2nd Viségrad Exchange Forum
1. Introduction
Visegrád Exchange Forum is an iniciative of AniFest, International Festival of Animated Films. It brings together professionals, producers, filmmakers, talents, films and animation schools from so called Visegrád region.
After such an important iniciative started in April 2011 AniFest is organising the 2nd edition of Visegrád Exchange Forum 2012 that will take place at the festival (held from 26 April to 1 May in 2012).
2. Main Ideas:
The main goal is to establish Visegrád Exchange Forum as an opened, informal platform for a meeting of professionals, filmmakers and schools with an animation program from our region. The Forum offers an iniciative that supports mainly young professionals and a development of their new projects of animated short films. We are aiming to facilitate exchange of experiences and knowledge with the aime to establish a new network of people from animation scene with several principal goals. It brings…
- Young filmmakers, talents and students are supported and promoted in front of international professionals while entering the European audiovisual scene.
- The educational platform offers workshops, lectures and knowledge on principal skills of modern ways of developping, producing, coproducing of animation film projects.
- Visegrád Forum enables networking of producers and professionals from countries of Eastern Europe who are looking for new partners, coproducers and coproduction possibilities.
- It also offers a place for academic discussion about new trends in teaching animation at the Visegrád schools round table. Professors, pedagogues, representatives of schools can share their experience and reflection.
- Visegrád Exchange Forum establishes information crossroad that gathers information about the latest films, trends in our region
2.1. Visegrad school meeting
- School films competition – Schools from our region are invited to present their latest works, films and talents in front of international professionals. Every school can nominate 4 films in the Visegrád competition held at the Forum. Such an iniciative promotes new talents on international short film animation scene. This year we have also a new New Europe Film Sales Award for the best Visegrád school film accompanied by the acquisition of the film by the Film Sales company.
- Invited schools for 2012
- Polish National School of Film, Television and Theatre Lodz – PWSFTviT
- FAMU Prague
- VŠMU Bratislava
- MOME Budapest
- Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań
- Vyšší odborná škola filmová Zlín
- Vyšší odborná škola a Střední umělecká škola Václava Hollara Praha
- Akademia Sztuk Pięknychg Krakow
- UMPRUM Prague
- Filmová akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku
and we are inviting also schools from abroad
- Artistic cooperation - Students and young talents are encouraged to meet new colleaugues, collaboraters or artistic friends from other schools.
- There is a presentation VŠMU Bratislava in 2012 as we organises a focus on one Visegrád School every year.
- Round table discussion - Pedagoques and representatives of animation schools are invited to share their experience and reflection on teaching of an animation in Visegrád region. The topics for the next year are:
- new grants possibilities for Visegrád schools
- cooperation between Visegrád schools
- how to prepare students for real animation life after graduation
- concept of the education in new European audiovisual market
2.2. Workshops and lectures
- Visegrád Forum offers a serie of workshops led by professionals and animation artists focusing on animation, production abilities and audiovisual market knowledge.
- It brings a critical reflection of traditions and modern trends of animation iniciate by lecturers and professionals.
- Forum gives an opportunity for local professionals to promote themselves in front the international audience. Last year we presented a Compote Collective and New Europe Film Sales. This year there will be a presentation of Se-ma-for.
- The topics for workshops and lectures 2012
- The future is transmedia projects
- How to be a freelance animator on the audiovisual market
- Develop your pitching skills
- Cooperation with France, Germany, Switzerland
- Distribution of short films
2.3. Networking of professionals
- The project also supports the self-confidence and communication skills of the local animation professionals.
- The Forum is inviting producers from Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania with producers and professionals from Germany, France and Switzerland in order to continue in debates over coproduction and cooperation possibilities in our region.
- The Forum will be attended also by international sales agents and French and German distribution companies of short films.
- In 2012 we will profit from the presence of a representant of French Centre national du cinéma (CNC) who will explain more the French animation film policy and possibilities of a support of CNC for international French coproductions.
- We are also inviting people from Visegrád animation festivals and local professionals to iniciate an unformal meeting on visions and structural setting of animation policy in our region. The meeting could help to reflect and formulate common goals and demands to be publicaly imposed and promoted in order to improve our situation of animation.
