Latvian animation in the focus of the MONSTRA Animation Film Festival

On March 12, in Lisbon, Animation Festival MONSTRA begins and this year Latvia is a guest country, thus will have a wide presence during festival running – both an overview of 60 years of history, as well as modern film programs for children and adults, retrospectives of individual directors, master classes of professionals and industry meetings.

MONSTRA / Lisbon Animation Festival, founded with the beginning of the 21st century ( year 2000), has become the most visited film festival in Portugal, it annually selects about 400 films from 3000 submitted works and shows them at more than 100 screenings. For each year's program, the festival chooses one "focus country", moreover, it does it two three years in advance, and the organizers of MONSTRA were so far-sighted and prophetic that they saw the potential of Latvian animation and chose Latvia as the focus country of 2026 already when the famous feature animation Flow / Straume by Gints Zilbalodis had not even competed in Cannes yet. Therefore, the festival organizers were even more pleased with the Oscar win of the film and its other success, which confirms the important place of this year's focus country Latvia in the world animation landscape. The festival's characteristic of Latvian animation is "a strong sense of artistic freedom, a wide range of animation techniques and author's dominance".

The opening ceremony of the festival on the evening of March 12 includes two short films by other world-famous Latvian authors – Kiosk / Kiosks (2013) by Anete Melece and Wings and Oars / Spārni un Airi (2007) by Vladimir Leshchiov, both directors will also work in different festival juries and perform animation master classes; On March 18, a master class is also scheduled from the director Edmunds Jansons. Latvian films are also included in the festival's competitions – Edmunds Jansons' Free Ride in C (2024) and Zane Oborenko's sand animated short film Kafka. In Love / Iemīlējies. Kafka (2024).  The annual tradition of the festival is to invite the guest country artist to create the current poster of the festival, and this year the author of the Lisbon Festival poster is the Latvian animation director and artist Vladimir Leschiov.

Films from Latvia to Portuguese audiences includes five different short film programmes and three feature-length film screenings – already on March 13, Flow / Straume (2024) will be screened and on March 17 - Away / Projām (2019) by Gints Zilbalodis, on March 21 – first feature-length animation Rocks in My Pockets / Akmeņi manās kabatās (2014) by Signe Baumane will have its screening.

The selection of Latvian animated short films includes 39 short films by different authors and different eras, divided into five thematic programs. The works of contemporary authors will be shown in two different screenings on March 18 and March 20, where viewers will get acquainted with films created by Edmunds Jansons, Jurģis Krāns, Lizete Upīte, Andrejs Brīvulis, Zane Oborenko, Kārlis Vītols, Anete Melece, Reinis Pētersons and other authors; these programs show that the range of technical possibilities of Latvian animation covers the widest range – from charcoal drawing to watercolor, from computer graphics to sand animation. The program for the smallest, which will be shown on March 14, selects six short films, featuring both Edmunds Jansons Rags and Dace Rīdūzes Zīļuks, Kraukšķītis, Pea's children and other characters. In a separate retrospective, on March 17, nine short films by Vladimir Leshchev will be screened.

Another block of events has been adapted to the fact that exactly in 2026 it is 60 years since the puppet animation stuido Animācijas Brigāde was founded in Latvia, but its founder, director, screenwriter and artist Arnolds Burovs (1915–2006) has already celebrated his 110th anniversary. On  March 16, the short film program will be dedicated to the history of Latvian puppet cinema that is important on a European scale, it includes five films by the old master Arnolds Burovs – from the very first Latvian puppet film Ki-ke-ri-gū! (1966) to the hilariously instructive Si-Si-Dra 1977). Meanwhile, a large-scale  puppet exhibition of the studio Animation Brigade was opened at the Lisbon Puppet Museum already on February 13, which will be on display there until April 19.

The Lisbon Festival also has an industry events section, where the most important events will begin on March 17. The meeting  of producers and directors of the Baltic States and Latin American countries planned for March 19 has been specially adapted to Latvia's status as a focus country, establishing connections between unfamiliar animation ecosystems and opening up new opportunities for cooperation and development of the creative potential of both regions. Therefore, a whole Latvian animation delegation goes to the Lisbon Festival – five directors whose films are included in the festival program, six producers (Sabīne Andersone, Dominiks Jarmakovičs, Kristele Pudāne, Emīlija Lenkeviča, Sniedze Kāle, Raitis Ābele), as well the head of the National Film Centre Dita Rietumua and media representatives.

Latvia's participation in the Lisbon Festival is supported by the National Film Centre of Latvia and the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, the Latvian Animation Association has participated in the preparation of the programme, and the exhibition of the Puppet Museum has been created and arranged by the studio Animācijas Brigāde.