Animation Volda Festival

The Animation Volda Festival is an annual arrangement. It is hosted by the animation students at Høgskolen in Volda, Norway. The festival explores the medium of animation with lectures, workshops, guest speakers, screenings and parties. Every year, the festival is arranged solely by students, mainly from the animation bachelor program. Animation Volda was founded February 5th 2007 by the innovative professors Gunnar Strøm, Joakim Pedersen and Andres Mand together with animation students Ida Westvang and Sylvia B. Clausen at Volda University College. From the beginning the festival has collaborated closely with Fredrikstad Animation Festival, the leading Nordic-Baltic animation festival. Distinguished international guests come to Volda each year to present their films, to lecture and socialize. Innovative seminars have been arranged on subjects like “Why Do I Need a Producer?”, Japanese animation and the atomic bomb, and Animation and the Cold War (ASIFA 50 years). Since 2010 a special focus has been given to industrial animation films. The festival has become an important forum for Nordic animators and animation students, and has slowly become an international animated film destination.