2.4. Pitching of 10 projects and support of production of new films
- Visegrád Exchange Forum organises a competition of new projects of animation short films for young filmmakers and talents. The participants can be looking for new ways of finnacing their projects and establishing a coproduction with international professionals. The each of 15 selected projects will be presented in front of international producers and professinals by its producer and one of the artist.
- The Best project of the pitching will be awarded by an Award of the society Knauf that comes together iwth 1000 euro for the development of the film.
- The submission of pitching competition is opened to any East European or Visegrad project. We accept also projects from Western Europe that has any relation to our region and to values of European culture exchange.
- This pitching iniciative has a big educational impact for young filmmakers and producers who can present their project in front of the international professionals.
3. Experience of Visegrád Forum 2011
The first Visegrad Forum was held at AniFest 2011 (26 April – 1 May) with the presence of 9 schools, more than 40 students and 8 professors. We organised a competition of Visegrad school films 2009-10 in front of the international producers. There were artistic workshops, lectures on European audiovisual market and a round table discussion about the artistic education in our region. The festival also organized a pitching forum for 10 projects of future short films and 3 of them are now in pre-production.
3.1. Schools present:
- Polish National School of Film, Television and Theatre Lodz – PWSFTviT
- FAMU Prague
- VŠMU Bratislava
- MOME Budapest
- Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań
- Vyšší odborná škola filmová Zlín
- Vyšší odborná škola a Střední umělecká škola Václava Hollara Praha
- Akademia Sztuk Pięknychg Krakow
- UMPRUM Prague
3.2. Professors present from animation schools: Jerzy Kucia, Jiří Kubíček, Eva Gubčová, Zuzana Bukovinská, József Fülöp, Jacek Rokosz
3.3. Artistic workshops
The workshop of Joanna Quinn
Carte Blanche for Olivier Cotte: French traditions in animation
Dan Sarto: A Look at contemporary animated short films
3.4. Visegrád School Film Competition
Visegrad school films competition offered 35 films of local students.
There were 5 international professionals in the fhe jury of the competition: Nicolas Schmerkin (Autour de Minuit), Olivier Catherin (Les Trois Ours), Sebastien Vincent (Les Médias Associeés), Anja Šošič /New Europe Film Sales), Arnaud Demuynck (Le film du Nord).
The Best film award was given to Agata Pretka´s Porozmawiaj z nim / Talk to him /, the special prize went to Robert Proch and his Galeria / Gallery.
The jury gave also a special mention to Libor Pixa (Grafitiger), Zsófia Tari (Sofitaland), Kristina Dufková (Usnula jsem) and Joanna Wójcik (Charon Taxi).
3.5. The present international professionals at Visegrád Exchange Forum 2011:
Producers: Ron Dyens (Sacrebleu Production), Nicolas Schmerkin (Autour de Minuit), Olivier Catherin (Les Trois Ours), Sebastien Vincent (Les Médias Associeés), Arnaud Demuynck (Le film du Nord), Christian Pfohl (Lardux), Martin Vandas (Maur film), Michal Podhradský (Animation People), Tereza Krejčí a Ondřej Všetíček (AT Studio), Ivana Laučíková (Feel me film), Maria Stanisheva and Vessela Dantcheva (Compot Collective), Mihai Mitrica (Framebreed), Marek Toušek (3Bohemians)
Sales Agents: Anja Šošič (New Europe Film Sales), Peter Haueis, Eric Riewer (L´ecole de l´image Gobelins),
3.6. Case studies of East West coproductions in animation presented:
Producer Nicolas Schmerkin (Autour de minuit) introduced his collaboration with Czech filmmaker Ondřej Švadlena and Hungarian filmmaker Zsófia Tari.
Sébastien Vincent introduced the film Mouse the Mouth by Hungarian Andrea Kiss, which was shot in coproduction of Francie, Belgium, Norway and Hungary.
3.7. Visegrád Forum held a competition pitching of 10 project of future animated films from the countries of Eastern Europe And the results are:
- 3 projects of the 10 projects of our pitching are now in pre-production of coproduction
- New Europe Film Sales offers their prize for our Visegrad School Films Competition 2012 which is the acquisition of the best film
- establishing the network of international and local producers from our region
- Iniciating of a cooperation between Visegrád schools
3.8. Reactions of participants of 2011 Visegrád Exchange Forum:
József Fülöp, MOME Budapešť: Thank you very much for such a great iniciative that is so needed. We are more less libing in similar situation 20 years after the change of our countries. And we need to meet and reflect it.
