Animated film from the neighbourhood

While studios such as Pixar and Ghibli are known and celebrated by animation fans worldwide, local animation studios and filmmakers are often only known to a small circle. Hamburg-based animation studio Fabian&Fred, for example, has been successfully making animated films for the international market since 2015 and entered the Oscar race in 2022 with its short film "The Chimney Swift". And animation artist and illustrator Raman Djafari produced the music video for the song "Cold Heart" by Elton John and Dua Lipa last year - and currently has his studio in Hamburg Wilhelmsburg.

These are all exciting artists and creatives that Till Penzek has already hosted at his Hamburg Animation Club in the past year. Penzek himself is a filmmaker in the field of animation and has been a professor and head of the Film and Motion Design programme at the University of Europe for Applied Sciences in Altona since 2021. The topic of animation therefore occupies him on a daily basis. However, he got the idea for the Animation Club from another project. In 2021, he curated a permanent exhibition for the Altona Museum as part of the film exhibition "Close-up" called the Trick Box. "The work of Hamburg animation artists is shown here in a large exhibition space. I already knew many of them beforehand, but I only got to know some of them through my involvement. And it's crazy how little visible the topic of animated film is in Hamburg compared to other cities. I wanted to do something that went beyond the exhibition - and the idea for the Hamburg Animation Club was born," says Penzek.

From the very beginning, the Hamburg filmmaker has attached great importance to a varied programme: "People should get involved in something new and be surprised. Animation is not a genre, but a medium. That's why as many different areas as possible should be shown." This ranges from experimental film projects such as those by Miriam Endrulat to the multiple award-winning short films by Fabian&Fred. And the response proves him right: whether film lovers or students, everyone was enthusiastic about the first three events and the new opportunity to network. A highlight for many visitors: The making-of presentations, in which the artists show their work processes and animation techniques on stage. This reveals the meticulous detail work behind a few minutes of film.

This meticulous attention to detail is also evident in the Hamburg Animation Club's logo - because each event has its own motif, which functions as both a standing graphic and an animation. "Of course, that takes work and is not entirely rational. But it fits in very well with the animated film theme," says Penzek and laughs. Penzek's wife, illustrator Julia Neuhaus, is responsible for the design. Penzek's wish for the next few years is to continue expanding the project and to surprise the audience time and time again. To this end, he would like to cooperate with other institutions and formats from Hamburg in the future and also include the "Games" area in the programme.

But before there are any excursions into the games genre, the upcoming event on 23 March from 19:30 will be dedicated to Hamburg comic artist Sascha Hommer. His dark comic "Insect" was elaborately realised by the Polish animation studio Yellow Tapir Films over the course of four years and shows a city in which insects mingle with the people. Also in attendance: the students of UE's "Film & Motion Design" programme, who will be presenting a selection of their work from the "Animated Dreams" seminar.