Time to evaluation: what was AniFest 2012 like?
AniFest is over and the time has come to bilance and summarize. What have we experienced, who have we met, how many films have we screened? Which film heroes met in Teplice and what has the jury to say about it? Read…
Barry Purves at the closing ceremony
During the closing ceremony, 15 prizes were handed over to the authors. For the first time in the history of AniFest, Grand Prix went to a student film. Agnes Patron, author of the awarded film „Widow Caillou“ sent a virtual greeting to the audience during the ceremony. „It’s the firts prize for this film and I am happy and honoured that it comes from AniFest“ said the excited French student in her short video. Three prizes went to „locals“: in the short film category, main prize went to Rudolf Šmíd for the original animated documentary „Chronicle of Oldřich S.“ In the TV series category, jury awarded the newest episode from the legendary series „Pat and Mat in the country“. And the last Czech award is for Jan Šrámek and Veronika Vlková for „Bubi“, the first winner in the category of non-narative and experimental films ever. Juror Michal Žabka says, that he was „less depressed than last year when watching the competition films“. There were even a few positive things, he says… Well, we are really glad that you survived your role of a juror without a psychical trauma, Michal ! (By the way, Michal and his lovely and talented wife Aneta are planning to make a good old bloody and
AniFest Grand Prix: La veuve Caillou
scarry animated horror for their upcoming baby…). Pedro Serrazina appreciated the opportunity to watch so many different films from so many authors: „As a film-maker, I would say that it’s crucial for me to see how other people work. And, it’s my first visit here, the place is lovely…in the end, it’s a combination of all that, wonderful films, discussions with people that you like and respect…thank you for that!“
Besides the competition programme, AniFest also offered couple of Czech premieres: „The Painting“ by Jean-Francois Laguionie was screened for the first time, while „Tales of the Night“ by Michel Ocelot, one of our special guests this year, had its third release in Czech Republic (after the premiere at Karlovy Vary IFF and the screening in French Institute in Prague). The festival was opened by the official release of „The Pirates! Band of Misfits“ by Aardman studios. And of course, countless number of short films that are unfortunately being disregarded also in the long-term perspective in Czech distribution…
Not only about the problems of our distribution net were the discussions led during the 2nd edition of Visegrad Exchange Forum. Round-table debates, pitching of projects of animated shorts and the competition of school films from Visegrad countries were attended by more than 140 professionals from Eastern and Central Europe.
And a few numbers to conclude:
- 450 animation and film professionals visited Teplice
150 students from Czech film schools visited the specialized lectures- 60 students from foreign film schools joined their Czech fellows
- 40 Czech and 10 foreign journalists came to describe the atmosphere and review the films
Together 20 000 visitors attended the festival.
- 1600 films submitted
- 231 selected for the competition
- 254 films in the accompanying programme
= together 485 films from 69 countries were screened.
- 27 specialized lectures and presentations
- 3 exhibitions attended by 4 000 visitors
LIVE
30/4
13:00 Maya vs. Blender + motion capture
Lecturers: Tomáš Jancó (Blender), Lubor Zelinka (Maya) – The Graphic School in Jihlava, Mark Lewis (Animazoo), Jan Buriánek (AV Media)
The students of the Graphic School in Jihlava prepared a comparative lecture focused on programmes specialising in 3D modelling and animation. The aim of the lecture is to show that there is a free alternative to commercial professional programmes (Autodesk Maya). They also want to show that it is easy to use Blender thanks to the availability of Czech tutorials and the active Blender community and to motivate those who might be interested in trying it. Lubor Zelinka publishes at www.grafika.cz (Grafika publishing s.r.o.) and in Pixel magazine.Last lecturer Mark Lewis (Animazoo) will complete the lecture with presenting motion capture system and its connection to animation programs.
Přednášející: Tomáš Jancó (Blender), Lubor Zelinka (Maya) – VOŠG Jihlava, Mark Lewis (Animazoo) a Jan Buriánek (AV Media)
Studenti Vysoké školy grafické Jihlava připravili komparativní přednášku zaměřenou na počítačové programy, specializované na 3D modelování a animaci. Cílem přednášky je ukázat, že existuje bezplatná alternativa ke komerčním profesionálním programům (jakým je například Autodesk Maya). Pomocí programu Blender je snadné díky dostupnosti českých tutoriálů a aktivní Blender komunity motivovat potenciální zájemce k jeho vyzkoušení. Lektor Lubor Zelinka publikuje na www.grafika.cz (Grafika publishing s.r.o.) a v časopise Pixel. Přednášku doplní Mark Lewis (Animazoo) a Jan Buriánek (AV Media), kteří představí systém snímání pohybu a jeho propojení s animačními programy.
