Animasyros International Animation Festival is the largest festival and Animation market of its kind in Greece and one of the 20 most important globally. It started in 2008 and it is annually held at the island of Syros the capital of Cyclades at the neoclassical town of Hermoupolis and in other locations of the island. The festival includes screenings, tributes to international animation festivals, artists and studios, media literacy activities for children, youngsters, adults, persons with disabilities and senior citizens, parties and tons of parallel events. 2023 marks the 9th year of "Agora" animation market, a major concurrent event, steadily evolving into an important international hub of creative professional networking, targeting the development of synergies among animation professionals. The Animasyros Agora includes pitching sessions, presentations and masterclasses by prominent representatives of the global animation industry.
Εvents are free to the public and take place at the imposing Apollo Theatre, the Hermoupolis Cultural Centre, the University of the Aegean premises, the central Miaouli Square and various locations across the island of Syros.

The Animasyros 2024 edition will be held on September 23 - 29, 2024. The main thematics of this year's edition are dedicated to African animation.

Best Feature (Audience Award)

Best Short Film (Professional)

Best Student Short Film

The TV & Commissioned Film awards are split into:
-Best Commissioned (adverts, informecials,etc)
-Best Music Video
-Best TV Episode

Best Greek Film

Best K.ID.S Film

Best Animapride Film (LGBTQI+ Film)

Best Pitch for an Agora Project

Vital & short info:

- The festival welcomes only ANIMATED films from all over the globe.
- First public screening of submitted films must have occurred strictly AFTER 1st of January 2022
- The limit between shorts and features is set in 45min. (anything <45mins is considered short, everything >45mins is a feature)
- You can submit only via FilmFreeway.
- Given the current status of the announced venues equipment digital files would be highly preferable over DCP's and optical discs.

Here follows the official Rules & Terms, as posted on AnimaSyros' website:

Animasyros International Animation Festival & Agora is an independent action of the non-for-profit organisation based in Athens Greece PLATFORMA - Urban Culture Co. aiming at the promotion of animated film.

The Festival screens, on a predetermined schedule, both physically & through a digital platform animated films, that fulfill the conditions of participation and are submitted validly within the deadlines set and announced. Participants must submit one copy of the film in their screening format, as filed in the application form.

The Festival is organized once a year, with the duration and the participants' selection and the screenings' programme all subject to the absolute choice of the Production Team.

Films of racist, pedophile or other content, offending human dignity or supporting any discrimination against individuals or groups of people based “on racial or ethnic origin, religious or other beliefs, disability, age or sexual orientation” as well as films violating any third parties lawful rights including Intellectual Property rights are not eligible for participation in the Festival.

The Festival selects a number of films from all validly submitted entries to the distinctive competition sections of the Festival. Animasyros awards the following Prizes: 1) Grand Prize for the Best Film in the Professional Short Film section, 2) Best Student Film for the respective category, 3) Audience Prize to the Best Feature Film. 4) Best TV & Commissioned Film (with its subcategories) 5) Best Greek Film 6) Best K.ID.S Film 7) Best Animapride Film (LGBTQI) & 8) Best Agora Pitch Project. All awards are decided by respective juries comprised by acknowledged professionals or persons selected and announced by the Organisers in due course. Following each screening, the audience is asked to vote its favorite film in a specially formatted ballot space outside each screening hall. All awards are jointly granted to the director and the producer of winning the event's closing ceremony. The aforementioned prize may be pecuniary or other, according to the decision of the Production Team of the Festival.

With the submission of an application form for a film, participants, both director(s) and producer(s) unconditionally accept the terms of present and allow the use of excerpts or the entire film by the organizers for publicity and archive purposes of the Festival only. Any other use of the film is subject to the prior consent of the director and producer.

The submitter also consents to having his contact information (name, email) in the festival's catalogue next to his film entry.

The Festival bears no liability for any loss or damage of the audiovisual and other material submitted by film applicants, may not request any entry fees from them and may not pay any screening fees to any film participant.

The Production Team of the Festival is constituted by at least five (5) members, two (2) of which, at least, are also members of the Board of PLATFORMA - Urban Culture Co. Any change of the Production Team members takes effect by virtue of a decision of its current members. All decisions are taken by simple majority.
The Production Team of the Festival may cancel at any time the event, provided that the circumstances render its realization unfeasible.

The financial matters and other statements of each annual event are communicated at any interested party after the event, with diligence of the Production Team of the Festival.

Each term of present regulation is considered substantial and may be modified or revoked only according to decision of the Board of PLATFORMA - Urban Culture Co.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Filmografo Filmografo

    Thank you very much for the excellent festival, for selecting our films and for encouraging our friends who gave us the best news of what was happening. We will always try to have a film of our own next year and... see if we can make a visit this time.

    October 2023
  • Thomas Kunstler

    Top European animation festival. Getting better every year

    October 2023
  • Annika Nimz

    Thank you for selecting our queer short film "Brewberry Spell"! And thank you for giving queer stories a space to be seen. <3

    October 2023
  • Bruna Haddad

    Honestly my fav festival. AnimaSyros is like family. No it is family and I can’t wait to be there again next year!

    October 2023
  • As always AnimaSyros was amazing! We had a lot of fun and there were great opportunities for networking, learning new things and enjoying cool films. Only issue was there was a mix up with our festival credentials and most people were not sure who to ask in order to resolve it 😅 but everything turned out fine and we had an amazing time. We are definitely attending again next year!

    October 2023