Jerzy Kucia, Krakow: I am welcoming this very nice iniciative that helps the students and schools to meet each other. In our countries we have talents but not a big production. Maybe such a meeting and new coproduction possibilities could help us to have more films.
Eva Gubčová, Bratislava: I was really pleased by that iniciative. I hope the festival will keep it on because it offers us a great possibility of meeting and sharing our experience.
4. Conclusion
Visegrad Forum at AniFest is an open platform for young animation filmmakers and professionals from Central and Eastern Europe. They get artistic and practical knoledge about the contemporary animation scene, meet new friends and contacts for their future plans. Last but not least they can introduce themselves in the network of the European audiovisual market.
10.AniFest
26.5. – 1.6. 2011 Teplice
Complet WWW 10th AniFest
Photogalery
President: Michaela Pavlátová
Jingle/Visualisation: Michaela Pavlátová
ANIFEST GRAND PRIX
DIVERS IN THE RAIN
Director: Olga and Priit Pärnovi, Estonia
The diver has to go to work every day while his wife, a night-shift dentist, leaves to spend the night with her patients. Their kisses are always goodbye kisses. The woman sleeps during the day, dreaming hurried dreams. A large ship is sinking and no one knows when it’s time for the last cigarette
Argument: For the description of the absurdity of existence.
Main price in the category Feature-Length Film
UGLY DUCKLING
Director: Garri Bardin, Russia
In the courtyard, a strange duckling hatches out of a rather unusual egg. The other poultry consider it ugly and so the tiny bird must overcome many difficult tests. But the story has a happy ending – in the end, the duckling turns into a beautiful swan.
The moral of the film might be expressed as follows: A beautiful swan is hidden in every child even if it looks different from other children. One just has to believe and hope for the swan to come to the surface.
In this animation the director works with clay and feathers.
Argument: For its wonderful animation and characterisation which is pleasing to audiences of all ages.
Special mention in the category Feature-Length Film
GOODBYE, MISTER CHRISTIE
Director: Phil Mulloy, Great Britain
The Christies live in Wellington Green, a picturesque English village with a church, a pond and a cricket pitch. Outwardly Mr Christie is a perfect gentleman. Inwardly he is a selfish arrogant monster. When the whole world sees him on television having sex with a French sailor, his life is changed forever. Šokující provokativní a výtvarně svérázný filmový experiment Phila Mulloye.
Argument: For using simple animation to show complex issues in a challenging way.
Main Prize in the category Short Films under 5 Minutes
SLEEP
Director: Frank Braun, Claudius Gentinetta, Switzerland
Sleep is like a peacefully undulating water surface that embraces us with a lullaby on the lips. But what happens if everyone enters the dream world on board an ocean liner that suddenly starts sinking? Who will be the first one to awaken? And will they wake up at all?
Argument: For the creative and atmospheric marriage of sound and image.
Special Mention in the category Short Films under 5 Minutes
PIXELS
Director: Patrick Jean, France
You would not believe the mayhem a single old discarded TV can cause. The broken screen suddenly floods all of New York with monsters that everyone is familiar with! Or rather, everyone in their thirties who spent their childhood playing eight-bit games.
Argument: For the smart and funny use of 4-bit stars.
Main Prize in the category Short Films from 5 to 15 Minutes
MRDRCHAIN
Director: Ondřej Švadlena, Czech Republic/France
Composed of nothing but sheets of meat that are connected by arteries, a sad deformed figure roams a dark and obscure world. The reality is driven by mutual associations and a generous dose of physicality. You are in for a consuming dystopian experience!
Argument: For drawing us into a unique and disturbing universe.
Special Mention in the category Short Film from 5 to 15 Minutes
Journey to Cape Verde
This is a story about a sixty-day trip to Cape Verde without a mobile phone, a watch or any plans. A pilgrim passes through local forests and villages, meets goats and turtles, enjoys local music and, above all, gets to know himself. This beautiful „journal“ film combines various techniques.
Director: José Miguel Ribeiro, Portugal
Argument: For its human sensibility and graphic quality.