AniFest presents: juror Michal Žabka
Graduate from the Zlín Film school as well as from the department of animation at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU), Michal Žabka is one of the most outstanding names of contemporary Czech animation – not only because he’s succeeded to exert his talent also in the commercial sphere (in Czech Republic, he became known for his animated commercials for Vodafone company). Elaborated artistic design and a rather juicy sense of humour are typical for his work. He aroused public notice already with his bachelor puppet film Babaloon, awarded also at various international festivals. Puppets are used also in Premmamals – up untill today one of the most successful student films from FAMU, awarded for example in Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Espinho or Melbourne.
Michal Žabka is also the author of Three Little Pigs, first Czech 3D bed-time story, short film Mrs. G, recently he participated in the feature Car Fairy Tales with his short story The Accountant and The Fairy (he was colaborating on the film with his admired teacher Břetislav Pojar). As a juror, Michal will represent contemporary Czech puppet animation and he will also talk about the making of Čtyrlístek, a 3D adaptation of a popular Czech comic-serie.
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.
Modřanský biograf
20. – 22.10.2011
Třídenní program animovaného filmu bude zejména dárkem pro děti a studenty ke vstupu do dalšího školního roku. Stejně tak je ale dárkem pro malé i velké milovníky animovaného filmu. Během akce se děti seznámí s nejnovějšími i staršími animovanými filmy. Zároveň však poznají i jejich tvůrce, kteří filmy a seriály v rámci prezentace doprovodí (Fáňa Váša, Bára Dlouhá, Kristina Dufková, Jaromír Gál, Miloš Zvěřina, Pavel Koutský a další). V rámci praktických workshopů si malí návštěvníci i odrostlejší děti budou mít možnost vyzkoušet řadu animačních technik, včetně netradiční animace písku. Večery animace v Modřanech nabídnou široké veřejnosti i filmových fandům celovečerní filmy, které se do české distribuce nedostaly. Akci doprovodí také jedinečná výstava filmových loutek a dekorací z nového českého filmu Autopohádky, která zavede návštěvníky do zákulisí animovaného filmu.
Program:
Čtvrtek 20.10. 2011
9:00 – 10:00 Nové české večerníčky
10:30 – 11:30 Humor v animaci
13:30 – 14:30 To nejlepší z AniFestu pro děti
20:00 – 21:30 Goodbye, mister Christie
9:00 – 16:00 Školičky animace ve Foyer Modřanského Biografu
9:00 – 11:00 Dopolední dílna bude věnovaná animaci písku a povede ji animátorka a režisérka Kristina Dufková.
Pátek 21.10.2011
9:00 – 10:00 Jak se dělaly Autopohádky
10:30 – 11:30 Dějiny udatného českého národa
12:00 – 13:30 Dějiny udatného českého národa
20:00 – 21:30 To nejlepší z AniFestu 2011
9:30 – 16:30 Školičky animace ve Foyer Modřanského Biografu
Sobota 22.10.
