AniFest Friday: all the good things are just beginning…
Starting right know or in a while, programmes you shouldn’t miss today!
And the sun is shining, Teplice is the place to be...
Juror’s presentation: Igor Kovalyov (Culture House – Cinema Květen, 2:30 p.m.)
Ukrainian director (currently living and working in the US) became famous because of the precise artistic treating of his films (most of them are created with the classical hand-drawn animation) and the specific melancholy he’s able to express.
Tales of the Night (Culture House – Cinema Květen, 6:30 p.m.)
Famous French director will personally present his latest feature. Six exotic legend told with French esprit will captivate you with its beautifully colourful silhoutte animation.
Giannalberto Bendazzi meets Michel Ocelot (Culture House – Social Club, 1:30 p.m.)
The meeting of famous theorist (honorary president of AniFest’s artistic committee) and famous author and a discussion about the different faces of animation.
The Adventures of Tintin (Open air cinema, 9:30 p.m.)
The adaptation of popular Belgian comic-book directed by Steven Spielberg is a briliant example of the motion capture technique.
British puppet at AniFest – Paul Wells, Barry Purves, Ian Mackinnon and The Pirates!
Great Britain is lately being considered as a sort of super-power when it comes to stop-motion, so it’s not surprising that we will pay a lot attention to this country in our special puppet programme.
It is our pleasure (and honour) to present this year’s honorary president Barry Purves, one of the most outstanding personalities of British puppet animation, animator, director, scriptwriter, who dedicated his talent to theatre as well as to the art of animation films. Barry started in theatre, occassionaly also as actor in theatres all around Britain. He then started with animation, but it took him seven years to become an independent animator. His films, which are inspired by opera, balet and theatre scenography, were awarded with more than 60 international prizes including an Oscar nomination. He’s also a theorist and author of the book Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance. AniFest will bring a retrospective of Barry’s films, followed by a lecture. At the meeting with Giannalberto Bendazzi, he will talk about the new books on animation together with Ülo Pikkov and Paul Wells.
Barry Purves might be the most outstanding representative of the contemporary British puppet animation, but he’s definitely not the only one. A very detailed and thoughtfully curated selection of British stop-motion production is being prepared specially for AniFest by Paul Wells, famous teacher and theorist. In three programmes, Paul will present you the most important milestones of British puppet, including such films like „The Sandman“ (1991, dir. Paul Berry) or „Peter and The Wolf“ (2006, Academy Award for Suzie Templeton). The programme will be completed with the Czech release of the latest Aardman feature „The Pirates! Band of Misfits“ (hopefully with personal presence of its authors).
„Sandman“ is also an example of the production of the studio Mackinnon&Saunders. Famous for animated films for public of all ages, from „Bob the Builder“ to „Fantastic Mr Fox“ and Tim Burton’s „Corpse Bride“, the studio will present its unique know-how in Teplice. Ian Mackinnon will be accompanied by Viktor, the betrothed of the above mentioned Tim Burton’s heroine.
ART COUNCIL
Giannalberto Bendazzi – Honorary Chairman of the Art Council
(Ravenna, Italy, 1946) is a founding member of the Society for Animation Studies and a former member of the board of directors of Asifa (Association internationale du film d´animation). His published works on animation include the books Topoline e poi (1978), Due voite l´oceana (1983), Il movimento creato (1993, with Guido Michelone) plus booklets on Alexeïeff, Bozzetto, Manuli, Cavandoli and the Zagreb School. Giannalberto Bendazzi has served as a juror at many international animation festivals including those of Annecy, Zagreb, Toronto, Varna and Espinho. As a critic of live-action cinema he has published books on Woody Allen (also translated into French and English) and Mel Brooks.
