Animania Festival is proud to host the World Cosplay Summit Preliminary Competition again in 2009!

• What is WCS?
• 2009 WCS Preselections and Preliminary Competitions
• WCS Blog - the latest news from Team Australia and more

What is WCS?

The World Cosplay Summit (WCS) is an international level Cosplay competition held annually in Nagoya, Japan, and hosted by TV Aichi. The competition brings together contestants from all over the globe to showcase their prize-winning costumes. Some of the participating countries include Germany, France, Brazil, China, USA, and recently, Australia.

2008 was a grand and extraordinary year for Cosplay as Animania Festival hosted the the inaugural WCS Preliminary Competition and Preselections for Australia. We expected fans to pull out all the stops to present the ultimate self-created costumes and we were not disappointed! 2008 Cosplayers blew us away with a whole new level of brilliant and detailed costumes, showing that Australia certainly has what it takes to compete with the best of the best in the world.

Months of Preselections, skits, costumes, tears and joy led to the selection of Australia's first qualifying Duo - Gabriella Lowgren and Katherine Lee (pictured below). These ladies will represent Australia for the first time ever at the 2009 World Cosplay Summit with their winning Full Metal Alchemist costume. Find out more about the 2008 WCS Preliminary winners' success.

Gabriella & Katherine, 2008 WCS Preliminary winners

2009 WCS Preselections and Preliminary Competitions

Animania Festival will host three Preselection Rounds in 2009. Winners selected from each of these rounds will gain a place in the WCS Preliminary Competition and the chance to represent Australia at the 2010 World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya, Japan!

Preselection Rounds will be held at each of the Festivals leading up to the Animania Festival Weekend:

• WCS Preselection ROUND 1:  Animania Festival Sydney March - March 28th, 2009 (Finalist Profiles)
• WCS Preselection ROUND 2: Animania Festival Melbourne April - April 18th, 2009 (Finalist Profiles)
• WCS Preselection ROUND 3: Animania Festival Brisbane May - May 9th, 2009 (Finalist Profiles)

The final competition - the official WCS Preliminary Competition for Australia will be held at the Animania Festival Weekend in Sydney on September 5th-6th, 2009. 

2009 WCS Competition Deadlines

All entrants intending to compete in the WCS Preliminary and Preselections MUST pre-register their entry and submit a competition portfolio prior to the Festival.

Follow the links below for more information about individual Preselection Rounds including competition rules, portfolio templates and any specific competition updates:

• WCS Preselection ROUND 1 (Animania Festival Sydney March)
  Portfolio Submission Deadline: March 6th, 2009
• WCS Preselection ROUND 2 (Animania Festival Melbourne April)
  Porfolio Submission Deadline: March 27th, 2009
• WCS Preselection ROUND 3 (Animania Festival Brisbane May)
  Submission Deadline:  April 17th, 2009
• ROUND 1-3 Finalists' Portfolio (for Animania Festival Weekend, Sydney September)
  Preselection finalists must submit a second portfolio detailing their second costume. Please note there will not be a preselection event at the Animania Festival Weekend, only the Preliminary Final.
  Portfolio Submission Deadline: August 14th, 2009

WCS Blog

For the latest news on the WCS events as well as updates from Team Australia 2008/09, check out Animania Festival's dedicated World Cosplay Summit Blog!