In 2021 MONSTRA invites… Belgium!

This year MONSTRA welcomes… Belgium!

For its 20th edition, Monstra is celebrating the animation cinema from Belgium. 

Belgium is the home country of one of the most important names in animation in Europe, Raoul Servais, and the motherland of one of the oldest animation festivals in the world, ANIMA Brussels, who is this year celebrating its 40th anniversary. 

Moreover, in 2021 Belgian animation is also celebrating its centenary. 

Indeed, it was in 1920-21 that the Brussels-based Houssiaus family started producing the first animated films for advertising. And yet, only more than a decade later, Ernest Genval would direct his first film “Plucky en Egypte”, and between 1935 and 1937 the Vanpepestraete brothers would make the first animated series with puppets: “Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise”, and “Couchés dans la foin”. It was during the Nazi occupation that Paul Nagant founded the first animation studio in Liège, where he produced among others “Zazou chez les nègres”. 

These were but the first steps in a great history that MONSTRA will revisit with screenings of short and feature films, exhibitions and training courses showcasing the best of Belgian animation in one of the biggest retrospectives ever made.