The Friedrich Naumann Foundation Europe has just launched its fifth Animate Europe international comic competition, calling for entries based on the topic Restart! – The Streets of Europe - and our Festival Director Julie Tait is again one of the judges.

This competition is open to everyone internationally, calling on creators to take to the streets and offer their perception of the public’s ideas for “restarting Europe” as it recovers from the Coronavirus Pandemic. What are their biggest fears and wildest hopes? What kind of restart would they stand up for? Which face, which vision of Europe do they represent?

The deadline is 6th December 2020.

Animate Europe is a biannual international comic competition organised Friedrich Naumann Foundation Europe (FNF EU), an organisation which operates in 60 countries across the globe, and is devoted to promoting democracy, human rights and the market economy.

The Animate Europe international comic competition challenges young creatives to reimagine and discuss European questions artistically through the medium of comics.

For this year’s topic, FNF EU is looking for graphic stories about the place where European democracies are rooted, where interaction among European societies begin and where transformation starts from: the public, the streets of Europe!

This year, FNF EU are seeking single page comics, a new format for the competition which has a top prize of €1000. Plus, finalists will be invited to the award ceremony at the Belgian Comic Strip Center, Brussels, in June 2021.

Winning works will also be featured in a printed comic publication, as well as featuring in an international travel exhibition.

Submissions will again be evaluated by an established international jury, comprised of comic artists Lucie Lomová and Judith Vanistendael, the Director of the Lakes International Comic Festival Julie Tait, and Curator/ Producer/ Scriptwriter Kalle Hakkola.

If you’re new to Animate Europe, then you may not know they’ve been passionate about discovering Europe through comics for seven years now. Find general information on past competition rounds, exhibitions, and other activities here.

• Click here for a full overview on this year’s Animate Europe competition, as well as terms and conditions (also en français und auf Deutsch)

This competition is open to everyone internationally. The deadline is 6th December 2020

• View the Animate Europe exhibition archive, and check out the comics and animated short films