2008 in anime Internationally, "La Maison en Petits Cubes" won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and "Le Cristal d'Annecy" at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. "Sword of the Stranger" was nominated for the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Animated Feature Film. "Ponyo" and "The Sky Crawlers" were in competition for the Golden Lion at the 65th Venice International Film Festival. A list of anime that debuted in theaters between January 1 and December 31, 2008. A list of anime television series that debuted between January 1 and December 31, 2008. A list of original net animations that debuted
Songs of Life Festival by Bulgaria. When trains came to take 49,000 more Bulgarian Jews to the death camps, the Bulgarian people resisted the demands of the German government and refused to allow their Jewish neighbors to be sent to concentration camps in what was the single largest non-deportation of Jews during World War II. The Songs of Life Festival debuted in November 2008 on the 65th anniversary of the rescue in the Bulgarian cities of Sofia and Plovdiv and in Petah Tikva and Jerusalem in Israel. Ernest Bloch’s choral-orchestral piece, "Sacred Service", a Jewish work, was performed. During the inaugural festival, 49,000 flowers