This year, Monstra Festival<\/a>\u00a0 (20-30 April 2025, Lisbon) celebrated its 25th birthday with the general theme, ‘The Drawing, The Poetry, 25 years of Portuguese Animation.’ So, this festival was more than a festival; it was also a commemoration with posters made by Regina Pessoa<\/strong> and Abi Feij\u00f3<\/strong>.<\/p>\n There were not many events like that in the southern region of Portugal. Cinanima<\/strong>, the third oldest animation festival in the world, was a reference for Fernando Galrito<\/strong>, as Monstra\u2019s Artistic Director stated in his presentation. For 2025, Austria was the invited country, and many sessions, among films and masterclasses, were offered to animation lovers.<\/p>\n As always, Monstra brought several diverse events, more than just film sessions. Among them, we had not just a big exhibition but three great exhibitions<\/strong> linked to animators and animation studios:<\/p>\n
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\n<\/ul>\n Cola Animation exhibition during Monstra 2025<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/ul>\n The other two fantastic events at the National Museum of Natural History and Science were ‘Invisible Places’ and ‘Magic Project.’<\/p>\n The first was an “interactive installation by composer Carlos Caires<\/strong> that invited participants to manipulate a sound system through hand movements, creating an engaging dialogue with light projections and images.\u201d This created a superpower sensation in those who moved their hands in the air. These movements created different sounds from nature and aligned with the studio lights, providing a mix of impressions. It was really great!\u00a0<\/p>\n The second was the presentation of the ‘Optical Theater’ of \u00c9mile Reynaud<\/strong>, reconstructed by Abi Feij\u00f3<\/strong>, and the ‘Magic Lantern’ session with Feij\u00f3 and Elsa Cerqueira<\/strong>. I already wrote about it for Zippy Frames, and<\/a>\u00a0one of the festival’s highlights.\u00a0<\/p>\n The masterclasses and talks were also very interesting moments. For instance, ‘N\u00facleo de Anima\u00e7\u00e3o de Campinas [Brazil] Half a Century of Animation with Kids, Youngsters, and Indigenous Communities’\u2014Zippy Frames will publish an interview on this soon\u2014’Regina Pessoa<\/strong>, My Creative Process,’ ‘Thomas Renoldner<\/strong>, The Work of the Teacher, Curator, Musician, and Animator,’ and ‘Jos\u00e9-Manuel Xavier<\/strong>, He, The Other Movement and I’ were fantastic opportunities to get closer to the public and creators about their works and methodologies.<\/p>\n Moreover, there were also two book releases. One by Jos\u00e9 Manuel-Xavier<\/strong>, ‘The Other Movement’ – a poetry book he illustrated – and the other by\u00a0Nancy<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Denney-Phelps<\/strong>, ‘On The Animation Trail.’ In this presentation, I had the honor to be invited to make the mediation with the audience, Nancy told some book highlights, which cover 20 years of travel for animation festivals around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nancy Denney-Phelps’s book presentation at Monstra Festival 2025<\/em><\/p>\n Monstra is always wonderful, but as with everything in life, we have a downside: it is not possible to participate in every event. So, besides the exhibitions, I could see some student shorts, international short films and Portuguese sessions competition, and some feature films. Following, I tell Zippy Frames\u2019 readers about what caught my attention; it does not matter if the film was awarded or not, and I do not cite productions already commented on in previous reviews [also check the Monstra 2025 winning films<\/a>].<\/p>\n Feature Films<\/em>:<\/p>\n
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From March 14 to May 11, offering a unique opportunity to explore the behind-the-scenes world of the renowned LAIKA animation studio. It is fantastic to see the details of Laika\u2019s characters.<\/li>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.zippyframes.com\/images\/stories\/festivals\/2025\/cola-animation-exhibition-monstra.jpg\")
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The story is about a son, Jozef, who will see his father in a sanatorium.<\/em>
However, given that the picture is a Quay Brothers\u2019 film, the situation is far from simple or ‘normal.’ I love this! The illogical and outside-of-the-time shown in this feature film are attractive and, of course, mysterious. The quality of puppet animation is indescribable. The metamorphosis between the static and motion puppet states is incredible. Undoubtedly, we anticipated the Feature Animation award.<\/li>\n