The list of AniFest 2012 competition films almost complete!
The list of this year’s competition films is almost complete! The selection committees are about to finish their work, the selection of most of the categories is now ready. We´re still waiting for the definitive decision about feature films, Visegrád school films and films made by children – these categories will be announced in February. More than 1600 films were submitted, so far 200 of them are selected.
Check out the list of selected films HERE.
Únorové Ozvěny AniFestu
I únor přinese další projekce Ozvěn AniFestu. Promítat se bude ve Strakonicích v hudebním klubu Křemelka, v pražském Centru u Prstenu, v teplické kavárně Bárka či na zlínské UTB.
Promítat budeme například animované videoklipy či celovečerní film Billa Plymptona Idioti a andělé (2008).
Kalendář všech akcí naleznete v sekci Ozvěny. Projekce jsou zdarma a všichni jsou zváni!
Těšit se můžete nejen na Ozvěny AniFestu, ale i na samotný AniFest, ten už se také pomalu ale jistě blíží…těšíme se na viděnou u animáků!
THE MAGIC OF FILM PUPPET
Puppet animation, animation of objects, clay animation and other variations from the extensive spectre of stop-motion animation techniques – every each one of them will be the focus of this year’s AniFest. We will look at the magic of film puppet from authorial, technical as well as production point of view.
An unforgettable personality of this animation field is Jiří Trnka
– universal artist, who would have celebrated 100.anniversary this year. We will screen his film from original 35 mm copies, the selection of them curated by the historian Michaela Mertová from Czech National Film Archive and accompanied by various lector’s presentations. An exhibition in the Teplice museum will focus on the process of creating of Trnka’s films and their puppet protagonists.
In the contemporary puppet production, one country excells recently – United Kingdom. AniFest thus invited famous historian and theorist Paul Wells and asked him to prepare a special programme dedicated to British stop-motion animation. His selection will be divided into three thematical units mapping the developement of British stop-motion animation from 1908 till today. The actual and contemporary face of British animation will be presented by the expected feature film from the Aardman studios.
An unique part of this year’s puppet AniFest and British animation profile will be the double-programme of the honorary president Barry Purves (Screenplay, Achilles, Hamilton Mattress). 
A selection of his author puppet films will be accompanied by a lecture on his inspiration sources and Purves will also reveal the „backstage“ of his films by showing some very rare shots documenting the creation of his work.
Also other festival guests will give lectures on the broad possibilities of puppets, for example Will Vinton (Academy Award for „Closed Mondays“), who reached perfection in clay animation and thus created his patented technique of clay-motion. Contemporary Czech puppet will be presented by director and designer Michal Žabka (Mrs. G). Špela Čadež, our Slovenian juror (Lovesick) will also talk about her non-traditionally designed puppets.
Not only puppet films but also their designers and developers will be present at AniFest. Representatives of world famous studios promised to come: Polish SE-MA-FOR (where films of such authors like brothers Quay, Suzie Templeton or Marek Skrobecki are produced), British MacKinnon & Saunders, creators of Tim Buton’s, Barry Purves‘ or Wes Anderson’s puppets, Laika studio, where Selick’s Coraline was born and French company Sophie Roze, responsible for succesfull Joska’s Snails.
AniFest 2012 jury and first programme hints…
Will Vinton – The Great Cognito (1982)
New year has come and the ongoing preparations for AniFest 2012 are getting more and more interesting, so here are some backstage news we wanted to share…first of all, the jury is now complete! And we are honoured to announce that short and feature films will be judged by Will Vinton (US), Igor Kovalyov (Ukraine), Michal Žabka (CZ), Špela Čadež (Slovenia) and Pedro Serrazina (Portugal). The jurors for animated commercials, music-videos, TV and students films are: Ülo Pikkov (Estonia), Sulafa Hijazi (Syria) and Andrew Kavanagh (Ireland). And we are more than pleased to announce also the honorary president of this year’s festival – this task was kindly accepted by famous writer, director and animator Barry Purves (UK). You can find more info about the jury in the About festival section.
And least but not last, when there’s new category, there’s also new jury – non-narrative and experimental films will be judged by Ivana Laučíková (SK), Martin Mazanec (CZ) and Martin Kaňuch (SK).
Year 2012 is a year of film puppet, because in February we will celebrate the centennary of one of the biggest puppet magicians Jiří Trnka. This year’s AniFest will thus bring for example a retrospective of Trnka’s films curated by Michaela Mertová from the National Film Archive, an exposition of scripts, puppets and sketches from the archives of Jiří Trnka descendants or a retrospective of Japanese director and Trnka’s pupil Kihachiro Kawamoto and another independent Japanese animator who is closely connected to Czech enviroment, Nobuhiro Aihara.