Main Prize in the category Short Films from 15 to 60 Minutes
MASK
Director: Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay, Poland
Beautiful Duenna was created for a certain purpose. But she will have to choose between fulfilling her life’s goal and love. This is an adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s short story of the same name that takes place in a technologically advanced, yet still feudal world.
Argument: For a stunning and somnolic cinematic experience.
Special Mention in the category Short Films from 15 to 60 Minutes
STONES
Director: Katarína Kerekesová, Slovakia
There are ten hardened men working in a stone quarry. Every day they mechanically move tons of gravel. When their foreman’s wife comes into their midst, the cold place lights up with emotion and humanity. This puppet musical works perfectly with the musical and sound rhythm of a tragic love story.
Argument: For bringing the musical genre into the bleak landscape.
Main Prize in the category Advertisement and Introductory Spots
Audi Q5 – Unboxed
Director: Russell Brooke & Aaron Duffy, United Kingdom
Argument: For its inventive design and use of simple materials to depot sophisticated images.
Special mention in the category Commercials and jingles
Kuubo
Director: Adrian Flückiger, Switzerland
Argument: For its beautiful stop-motion sequence of the birth of a magnificent paper tree.
Main prize in the category Music video
Massive Attack: Splitting the Atom
Director: Édouard Salier, Francie
Argument: For its stunning massive attack on your senses.
Special mention in the category Music video
Eatlitz: Lose this child
Director: Yuval and Merav Nathan, Izrael
Argument: For its Unique and beautiful use of large scale stop motion animation.
Main prize in the category TV film and series
Stripey the Slumber Elf – Looking for Father / O KANAFÁSKOVI – Jak hledali tatínka
Director: Galina Miklínová, Česká Republika
This is a continuation of a successful series of stories featuring a slumber elf from the Dreamspun Castle and his little buddy – a boy called Jonas.
Argument: For original poetics and art in production for children.
Special mention in the category TV Film and series
It´s Chinese
Director: Isabelle Lenoble, Francie
Presenting Chinese culture and especially Chinese ideograms, this series tells simple stories of little Lucy who keeps losing things. A Chinese dragon that lives in her nest happily returns each lost item, but only after she learns the word in the Chinese ideogram.
Argument: A Precise and sophisticated educational film.
Main prize in the category Student film
Tongueling
Director: Elli Vuorinen, Finnland
This is a scene from a strange world where all people are obsessed with their tongues – they use them to touch a variety of objects. A lonesome man’s wooden knocks are echoing through a frozen landscape as he is searching for the right spot that would suit his own tongue.
Argument: For its unique design and odd, funny narrative.
Special mention in the category Student film
KUCHAO / A Gum Boy
Director: Masaki Okuda, Japan
Kuchao is a first grader, but he is not part of anything that goes on at school. He even stands aside while others go and have fun releasing balloons. But when he starts chewing gum, he enters the world of his own imagination and his balloon changes into anything he can think of.
Argument: For its inventive and funny depiction of annoying boy.
PRIZES UNDER THE AUSPICE OF CZECH TELEVISION
Main prize in the category Films made by children under 12 years
My favorite Hero
Director: Roma Donskoy, Russia
My Favorite Hero is an animated film about what matters the most in life – love. While some children see Batman as their hero, for others it may be their own father.
Special mention in the category Films made by children under 12 years
Day Flower / Eintagsblume
Director: Yoshe Malkus, Germany
Day-Flower is a beautiful but sad story about a little mouse, its longing and a missed moment.
Main prize in the category Films made by children between 12 – 15 years
Out of the Tide/ A margem da maré
Director: Children from Albufeira, Portugal
This is about a journey into the sea that intends to focus to the preservation of ocean species…
Special mention in the category Films made by children between 12 – 15 years
AUSTRALIA
Director: Filip Tatýrek, Czech Republic
This film highlights Australia’s greatest phenomena through a frantically fleeing kangaroo that inadvertently becomes the representative of its race in their battle against humankind.
International Competition of Short animated Films up to 60 Minutes ecologically themed sponsored by Knauf Insulation
THE GREY CITY / Šedé město
Director: Matěj Forejt, Czech Republic
International Competition of Short animated Films made by children ecologically themed sponsored by Knauf Praha.
FARMERS / Farmáři
Director: Petr Mischinger, Czech Republic
