooves and Skates”.
September 12-15 the festival events will take place in different locations in Klaipėda: Culture Factory, HOFAS, KKKC Exhibition Hall, Herkus Kantas, Arlekinas, Klaipėda Puppet Theater.
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2024-08-31 02:48:23
