ANIMAFEST SCANNER X | SYMPOSIUM FOR CONTEMPORARY ANIMATION STUDIES | PANEL 1 – WHAT DOES ‘ANIMATION’ MEAN NOW?

WHY DO WE NEED TO DEFINE (AUTEUR) ANIMATION AGAIN? Mina Sablić Papajić (Teaching Associate, Faculty of Applied Arts Belgrade, Serbia)

PANEL 1: WHAT DOES ‘ANIMATION’ MEAN NOW?
Theatre &TD
06/06 TUE 10:30-11:00

The history of definitions of animation is mainly based on the need to distinguish it from live-action cinematography. That need is still important for a different
reason: From the beginning of cinema, animation was involved in film with special effects, but today animation is also a way to economize on the production
process of film content and become a substitute for scenography or even actors. Therefore, by becoming a tool, animation is losing its status as a medium. That is why it is of great importance to define animation so we can distinguish it from everything else that animation can be in its expanded forms. If the
animation industry is developing in the direction of building a hyperrealistic virtual reality, the auteur animation can be self-reflexive and question that (new) reality. In this paper I will try to define animation according to the question of how animation treats reality, starting from animation’s inherent characteristics. In the roughest division, at one end of the spectrum there is the animation that strives for realism and hyperrealism, whether in a classical (classicist) form, or experiments with new technologies, while at the other end of the spectrum there is animation that mostly attaches the phrase ‘auteur’ and in which film reality is self-reflexive, i.e. self-aware. The definition of auteur animation is partly based on the legacy of modernist animation and the phrase was coined in a certain historical context (characterized by specific technical-technological features, as well as aesthetics and social conditions) so it would be interesting if it opens questions: Has contemporary auteur animation retained the critical and self-reflexive component inherent to modernism? Is it possible to define what comes after modernistic auteur animation?

Mina Sablić Papajić is a screenwriter and dramaturge. She works as a teaching associate at the Animation department at the Faculty of Applied Arts. Mina is a member of program and selection team of European Animated Film Festival Balkanima. She is an associate screenwriter for two professional animation studios based in Belgrade, and a member of Association of Drama Artists of Serbia.