Sven Bonnichsen loves animation.
He grew up on the 1933 King Kong and the original Star Wars trilogy. As a kid, he would read books on special effects and animation, such as Kit Laybourne’s The Animation Book. What he found most interesting was how anyone could create stop-motion shorts with the tools they had on hand. Nowadays, Bonnichsen is the founder, director and “wizard behind the curtains” of the Northwest Animation Festival.
The Northwest Animation Festival has been the largest animation festival in the U. S. for the past three years. This year, over 1,000 films were submitted from all over the world. Held in Portland and Eugene every year for the past six years, the festival is coming to the Bijou Art Cinema from May 20-22.
It kicks off Friday night at 7 p.m. with the International Spectacular, a showcase of dozens of films from all over the world spread out over three hours. The fest continues on Saturday at 1 p.m. with the Family Friendly showcase, the Queer Animation Revolution showcase at 3 p.m. and another three-hour International Spectacular at 7 p.m. The Strange & Sexy showcase, Exploding Mind showcase and third International Spectacular are on Sunday, starting at 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively.
“The guiding aesthetic,” Bonnichsen said, “is whatever you watch in the last film, the next film should be something completely different.”
Bonnichsen said the main goal of the festival is to show animation as a fine art form and bring the creators’ work to the community.
“I also have that public component where I want to build literacy. That really informs how we program the show,” said Sven.
For those interested in submitting their work to the festival, there’s a four-month  open call period. Creators are able to submit their work for free for the first two months. Bonnichsen also sends out invitations to creators from 15 to 20 festivals throughout the U.S. whose work was highly-regarded and recognized by their peers.
The submissions are then viewed and reviewed by Bonnichsen and the rest of the jury, which is made up of alumni of the festival. Instead of people just saying “yes” or “no,” the jury rates the film on a score from one to nine and averages the score. This helps to build a community of peers.
“The relationship-building has been amazing,” said Bonnichsen. “There’s an animator in Iran who was on the jury this year and the difference in cultures between Iran and the U.S. is pretty amazing. Being able to build this relationship, she talked about how valuable it has been to her to know that there are people in the U.S.A. who care and who have some sense of trying to build peace and bridge-building in the world.”
Bonnichsen hopes to create an enriching and immersive experience for both the festival visitors and the creators. He wants to create something that’s jaw-dropping for an audience.
For those interested, three-day weekend passes are available for $45 at nwanimationfest.com.

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Aubade – by Mauro Carraro