Animation festival plays in Sept.

The 15th Korea Independent Animation Film Festival will be held from Sept. 19 to 24, festival organizers said on Tuesday.

A total of 152 animated films from 23 countries will be screened at CGV Myeongdong Station Cine Library. The films have been categorized in seven sections: Independent Walk, First Flight, Asia Road, Panorama, Korea Special, World Special, and Relay Animation.

The Independent Walk and First Flight sections will only feature Korean films and will be competitive. A Korean film will be chosen as the winner of the Grand Prize among the two sections, and will go home with a seven million won prize.

The winner of the Independent Walk competition will get three million won, and the winner of the First Flight competition will get two million won.

Foreign animations will compete in the Asia Road section.

The festival’s opening film is “Away” by Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis, a 75-minute animated fantasy adventure taking place on a mysterious island. The protagonists are a boy and his bird who travel across the island on a motorcycle and attempt to escape a dark spirit to get back to their home.

In the Relay Animation section, a four-minute animated work entitled “Would Be Ok” created through a collaboration among six directors from Korea, Japan and Ecuador will be screened in the theater on the opening day at 7 p.m. Directors Lee Kaylee Soo-hyun, Jang Hye-in, Lee Yoon-su, Kim Ji-hyeon, Ryo Sato and Fabian Guamani Aldaz made the film.

By Lee Jae-lim