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 Interview with Ulrich Wegenast Questions: Thomas Renoldner 

STUTTGART 2000
The 10th International Animated Film Festival

Thomas Renoldner:

"Ulrich Wegenast, you are working since seven years for the Stuttgart Animation Festival. Would you be so kind as to shortly introduce yourself and to explain your particular role within the organisation of the festival?"
Ulrich Wegenast:

"I'm working for the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film since 1993.
Before, in 1987, I was the founder member of Wand 5, organizer of the Stuttgart Filmwinter, a festival for experimental film, video art, and new media. I'm still member of the board of Wand 5. Besides I've studied history and history of art (M.A.) in Stuttgart as well as culture and media management in Berlin. At the moment I'm writing a dissertation in history of art about the relation between art and film.

My role in the Festival of Animated Film is a sort of link between the programme and the organizational aspects of the festival. Together with the artistic director, Prof. Albrecht Ade, I'm responsible for the retrospectives, special programmes, exhibitions... I'm arranging the preselection and I'm handling all the film traffic together with my assistent Klaus Geil. I'm also inviting guest curators."
Thomas Renoldner:

""In the years I visited the Stuttgart festival I always especially enjoyed the well selected retrospectives or thematic programmes like the serial "Music and Animation". I remember this particular programme introduced also a lot of co-called 'avantgarde' films and thus tried to widen a common understanding of the genre.
Which special programmes outside the competitions can we expect this year? "
Ulrich Wegenast

"There are several special programmes outside the competition.
We've programmes about special topics like "Sex, Men, Angst", a programme about the psychological impact of sexuality in animation, and "Mindscape", a selection of animated films related to aspects of architecture, which was curated by Suzanne Buchan from the Fantoche festival in Baden/Switerland.
Also there will be some quite interesting retrospectives, for example, about William Kentridge, one of the most interesting artists in the field of fine arts and animation, and Robert Breer, the famous american experimental animator, who has with his collage films big influence on music video and experimental animation."
Thomas Renoldner:

"On the Stuttgart Festival-homepage I found the following lines:
'Since the very first festival took place, the ITFS has successfully set itself the goal of creating a forum for artistic animated film.'
How would you describe the festivals' position in a discussion about Art and Industry?"
Ulrich Wegenast:

"The festival has a clear position regarding artistic animation.
That means that the most important point concerning the preselection is the artistic quality of the films; but the criteria of artistic quality are shifting. Nevertheless most of the shorts we're presenting in Stuttgart are so-called "author films", a word which has a special meaning in Germany. I would say these films are produced in a personal and artistic stringent way. Nevertheless we see a kind of professional development in the animation scene which does not exclude artistic aspects. Especially in the field of feature animation and the production of series it's nearly impossible to develop projects without a sufficient financial background. There are many studios which keep the balance between free artistic and commissioned work like Folimage, Studio FilmBilder, Filmógrafo - which we present in Stuttgart this year -, though I wouldn't consider there films as experimental animations or avantgarde films.
But, by the way, what is avantgarde in film today? I think it's quite difficult to use this word because it has already a kind of historic patina. If there's really something "new" going on then maybe in the internet, but also in the internet a big change is going on: the internet offers on the one hand many possibilities for animators, on the other hand becomes more and more something like a simple web tv.
Indeed it's our aim to present innovative films and projects in Stuttgart, but also to show the tradition of animation and - together with the animators, festivals, production companies... - try to keep and develop the artistic standard of animation."
Thomas Renoldner:

"This year ITFS will present an international competition, an 'student' competition and a competition for feature length animated films.
The feature films sections is new. How many films will be competing, and what kind of films are they?"
Ulrich Wegenast:

"The competition section for feature animation is new in this years' edition, but in the last festival we've shown already feature films by Jan Svankmajer, Bill Plympton, Daniel Nocke, Mariola Brillowska, Pierre Hébert... The main idea was to feature the increasing number of animated feature films on the festival, because most of them have difficulty to find a distribution. Nevertheless it was very difficult to find interesting feature films for this section. One reason was that we started to publish this new competiton quite late, another reason was that animated feature films are still a domain of childrens' film. Also there is still a fight between the festivals and distributors going on and some of the festival still think that they only can show films in a première show. Of course, it's fine if you have the possibility to present something like a World, Europe or German premiere on your festival. But this shouldn't be the single criteria for the selection!!
So we had about 25 entries for the feature animation competition. From the submitted films we've chosen five films for the competition and five for a special screening.
Regarding the special screenings we've selected some Japanese animés like "Princess Mononoke", "Spriggan" or "Memories".
In the the feature film competition there are some interesting works from Eastern Europe. In general, I think the field of artistic feature animation for adults will be get wider and we're at a starting point of a new development. At the upcoming festival we will present, for example, the feature film project of the German animator Heinrich Sabl which will be completed in 2001.
One week after the festival there will be the CARTOON movie panel in Potsdam/Berlin where the Stuttgart festival will show a selection of award winning shorts, too!"
Thomas Renoldner:

"Without doubt the Stuttgart Festival is one of the leading animation festivals of the world.
Is there still something you want to specially mention concerning this years edition?"
Ulrich Wegenast:

" After twenty years of festival work and the 10th edition the Stuttgart festival will change its organizational and programmatic structure. At the moment we're working on a new organizational basis for 2002 which will help us to keep and develop the artistic and professional standard and hopefully will bring in a better continuity. So in one sense, the 10th will be something like completion of a development. And I think the development of the last 10 festivals here in Stuttgart was a story of success for animation."
Thomas Renoldner:

"I thank you for the interview.
I wish the festival many guests and much success!"



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