The century of Jiří Trnka
At this day, February 24, exactly one hundred years ago the artist, ilustrator, painter, sculptor, scenographer and – first of all – filmmaker Jiří Trnka was born. Between 1945 – 1965 he created more than twenty animated films, which are today considered to be milestones in the history of world animation. Also in his cartoons (The Gift, Springman & the SS) he succeeded to distinguish his style from the at the time so popular Disney’s movies and create a new, more loosened style of animation, but he became world famous mostly because of his masterhood with puppets – The Czech Year, Bajaja, A Midsummer Nigth´s Dream, The Hand. Those films remain inspirative for generations of artists and directors of puppet films.
Sketch from the jingle (the variation of Trnka’s film „The Hand“ ) by Matyáš Trnka, author of this year’s festival visual.
We will also celebrate Jiří Trnka at this year’s AniFest – with a retrospective of his films, an unique exposition, which will among plenty of other things display also Trnka’s original puppets. It was because of Jiří Trnka that we decided to dedicate this year’s festival to „magic of film puppet“. Although he started in theatre, Jiří Trnka allways respected the magic of puppet and derived from it the unmistakeable charm of his films.
Visegrad films from AniFest in Moscow
The most interesting films from the Visegrád schools competition held at last year’s AniFest as part of the Visegrad Exchange Forum will be screened this week in Moscow. AniFest with collaboration of Czech Center Moscow is organizing a programme called „Animation – In the Heart of Europe“. Grotesque animations by Jaromír Plachý, the selection „From Year Zero“ produced by AniFest or the most interesting contemporary Czech shorts (including Ondřej Švadlena’s „Mrdrchain“ also awarded at last year’s festival) will be screened in cinema 35mm under the auspice of the current Czech presidency of the Visegrád Four. Our Exchange forum coordinator Michal Procházka will also lead a round table debate about animated production in the postsoviet countries and its problems. We will start animate in the Heart of Europe on Wednesday 22 February and will continue untill the following Sunday.
Auspices
The International Festival of Animated Films AniFest will be held under the auspices of Prime Minister of Czech Republic RNDr. Petr Nečas, Culture Minister Mgr. Alena Hanáková, Ministry of Education and Sports, governor of Ústí region Jana Vaňhová and the Japan Embassy in the Czech Republic.
Thank you, we are honoured.
iShorts a AniFest zvou na animované kraťasy nominované na Oscara
Zatímco celovečerní oscaroví kandidáti teď obsazují téměř všechny kinosály, možností shlédnout stejně oceněné kraťasy moc není. 1.března nastane jedinečná příležitost shlédnout 5 krátkých animovaných kandidátů v pražském BIO OKO. Projekci pořádá iShorts, organizátor pravidelných promítání krátkých filmů nejen v OKU za podpory AniFestu. Tři snímky ze zmíněné pětice jsou také mezi vybranými soutěžními filmy letošního AniFestu – absurdně poetická „Neděle“ (Sunday)
Patricka Doyona, netypický western „Wild Life“ Amandy Forbis a Wendy Tilby a zběsile černohumorná tak trochu sci-fi „Morning Stroll“ Granta Orcharda. Spolu s nimi uvidíte také „The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Moriss Lessmore“, vtipnou alegorii o léčivé síle příběhu. Autoři Wiliam Joyce a Brandon Oldenburg vytvořili za pomoci několik technik (miniatury, počítačové animace, 2D animace) zajímavý hybridní styl, který ve výsledku připomíná staré němé filmy a technicolorové muzikály. „La Luna“ režiséra Enrica Casarosy je „klasickou“ počítačovou animací, která nezapře, že pochází z dílen studia Pixar. Vypráví poetický příběh o chlapci, který objevuje podivuhodné zaměstnání svých předchůdců.
O den dříve, tedy 29.února, se budou v OKU promítat také hrané oscarové kraťasy.
Více informací o filmech ZDE.
Accreditations open!
Online accreditations are available till 20 April. The sooner you accredit yourself the better – if you do it until the end of March, you’ll get 100 CZK discount from the original price.
Available festival passes for 2012:
- Festival Passes for public (individuals and families)
- Festival Passes for film professionals and creators
- Media festival passes (press)
Public festival pass entitles the visitor to entry to all competition screenings, noncompetive screenings, seminaries and lectures, concerts and other accompanying events The accreditation is also valid for Opening and Closing Ceremony up to the capacity of the hall.
Film Professional pass is intended for film creators, industry workers, teachers and students of film schools. It includes priority entry to all competition screenings, noncompetive screenings, lectures & seminaries and the accompanying events. It also includes free entry to the Festival Club and to use the special services (info center, press center, video room). The accreditation is also valid for Opening and Closing Ceremony up to the capacity of the hall.
Festival passes prices:
- 6 days 600 CZK
- 3 days 400 CZK
- 1 day 200 CZK
- Family Pass 2 days 550 CZK
- Family Pass 1 day 350 CZK
Discounts for members of the Association of Czech Film Clubs, students, children from 6 to 15 years and holders of TP, ZTP/P licenses. Discounts can´t be combined.
Media pass is free and entitles its hodler to enter all festival venues. The accreditation is also valid for Opening and Closing Ceremony. It will be issued only upon presenting press ID card or previous arrangement with the festival press department (marie.hermanova@anifest.cz).
We look forward to seeing you at the festival!
P.S: Should you have any additional questions or requests, please contact our guestservice department: Lenka Jiroutová at guestservice@anifest.cz. Regarding media passes you can also contact our press department: Marie Heřmanová at marie.hermanova@anifest.cz.
Selection of competition films finished!
Impatiently expected resulst of the selection of feature films are here! These candidates will compete for the best feature film award: A Cat in Paris (Une vie de chat, dir.Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol), Japanese anime Letter for Momo (Momo e no Tegami, dir. Hiroyuki Okiura), impressive philosophical opus from Hungary The Tragedy of Man (Az amber tragédiája, dir. Marcella Jankovics) and least but not last Dead But Not Buried by Phil Mulloy following his last year’s success (special mention of the jury) for Goodbye Mister Christie.
We are also happy to announce the results of the selection for the non-statutary category of Visegrad School Films – especially happy because of the significant amount of interesting works of Czech students. List of all selected films HERE.
