We invited practitioners and scholars to address animation as a privileged space within the realm of the moving image, a unique position that allows animators to not only create imaginary worlds but also, importantly, to look at and challenge the world we live in.

Using Lisbon’s Atlantic position and its historical place between Europe, the Americas, North Africa and the routes to the East, as an opportunity to further enhance the cultural reach of the SAS, we want to discuss animation in a contemporary context.

In an age of contrasting globalization and the rise of separatist ideologies, we encouraged potential delegates to celebrate animation’s transdisciplinary nature by focussing on its cultural diversities and issues of local distinctiveness, with geography and location as an underpinning general theme.

With the Digital Animation BA course and the more recent Animations Arts MA course, Universidade Lusófona in Lisbon has established itself at the forefront of animation studies in Portugal. Pursuing a strategy to develop an area of moving image studies that is ever more relevant and pervasive in our growingly visual society, we are proudly hosting the 2019 Conference of the Society for Animation Studies, with a view to bringing to Lisbon the best of current animation studies, hoping to encourage, inspire and develop local knowledge and research.

Following previous years success and proof of SAS membership engagement and vitality, we have once again had a record number of highly competitive proposals. These went through a rigorous and hard blind selection process that promises an exciting conference program. We are proud to be continuing the tradition of excellence at SAS and look forward to welcoming you in Lisbon in June.