Cosmic Excitement at ANIMASYROS 2025: Stellar Guests, Premieres, Animated Cosmos, Greek Masterclasses, & Croatian Animation Spotlight!

The highly anticipated ANIMASYROS International Animation Festival marks its 18th edition in Cyclades’ capital from September 22nd to 28th, 2025, stocked with a colourful programme that involves 7 competitive categories, special features, engaging educational workshops, Agora – the go-to point for Eastern Mediterranean’s animation industry, VR lounge & latest collaborations.

Featuring indie American anime legend Bill Plympton in its milestone year, ANIMASYROS boasts of a renowned icon who is a two-time Academy Award nominee (Your Face, Guard Dog). Plympton also known as the hand-draw master of feature films, brings his fantastical universe to Syros this September, inviting us into a surreal odyssey through ten of his films, including Cheatin’.

This year’s ANIMASYROS theme “Animated Cosmos” aims to showcase how animation art enters, explores and effectively depicts the vast universe, an area filled with human curiosity. As part of the tribute, 25 films, both feature & short will be screened – including acclaimed independent European shorts like Cosmonaut by Kaspar Jancis (Estonia) and Solar Walk by Reka Busci (Hungary).

Aside from festival attendees, island residents will also have a chance to witness the Astrowalker Constellation, a stunning night-time land-based art installation by visual artist Katerina Kotsala, sited on the islet of Didymi, straight opposite Ermoupoli.

ANIMASYROS 2025 screenings also include three brand-new feature films premiering nationwide. Hola Frida takes viewers on a journey into iconic Frida Kahlo’s childhood, depicting her as a vibrant, curious youngster whose limitless imagination helps her escape a painful and mundane reality. This screening, a collaboration with and supported by Rosebud.21, is sure to cast light on a child’s luminous adventure, which would later revolutionize the world.

The film Olivia & The Clouds (Olivia & Las Nubes), by gifted storyweaver Tomás Pichardo Espaillat, a co-production between Dominican Republic and Spain that premiered at the 77th Locarno Festival, delves into love’s complexities through the Rashomon effect, following Olivia as she trades flowers with a spectral lost love for tranquil rain clouds. The lastly screened film is Memory Hotel by Heinrich Sabl, a German-French co-production set in 1945 at a hotel where a child, a Soviet soldier, a Nazi officer, and a Hitler Youth member end up together, bound by the unpredictable passage of time.

The dynamic Croatian animation scene takes centre stage in ANIMASYROS 2025 with an extensive tribute curated by Daniel Šuljić, director and artistic director of ANIMAFEST ZAGREB. This specially curated programme traces the evolution of Croatian animation from the 1950s Zagreb School to the present day through 28 remarkable films and contemporary works that continue to captivate cinephiles.

Furthermore, ANIMASYROS yearly reserves a special place for Greek animation. In 2025, a dedicated tribute and exhibition titled The Great Greek Masters will honor the pioneering Greek animation figures. The tribute also gives a warm welcome to four legendary Greek animators – Iordanis Ananiadis, Yiannis Koutsouris, Yiorgos Sifianos, and Anta Ganosi as honored guests of the Festival.

During the Festival Competition Sections’ call for submissions, which took place from February 2025 to June 1st, over 3,000 submissions were received from 115 different countries. The International Competition Programme of ANIMASYROS 2025 includes films that have been acclaimed at prestigious international festivals and masterpieces by globally renowned professionals. In addition to featuring the finest Greek films in the Greek Competition Programme, the festival’s competition lineup also includes K.ID.S films, showing animation works for children and families, as well as the Animapride section, highlighting films with LGBTQI+ themes.

The Competition Sections’ selections will be announced in early September on the Festival’s official website: animasyros.gr

ANIMASYROS 2025 Agora: An Autopsy of the Animation Industry

The Agora of ANIMASYROS under its second year of strategic partnership with the International Animation Film Market (MIFA) of the Annecy Festival, and supported by notable institutions like the Institut français (Paris), The Hive Studio Greece, and SKY express, sheds light on an international programme targeted towards supporting young creators and artists from Mediterranean countries such as Greece, Albania, Croatia, Cyprus, Lebanon, and Tunisia, in 2025.

In the International MIFA Campus from September 23 to 26, the 4-day Pitching Coaching Workshop aims to prepare participants to meet the challenges of the international market and the Pitch Partenaire to be held in Annecy in June 2026.

As jaw-dropping events unfold at ANIMASYROS Agora, the international audience can look forward to expanding their network, promote their work, connect with industry experts, and engage with the global animation community.

• Distinguished guests such as the indie animation legend Bill Plympton, will hold a masterclass in Syros giving insights into his creative process. A bonus for those who attend will be an original hand-drawn sketch by Bill Plympton!
• Bill Kinder, Director of Editorial and Postproduction at the revered Pixar Animation Studios, who has edited films like Finding Nemo (2003), Monsters, Inc. (2001), and Brave (2012) will be present.
• Upcoming Armenian animation director Tigran Arakelyan, will present his work-in-progress feature film ZAKO, a biographical film about Sargis Mangasaryan, an Armenian painter who escaped a Nazi labour camp by drawing portraits of his captors.

Esteemed figures from the animation community will present topics on new technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) used in animation production, as well as animation film financing in diverse European countries and the challenges and opportunities within the fragmented financing landscape for European animated content.

Additionally, the Festival’s Academic Partner, Deree – The American College of Greece, Associate Professor Dr. Georgia-Zozetta Miliopoulou will present a masterclass on Creativity and Art: Teaching or Learning? 10 Principles That Keep Us Going. Focusing on the fact that while certain things cannot be directly taught, they can be learned, the lecture will stress on the importance of adaptability, balance between creative freedom and discipline, and continuous learning in the fields of art and creative industries.

Also, the Artist’s Corner below spotlight presents Gary Thomas, co-founder and director of Animate Projects, the UK’s premium agency specializing in experimental animation. In collaboration with the British Council, Thomas will discuss Animate Projects’ “residency-commission” philosophy and introduce Planting, a support programme for emerging creators based in the city of Derby.

ANIMASYROS once again hosts the successful Greek Animation Talks, providing a platform for Greek creators to discuss their work, the challenges of the creative process, and share best practices. The Greek Animation Talks are presented by the critically-acclaimed filmmaker and professor Eva Stefani.

Interactive Educational Workshops

The Educational workshops, a mainstay of ANIMASYROS, are inspired by this year’s Festival theme, “Animated Cosmos”. With the help of acclaimed international artists and professionals, children, teenagers, adults, differently-abled individuals, and seniors aged 65+ will get hands-on experience with various animation techniques, and embark on unforgettable cosmic adventures.

All workshops are accessible free of cost.

Interested individuals can submit their applications via email at education2@animasyros.gr until Monday, September 15.

The detailed information about each session along with a full workshop schedule are available at the Festival’s website: animasyros.gr