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World Festival of Animated Film /
short and feature film edition 6 - 11 June 2016
World Festival of Animated Film / short and feature film edition 6 - 11 June 2016
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Animafest Saturday: Award Ceremony, Georges Schwizgebel Masterclass and Best Of Croatian Film
10/03/2020

Ahead of tonight’s award ceremony and the curtain call of the 30th World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb 2020, there is still plenty of cinematic and didactic excitements to look forward to. The happiest will definitely be the youngest visitors and their parents who will be able to enjoy the Saturday away watching select art works from all over the world categorised by age group. The focal point will again be Kinoteka, but today Animafest’s Children and Youth Programme arrives in Zagreb’s culture centres in Dubrava, Sesvete and Maksimir (the best films of the 11th VAFI, international animation festival for children and youth Varaždin are scheduled at all centres at 11am, with free admission), as well as in Urania (a selection of French films for children age 3-6 under the title Games and Trinkets starts at 11am). At the MSU Metropolis cinema, at 4pm the audience will have a chance to enjoy The Prince’s Voyage (age 6+, with Croatian voice over), a lavish feature fairy tale by the legend of French animation Jean-François Laguionie. The film is scheduled for 4pm at Kinoteka. At the French Institute Mediatheque an optical toys workshop for previously registered elementary schoolchildren will be held at 11.30am by animator Antonija Veljačić.

The programme at Kinoteka starts at 10am with the Films for Children Competition 1 (age 4-7). The pre-schoolers can look forward to a forest choir (Maestro), little crochet walruses (Sweet Tusk by Anna Hrachovec, a globally popular GIF author), a magician (The Witch and the Baby), a birthday party (Little Grey Wolfy: Summer Party), an owl polishing stars (Warm Star) etc. This section also shows the new Croatian film Thundeeer by the prolific Ivana Guljašević, as well as the new episode of Koyaa by Kolja Saksida (Trippy Trashcan). In the Films for Children Competition 2 (age 7-10), which follows at 11.30am we will be watching a variation on the famous fairy tales of Little Red Riding Hood (Beware the Wolf!), and The Seven Kids, a show (The Kindergarten Show), a gluttonous frog (The Little Wide-Mouthed Frog), a firefly (Bloated), eggs on the beach (Sun-kissed), plush toys (Not Even Scared!) and an ice-skating couple (Athleticus 2: La Rencontre). At 1pm the Family Programme treats us to Little Mischiefs, Big Adventures (age 6+) and a selection of the finest Hungarian films for the youngest.

Saturday’s events at the &TD revolve around must-see masterclasses. At 10am Georges Schwizgebel, the winner of Animafest’s Lifetime Achievement Award, will speak about his method of painting on foil and glass and inspiration from classical music and art. He will look back on the issues of particular interest, such as cycles and repetitions, movements in space and metamorphoses. At 11.10am the Italian filmmaker and Grand Competition jury member Martina Scarpelli, under the title Obsession as Creative Force, presents her commitment to iconography, analyses commissioned film work, as well as her own award-winning piece Egg. In conclusion, the rising star of Hungarian animation and another Grand Competition jury member Réka Bucsi provides an overview of production and financial challenges imposed on an independent director and speaks about the possibilities of working on commercial projects. After a break, the &TD section of Animafest’s programming ends with a screening of Grand Competition 3 and 4 at 4.30pm and 6.30pm.

At the SC Cinema the programme opens at 11am with a rerun of Focus on Hungary 4, with György Kovásznai’s classic Bubble Bath, but the central event before the official closing ceremony is definitely the screening of the Croatian Film Competition 1 and 2 (1.30pm and 3.30pm), with Q&A’s with the filmmakers.

The Croatian Film Competition includes a total of 19 works is the most representative demonstration of the current conditions of Croatian animation in a global context. The largest number of films hails from the Academy of Fine Art (Cockpera, in co-production with Zagreb Film; I’m Not Feeling Very Well; the humour pastel sci-fi The Final Nail in the Coffin by Stella Hartman; the philosophical eschatological Upon His Image by Jakov Piplica; the puppet film Cleithro by Morana Bunić; Taximeter and Mild Psychosis by Mihaela Erceg). Apart from the acclaimed Arka by Natko Stipaničev, Kreativni sindikat also produced Events Meant to be Forgotten by Marko Tadić, an analysis of the namesake installation by one of the most important Croatian visual artists presented at the Venice Biennale. Zagreb Film also introduces Iris by Lucija Bužančić, as well as A Role by Darko Bakliža in a pixilation technique, accompanied by Lucija Barišić and Nataša Zlatović’s acting. Zagreb Film co-produces the Bosnian and Herzegovinian film Natural Selection by Aleta Rajič, a classically drawn study of melancholia and loneliness set in a daily urban life populated by a deer woman. Adriatic Animation, apart from Toomas Beneath the Valley of Wild Wolves by Chintis Lundgren, in association with the Portuguese BAP Studio brings the confessional animated documentary of transgender subject matter All Those Sensations in My Belly by Marko Dješka. The Croatian-Serbian Florigami by Iva Ćirić takes the tough natural laws from the world of animals to the world of plants in a thriller manner, and The Room by Hrvoje Wächter is a valuable and rare example of a Croatian animated horror. A lavish contribution to computer animation Pet Planet by Ratimir Rakuljić is built on an SF premise of a toy planet, and the Croatian-Swedish Allergy Pills are a fictional animation commercial. Of course, this programme also features other Croatian films from Animafest’s Grand Competition Short Film: the outstanding Croatian-Serbian co-production Murder in the Cathedral by Matija Pisačić and Tvrtko Rašpolić and The Closing Door video by Lucija Mrzljak.

ASIFA Croatia is traditionally on Saturday after the screenings throwing a party and present the ASIFA Award to the best films in this selection.

After the award ceremony at 8pm, the film programme closes with a screening of award-winning films at 9pm (Best Of), with tickets on sale.