15:00 Nové české večerníčky
20:00 Technotise – Edit a já
1.AniFest
14. – 19. 5. 2002 Třeboň
Porota: Jiří Barta, Věra Beneová, Edgar Dutka, František Jurišič, Zdena Škapová
Výběrová komise: Kateřina Krejčí, Jiří Kubíček, Břetislav Pojar
Soutěže: česká soutěž za 10 let
Akce: Výročí Jiřího Trnky
Program: Bruno Bozzeto
Poprvé: slovenská prezentace
Průvěh festivalu: projekce pro děti, hosté – Thomas Renoldner, workshopy, výstava…
O programu :
česká soutěž za uplynulých 10 let | výročí Jiřího Trnky | filmy Katariiny Lillqvist a Bruna Bozzetta |
belgické, chorvatské, íránské a slovenské krátké filmy
Oceněné filmy :
Animovaný film v délce do pěti minut: Babalón – Michal Žabka
Animovaný film v délce pět až třicet minut: Repete, …až na věky, Řeči, řeči, řeči – Michaela Pavlátová
Studentský animovaný film: O kouzelném zvonu, Eastern – Krvavý Hugo – Aurel Klimt
Animovaná reklama, hudební klip, spot, titulky : Aktualita – Helena Dušková
Hlavní cena města Třeboně : Média, Má vlast, Pygmalion, Koktejl, Do pohádky – Pavel Koutský
Animovaný film pro děti : Splněný sen – Vlasta Pospíšilová
Vizuál/znělka: Pavel Koutský
6.AniFest
3. – 9.5. 2007 Třeboň
Prezident: Raoul Servaisè
Porota – původní tvorba: Aurel Klimt (ČR), Garri Bardin (Rusko), Priit Pärn (Estonsko)
Porota – TV tvorba a tvorba na zakázku: Rodolfo Pastor (Španělsko), Gene Deitch (USA), Pawel Czarzasty (Polsko)
Porota – studentská tvorba: Paul Bush (VB), Vlasta Pospíšilová (ČR), Jean Luc Slock (Belgie)
Porota – národní soutěž: Rudolf Urc (Slovensko), Michaela Pavlátová (ČR), Josef Valušiak (ČR)
Výběrová komise:
Soutěže: mezinárodní soutěž, česká soutěž, filmy vytvořené dětmi
Akce: výstava prací studentu VŠUP – Prolínačky
O programu:
nová vlna španělské animace | nová rakouská animace | mezinárodní
soutěž internetových animací| Cartoon Saloon uvádí | zlínské ateliéry
dětem | 3D stereoskopické filmy
Oceněné filmy:
AniFest Grand Prix: The Runt / Nedochůdče – Andreas Hykade (Německo / Germany)
Cena za nejlepší krátký film: Zuduši Sniega / Lost in Snow / Ztraceni ve sněhu – Vladimir Leschiov (Lotyšsko / Latvia)
Cena za nejlepší celovečerní film: Jedné noci v jednom městě – Jan Balej (Česká republika / Czech Republic)
Cena za nejlepší studentský film: Botteoubateau / Bottoobatoh / Bottubato – Marina Rosset (Švýcarsko / Switzerland)
Cena za nejlepší školní kolekci: École nationale supérieure des arts visuels de La Cambré (Belgie / Belgium)
Cena za nejlepší televizní film a seriál: Bloot / Naked / Nazí – Mischa Kamp (Nizozemí / Netherlands)
Cena za nejlepší videoklip: Apple on a Tree / Jablko na stromě – Astrid Rieger, Zeljko Vidovic (Německo / Germany)
Cena za nejlepší reklamu, znělku: Bad Note / Špatná nota – Craig Wessels (JAR / South Africa)
Cena za nejlepší internetový film: Firmins: Le Parc – Hervé Marchal and Bruno Rhinn (Francie / France)
Cena diváků za nejlepší internetový film: Bloody Mary / Krvavá Mary – Zina Papadopoulou (Řecko / Greece)
Cena za nejlepší dětskou tvorbu: Cheezy – kolektiv dětí z / children from Kidscam vzw: Laura Vereecken-Mathilde Kockelbergh-Asja Dereviere-Jarno Dereviere-Elise Claes-Jana Neirinck-Luca De Paepe-Flore Batsleer-Gheleyne Bastiaen-Jelle Mestdagh-Lisa Van nevel-Laura Van Kerrebroeck-Sebastian Van Hyfte-Tom Chielens-Wannes Vande Kerkhove (Belgie / Belgium)
Cena města Třeboně: Paní G – Michal Žabka (Česká republika / Czech Republic)
Cena za nejlepší český krátký animovaný film: Domečku Vař – Jiří Barta (Česká republika / Czech Republic)
Vizuál/znělka: Michaela Pavlátová
JURIES
Short and feature-lenght films
Will Vinton (US)
Master of clay animation entered in history of animation with his patented method of Claymotion, unusual technique of animation of deformable material. With this technique he created for example short film Closed Mondays, awarded by American Academy or feature-lenght Adventures of Mark Twain. His films are produced by his own company Free Will, which also works on cartoons or CGI.
Michal Žabka (CZ)
Graduate from Zlin Film School and Prague Academy of Performing Arts. In his first succesfull film Baballoon (1997) he already used his up untill now favourite technique – puppet animation. Following were Premmamals and very popular Mrs. G. Elaborated puppet animation was used also for his story in Car Fairy Tales. Other part of his work is composed of „computer puppet“ – 3D animation, which he first tried in the pilot of the serie Fluffies, but completely finished was another TV serie Three little pigs, now broadcasting on Czech TV and awarded by various awards.
