KLIK! Amsterdam Animation Festival

KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival is an annual festival in Amsterdam for all things animated, first held in 2007. KLIK likes to showcase animation in all of its shapes and sizes and related art forms, giving a platform to animated feature films, shorts, commercials, video games, music videos, comics, and installations.

With the festival as KLIK's flagship, and other activities happening in its wake, KLIK likes to bring its passion for and knowledge of provocative and top-quality animation to a wide audience. KLIK also serves as a platform, knowledge hub, and catalyst for the Dutch animation sector.

The annual festival's program is formed by the following sections:

KLIK!organizes an international competition for animated shorts, for which it has a call for entries from March until July. Animation professionals and students are invited to submit their work to compete in the following categories:

A comprehensive selection process narrows roughly 1800 entries down to 150 selected films for the competition. Winners are determined by a committee of experts in the field of animation. All winners receive a sculpture from animator Klaas-Harm de Boer, and a cash prize to invest in their next animated short.

Alongside the international competition, each year the festival has a theme that serves to address a socially relevant or current topic from multiple perspectives. This theme is expressed in film screenings, workshops and presentations, installations, and festival decoration and artwork. An overview over the past themes:

Alongside the international competition and the theme programming the festival also offers KLIK Specials, featuring works that touch upon highly relevant topics or are of exceptional artistic quality. The KLIK! Specials segment can include the following:

The festival has a special segment for animation professionals to assess the latest developments in and needs of the animation sector. This segment can contain panel discussions, interviews, masterclasses, and consultation hours. Recurring event in the KLIK Industry segment is the Debutante Ball: animation graduates can introduce their work to producers by showing a one-minute showreel.

The festival has several festive events such as Opening Night, Award Night, and the KLIK! KLIK! BOOM party.

A program of animated shorts and features geared to children aged 5 to 12.

KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival is organized by the KLIK Foundation. KLIK originates from the Flemish KLIT! Multimedia Festival, that took place in 2004 and 2005, organized by students of the animation academy of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. Their purpose was to provide the general public with access to both their own works and those of their fellow students working in other disciplines. In 2007 the KLIT! Amsterdam Animation Festival was organized for the first time. In 2008 the name 'KLIT!' was changed to 'KLIK!'. In 2016 the organization dropped the exclamation mark, changing the name to 'KLIK'.

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