ReAnimania International Animation Film Festival of Yerevan is reviving an old-rooted animation tradition in Armenia.
Animation is a word that probably doesn’t have an exact match in the Armenian language, but the art of animation itself certainly has multitudes of fans and lovers across Armenia. The first Armenian animation film, “The Cat and the Cog” by Lev Atamanov, was produced in 1938. Today, after more than 70 years of artistic legacy, the ReAnimania International Animation Film Festival of Yerevan is reviving an old-rooted animation tradition, and catering to the growing interest towards this art in Armenia.
At the beginning, the ReAnimania Festival didn’t enjoy a well-trodden path as it started out as newborn international event. This unique festival, the brainchild of animator and filmmaker Vrej Kassouny in 2006, was co-founded in 2008 together with Lucineh Kassarjian, the producer of children’s digital educational entertainment products, bringing the dream to reality in the midst of the global financial crisis. It survived a period when more established and long-standing projects were starting to fade and quit the animation arena.