Igor Kovaljov (Ukraine)
World famous animator, director and artist has received many awards for his respectable work. An unmistakable style as well as atmosphere is characteristic for all his films ( Hen, his Wife, Bird in the Windows, Milch…). He is a cofounder of the famous Moscow studio Pilot. In 1991 he collaborated with Hollywood studio on their first feature The Rugrats Movie and directed the TV serie Aaahh!!!
Sulafa Hijazi (Syria)
One of the most succesfull representantives of the still unknown Arabic animated production. Besides animation she also works on live-action and documentary films. She received many awards for the animated feature The Jasmine Birds (for example in Egypt, Russia, Iran, Netherlands and other countries).
Pedro Serrazina (Portugal)
Finished his studies in architecture because of his passion for animation and moved to London, where he graduated from the Royal College of Art. His first film Tale of the Cat and the Moon premiered in Cannes in 1996 and was awarded by 15 various international prizes. Besides film making, he also teaches at UCA-Maidstone or at Universidade Católica in Porto.
Music videos, commercials, jingles, student and TV films
Špela Čadež (Slovenia)
Director of original puppet films (Lovesick, Marathon), which were already awarded at various festivals. In spite of her relatively short career she is already known as succesfull modern author of unique and original puppet animations.
Ülo Pikkov (Estonia)
One of the representatives participating in our Baltic mission is a famous pupil of a famous teacher – Ülo Pikkov continues in the great tradition of Estonian animation in the steps of Priit Pärn. His works are varied when it comes to topics as well as to the techniques – he uses scratching, drawing and in his last film Body Memory (2011) also puppet animation. He gained fame with his films Bermuda (1988) or The year of the Monkey (2003).
Andrew Kavanagh (Ireland)
Founder and CEO of internationally respected animation company with 15 years of experience in the field of animation, screenwriting and film direction. The aim of the company is to create original animated content for various platforms in TV, PC games, aplication as well short author films. Andrew himself has written, produced and directed various key projects of the Kavaleer company.
Non-narrative and experimental films
Ivana Laučíková (Slovakia)
Ivana Laučíková graduated in animation at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, where she currently Works as a pedagogue. The film she finished her BA studies with, “Vedieť” (To Know), has won a special recognition award at the Italian festival Cineteca Bologna in 2000 and it was included in the official selection of the KODAK Talent 2000 at the Cannes Film Festival. Her MA film “NAZDRAVÍČKO!” (Cheers!), co- directed with Jozef Mitaľ, was awarded the national film award Slnko v Sieti 2006 in the category of animated film. She has contributed in various roles, ranging from acting, designing, animating to production, on films of several directors (Dnes mám prvé randevú/Today is my first date, directed by Boris Šima, Pik a Nik / Pic and Nic, directed by Martin Snopek). In 2006, she founded a company focused on animated film production and since then, she has worked on several projects as a producer (Fongopolis, dir. Joanna Koźuch, Posledný autobus/ Last Bus, dir. Martin Snopek, Rarach, dir. Ivana Zajacová-Laučíková, O sne a snehu/ Snow, r. Ivana Šebestová). “Štyri” (Four) by Ivana Šebestová, the first film finished and produced by her company, was premiered in December 2007. V současnosti je šéfredaktorkou časopisu Homo Felix, jediného tištěného periodika věnovanému animaci na území bývalého Československa.
Martin Mazanec (Czech Republic)
Martin Mazanec (born in 1981) studied sociology and film science at the FF UP in Olomouc. Since 2007, he has been attending the postgraduate programme at FAMU and in the same year he began to work as the main coordinator of the Festival of Animated Film PAF, Olomouc. He works as a curator in the field of presentation of motion pictures in galleries and in film. He assembled a translated monograph of Peter Kubelka (2008) and a catalogue of the exhibition Objekt Animace. Třetí smysl. / The Object of Animation. The Third Sense. (2009). He is the co-author of the publication Manifesty pohyblivého obrazu: barevná hudba / Manifestos of Motion Picture: Music in Colour (2010). His articles have been published in the magazines Cinepur, Homo Felix, Iluminace, Labyrint Revue and A2.
Martin Kaňuch (Slovakia)
Martin Kaňuch is editor-in-charge of the (print production) editorial department at the Slovak Film Institute. He is also a member of SFI’s editorial council and coordinator of the Czech-Slovak Filmological Conference. Since 1998 he has been the chief editor of the filmological magazine Kino-Ikon. In addition, he is a dramaturge at the Four Elements film seminar in Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia. He has been involved in coordinating Art Film Fest’s international short films competition since 2002.
