OTTAWA — Election politics dominated opening night at the Ottawa International Animation Festival when, speaking before a packed house at Ottawa’s legendary ByTowne Cinema, the fest’s artistic director Chris Robinson metaphorically criticized federal cultural funding cuts in a lengthy diatribe about ‘monkeys damaging the banana crop.’

Canadian Film Institute executive director Tom McSorley distained metaphor entirely. ‘Without being partisan, vote for culture, you Canadians out there,’ he urged the audience on Wednesday night. Then, dropping into a Jean Chrétien impersonation, McSorley added, ‘The only good Tory is a supposi-tory!’

Focusing on worldly themes such as politics, rather than escapist cartoon fantasy, appears to be in line with this year’s OAIF lineup of features and shorts. ‘A lot of the films deal with mature themes,’ Robinson told Playback Daily, citing as examples the subjects of personal identity, troubled relationships and insanity.

He is clearly happy to see the OIAF’s lineup hit this mark: ‘Most people assume animation is going to contain bunny rabbits and kids stuff,’ Robinson said. ‘So it is really nice to see in-depth themes about human existence.’

As for attendance? ‘I think we’ve got a record-breaking year again,’ said managing director Kelly Neall. ‘We’ve definitely got well over 1,500 industry pass holders. As well, we increased the number of tickets for TAC [the Television Animation Conference] to 350, and we still sold out. So, so far, so good.’

The 2008 OAIF runs until Sunday.