Narrative, allegorical, fantastic, nightmarish, cheeky, experimental, they are all here. Our International Animation Competition moves between the sly observations of the ordinary, the intelligent meta-reflections on the art and artists themselves, and the journeys through places and cultures not ordinarily experienced. From Japan and Hong Kong to UK, France and US, the animation shorts respond to socio-political challenges in their own differentiated (but still adamant) way. Animation may be in principle an artistic re-working of all kinds of things, but here it has one of its feet on the ground. There is also a more generic need for dialogue, but not by succumbing to faulty prejudices. The films in competition invite an out-of-the-box cognitive attitude in almost unique settings, from faraway galaxies to ordinary flats and schools and hospitals; they won't offer an escapist route, but they will still lead us to a road aesthetically and narratively worth following.