Puppets and puppet animation will be the focus of this year’s festival and we will look at the phenomenon of film puppet from every possible angle. Paul Wells is preparing a large retrospective of British stop-motion animation and some of the jurors will also talk about puppets in their programmes (Michal Žabka, Will Vinton, Špela Čadež as well as Barry Purves).
Our Baltic mission is coming to its end this year – juror’s presentation of Ülo Pikkov will thus accompany the retrospective of Estonian animation, the last one left after we’ve been to Lithuania in 2010 and in Latvia last year with Vladimír Leschiov.
Author of this year’s visual and director of the festival spot is designer, animator and a student at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts Matyáš Trnka – you can get acquainted with his work for example at the DVD „From Year Zero“ released by AniFest last year, where his short abstract film Absurp from 2009 was included. For the festival graphic materials, he uses an unusual technique of transluminated spirit paints and as a main component he chose the skeleton of a film puppet – the most important element, which however usually remains hidden to the viewer.
BALTIC MISSION: ESTONIA
Baltic trilogy mapping the not so well known cinematography of this region will come to its end in 2012 with Estonian retrospective. Lithuania was presented in 2010 and represented in person by Antanas Janauskas, while Latvian films were accompanied by the juror Vladimir Leschiov in 2011.
AniFest will dedicate to Estonian animation two cross-selections of shorts, one feature film and one documentary. The main guest of the programme will be Ülo Pikkov, teacher, director and author of original theoretical book called Animasophy (2010), who will present a retrospective of his own animated shorts.
And the gallery in the castle will also host a special exposition of puppets from Nukufilm studio. AniFest cooperates on this programme with Estonian embassy in Prague and with the Animated Dreams festival in Tallinn.
AniFest to announce the Best Flipbook international contest
Single competitors as well as groups can enter their flipbooks in two categories: up to 15 years and 15 years and older. The exhibition of all flipbooks will be held during the festival and the jury will choose three best flipbooks, which will be announced during the closing ceremony.
All participants of the contest obtain automatically a full accreditation for the festival and interesting prices are prepared for the authors of best flipbooks.
You can submit your flipbook(s) here via on line entry form and send your flipbook(s) to the following adress: AniFest, s.r.o., Jindřicha Plachty 28, 150 00, Praha 5 until March 30.
If you want to download rules, click here.
EntryForm HERE
We are looking forward to your flipbooks!
Lednové Ozvěny AniFestu
I v roce 2012 pokračují nekonečné Ozvěny AniFestu, nekomerční projekce animovaných filmů pro dětské i dospělé diváky, které přinášejí krátké i celovečerní animované filmy z mezinárodního festivalu AniFest.
První letošní projekce proběhla 4. ledna na pražské Filozofické fakultě UK, další chystá v Liberci Filmový klub ZOOM – 9.1. promítání oceněných snímků z AniFestu 2011 (od 18.30), 28.1. od 10h to bude projekce animovaných filmů pro děti. Ve středu 18. 1. promítáme nově ve Strakonicích (místo, čas a program budou brzy upřesněny) a 25. ledna chystáme v Centru U Prstenu (Praha 1, Jilská 14) celovečerní sci-fi film Technotise – Edit a já, který soutěžil na AniFestu 2011.
Vstup na projekce Ozvěn AniFestu je zdarma!
Ozvěny se ozývají – zítra promítáme v klubu K4
Zítra 4. ledna od 19 hodin pořádáme další promítání Ozvěn AniFestu – tentokrát v pražském studentském klubu K4, který najdete v samém centru Prahy – v Celené ulici č. 20.
Tentokrát v tomto působivém prostoru gotického světa představíme celovečerní film Billa Plymptona Idioti a andělé (USA 2008), který získal mj. Grand prix na AniFestu 2009.
Černá komedie, ve které můžeme nalézt inspiraci filmem noir (v hlavní roli padouch bojující o svou duši i femme-fatele), westerny Sergio Leoneho (dlouhé statické záběry, detailní rozzuřené tváře) či dílem Charlese Bukowskiho (mnoho naturalistických scén a spousta vypitého alkoholu). Jak již předcházející výčet napovídá, Plympton si tentokrát nechal na vizuální stránce skutečně záležet, což se projevuje nejen vytříbeným použitím temných barev, ale i originálními „kamerovými úhly“ ze dna sklenice apod. Zároveň nám však Plympton předkládá i zajímavý příběh rozervaného muže bojujícího s dobrem v sobě samém, a to mnohdy hodně rázným způsobem.
Vstup je zdarma a všichni příznivci animovaného filmu jsou zváni!!!
