About us
Our Vision
As Berlin is home to a major animation hub, it is our long-term goal to establish a festival exclusively dedicated to animation.
We annually present the best of recent national and international animated films, focusing on artistic shorts across all styles — from traditional to stop motion, CGI, cross-media experiments and 360° films. The festival’s film programme is accompanied by a range of different activities focusing on the art and industry of animation.
Our Story
It all started with a full-length animation program in spring 2017. Two screenings of current animated films from Germany and a live audiovisual concert awaited our guests and ensured a sold-out house in no time.
This success spurred us on and – thanks to generous funding from the HKF – we were able to grow into a proper festival with three days of events and three locations as early as the following year in 2018.
In 2019, the future looked rather bleak for FAB due to limited funding opportunities. However, thanks to our amazing, active animation community and a successful crowdfunding campaign, our great partners, a motivated team, and a bit of improvisation, we were still able to put on a great one-day festival edition and satellite pitching event.
What happened in 2020 and 2021, we all know only too well. And yet FAB was able to host its festival as a physical, in-person event both years with three full festival days and an additional series of webinars and livestreams.
Special Guests
Every year we welcome a special guest of honor – an animation director who designs our festival trailer and defines the unique look of our festival for one year. For our visitors this means the opportunity to meet-and-greet our star guest in person at our festival. Our masterclasses, workshops and talks provide you with insights into their*her*his*work, and offer actual hands-on experience.
In addition to our star guest, our festival visitors can expect numerous other contributions from top-class people in the animation industry. Whether it’s a studio, a collective, an indie animator or a broadcasting boss: at FAB, newcomers and celebrities unite under one cinema roof.
Animation Expanded
Animation itself is a transgressive art form that ventures beyond boundaries and invites us to go there as well. And it is precisely these spaces (or non-spaces) that we are particularly interested in. Already in 2017, our very first festival evening was topped off by the premiere of the live-animated audiovisual concert “A new Beginning”. In 2018, a screening with 360° animations in the dome of the planetarium was part of the competition program.
Since 2020, the festival’s own exhibition FAB Dimensional dedicates itself to immersive animation experiences and invites visitors to enjoy a very special way of looking at things – or to become part of those experiences.
Initiators & Animation Network Berlin e. V.
The co-founder of Animation Network Berlin e.V. and artistic director of the Festival of Animation Berlin (FAB), Pia Djukic, grew up in Stuttgart and became a regular visitor to the ITFS animation festival there. When she moved to Berlin for her animation studies at Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, she was missing one thing above all – a local animation festival. Fortunately, she met Daniel Demele, who was already actively supporting ComicInvasion. Together they decided to put their idea of a Berlin animation film festival into action and founded FAB in 2017.
The Animation Network Berlin e.V. is the association responsible for organizing our annual festival FAB and sees itself as a multidisciplinary hub for animation artists and animation lovers. We do not only aim to connect members of the industry with each other, but also with filmmakers and institutions of related fields as well as interested parties. This is what our network meetings are for – our meet-and-greets, discussions, talks, pitching events, workshops, receptions and, of course, also our parties!
After 5 successful festival years Daniel has moved on professionally. But he still remains with the festival team as an honorary member of Animation Network Berlin e.V. Since 2022 Lukas Thiele is the production manager of FAB. He is already curating FAB Dimensional, our exhibition for space-based animation, since 2020.