Michaela Pavlátová
Michaela Pavlatova was born in Prague, Czech Republic, in 1961. In 1987 she graduated from the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague. As an animation film director, her films have received numerous awards at international film festivals, including an Oscar nomination for Reci, reci, reci/Words, words, words, the Grand Prix in Montreal, and accolades at Berlin, Tampere, Hiroshima, Stuttgart and many others. Her short animated film, Repete, has also won a series of awards including the Grand Prix at the International Animation Festival Hiroshima and Golden Bear in Berlin. Between 1998 and 2002 Michaela worked in San Francisco as the art director with animation company Wildbrain inc. After 2002 Michaela returned back to Prague. In 2003 she directed live action film Neverne hry (Faithless Games – Negativ Productions) starring Zuzana Stivinova and Peter Bebjak. In 2006 she finished, together with Vratislav Hlavaty, animated film Karneval zvirat (Le Carnaval des Animaux / The Carnival of Animals) which also received the AniFest Grand Prix. In 2008 she directed another feature film Deti noci / Ofka (Children of Night / Ofka) on the script of Irena Hejdova, starring Martha Issova and Jiri Madl. Michaela Pavlatova teaches animation in Prague (FAMU / Academy of Performing Arts, Film and TV School), she also tought at VSUP / Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague, and abroad – in San Francisco (Academy of Art College, Computer Arts Institute, CCAC), and at Harvard University. She is a frequent member of juries at internationals film festivals.
Michaela Mertová
She was born in Hradec Králové in 1971. After graduation from high school she studied film theory at The Charles University in Prague. Her thesis were on animated production of an artist and film director Nina Campulkova. As of the year 2000 she has been working as a historian and a curator of an animated film collection in the National Film Archives in Prague. She also teaches the history of Czech animated film at the Department of Film Studies at Philosophical Faculty in Prague. She is currently preparing the catalogue of Czech animated film since 1945.
Noro Držiak ( *1974 Piešťany / Slovakia).
After finishing grammar school he studied animation at the Film School Zlín / Moravia and at FAMU (Film and TV School Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Faculty of Animation) under the leadership of Břetislav Pojar. His student films Lost Danaus (Ztracený Danaus), Goblins (Skřítci), or The Great Sneezer (Velký kýchač) were presented and awarded at local as well as international festivals (British Animation Award, Annecy, Hiroshima, AniFest, Worldfest Houston, Anima, tec.). Noro also taught animation at Josef Škvorecký Literary Academy in Prague and scripwriting and dramaturgy at Film School Zlín (VOŠF) and at Multimedia Art College (VOŠG) in Jihlava.
He is the co- founder of Eallin animation studio, in 2004 he founded the animation and postproduction studio Tobogang, where he has been working as an artist, animator and director. He engages in graphic design, music video productions (Miro Žbirka, UDG, Tatabojs), jingles videos (Summer Film School Festival 2003, Febiofest 2004-2009, Kultura.cz), commercial spots and short films. He was the artist of the movie The Key for Determining Dwarfs or The Last Travel of Lemuel Gulliver (Klíč k určování trpaslíků) by Martin Šulík, as an artist he also made the titles for Juraj Jakubisko´s live-action film Bathory and lately he has created the characters for the children´s TV bed-time series The Rats (Krysáci). His animation pieces dedicated to classic animation techniques can bee seen at the exhibion called Five Brave Men from FAMU (together with the works of his fellow students J. Švankmajer, J. Bubeníček, M.Žabka and D. Súkup) which was organized by Czech Centers in a numer of cities worldwide. At present he is supervising the animation and VFX of the feature-length animated film Alois Nebel.
Magdalena Šebestová
Magdalena Šebestová is the Charles University (department of translating/interpreting, English and Russian languages) graduate. After leaving school she has given herself alternately to her profession but also to art activities. She was a member of a Prague theater Semafor (1965-1970), she engaged in singing, acting and moderation. For 7 years she worked in an advertising company TTV , for 5 years at Radio Free Europe. As a PR manager she organized campaignes of various cultural organizations. As of 1992 she cooperated with the Office of President Havel, later with his private office, in 2008 she was the director of Václav Havel’s Presidential Library. She was the director of a literary and theatrical agency AuraPont. In 2007 she was the PR manager and a spokesperson of AniFest, where she works in the capacity of an international communication senior manager in AniFest 2011 team.
