KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival is a

festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

for

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

art, first held in 2007. It is organized by the non-profit KLIK foundation and takes place annually at the Eye Film Institute in

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Among the animated art forms featured at KLIK are animated feature films, shorts, commercials,

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

, and installations.

History

KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival is organized by the KLIK Foundation. KLIK originates from the

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

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 Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. 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'.n I2019 KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival and Holland Animation Film Festival (HAFF) realized that their differences could be used to complement each other, and they merged to create Kaboom Animation Festival. Kaboom Animation Festival is now a yearly event where professionals and fans meet, inspire each other, and enjoy the latest and greatest that animation has to offer. All while celebrating the Dutch animation industry.

KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival

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

International competition

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 various categories. An independent jury decides on the awards.

KLIK Specials

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. For instance, in 2018, the

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

nominated film The Breadwinner is featured and its director

Nora Twomey Nora Twomey (born 31 October 1971) is an Irish people, Irish animator, director, screenwriter, producer and voice actress. She is best known as the co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, alongside Tomm Moore and Paul Young (producer), Paul Young, an anima ...

is present at the festival as a guest. The KLIK Specials segment can include the following: * Feature film (premieres) * Documentaries on animation related topics * Midnight Madness: a program of entertaining but bizarre films that weren't selected for the competition * Presentations/ talks

Theme programming

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: * State of Mind (2018) * Never Grow Up (2017) * The World We Live In (2016) * Rock, Paper, Scissors (2015) * Girls, Boys & Beyond (2014) * Fabulous Fifties (2013) * Violence (2012) * Science (2010) * Politics and Erotics (2009) * India (2008)

KLIK Industry

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. A recurring event in the KLIK Industry segment is the Debutante Ball: animation graduates can introduce their work to producers by showing a one-minute show reel.

KLIK Events

In addition to animation screenings, the festival includes several festive events.

KLIK for Kids

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

KLIK World Domination Award

Since 2013, the festival's major price the KLIK World Domination Award is awarded to an organisation, studio, or individual that helped Dutch animation on a global scale. Nominations are made by the public, an independent jury makes the decision. Past winners of the award:

References

External links

Official website KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150815133533/http://www.klik.amsterdam/ , date=2015-08-15 Festivals in Amsterdam Animation film festivals 2007 establishments in the Netherlands Recurring events established in 2007 Film festivals in the Netherlands