VISEGRAD ANIMATION FORUM (www.visegrandanimation.com) is a market access platform. It tries to attract new partners, producers, broadcasters, and film distributors. It also tries to find ways of financing both short animated films, TV series and also newly feature films. Lastly, it seeks to increase professional experience, to present the abilities of filmmakers and producers, and improve the quality of content and the visual side of projects. VAF includes a number of initiatives aimed at strengthening the animation industry in these countries, and becoming a competitive partner for Western European co-productions.
VAF Třeboň
>>> Presenting and pitching of developmental animated projects (short films and series / TV specials).
>>> Networking platform also for professionals outside CEE.
CEE Animation Workshop
>>> Meetings, discussions, pitching, lobbying efforts and high quality, high-end training for CEE animated film producers
VAF Red Bricks
>>> Think-tank revamping CEE’s animation industry.
>>> Producers‘ network to enable and strengthen regional cooperation.
VAF New Talents
>>> Promotion of promising talented young CEE animation artists.
VAF: New Talents 2018
This project aims to promote the most talented young animation filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It presents the best films made by students and debuting artists in the given year to a professional audience and the general public. The film selection focuses on extraordinary talents whose work promises successful future careers. The project counts on the presentation of this film compilation at selected European animated film festivals to draw attention to new talents and bring them together with experienced international producers.
Why did we create this project?
While the quality of animation from CEE increases yearly, alternative presentation channels are needed due to the lack of scope for animated film promotion through national film institutes. Hence VAF has taken the initiative and, as the first such project in the region of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia and Slovenia, we aim to raise the profile of our animation even outside the films’ production countries.
How do we select the films?
An expert board from CEE is annually compiled to select the best regional work produced that year. Festival artistic directors Anna Ida Orosz (Primanima), Olga Bobrowska (StopTrik), Pavel Horáček (Anifilm), Maroš Brojo (Fest Anča), Daniel Suljic (Animafest Zagreb), and Igor Prassel (Animateka) participated in the selection.
The NEW TALENTS project involves launching a booklet with detailed information about the films, their creators, and contacts for the producers or schools of origin. The project doesn’t aim for sales but rather to support dissemination at film markets, and among film distributors, sales agents and festival programme directors. The selection will also be screened at various film festivals around the world to reach mainstream audiences. The Visegrad Animation Forum will also closely cooperate on the project with national film centres and regional professionals. Our primary ambition is the year-round promotion of young CEE artists’ animation and assistance for its further development, visibility and distribution.
The Movies (68')
01. BOND / Kötelék, 9’ 20’’
Hungary, 2016
Directed by Judit Wunder
Screenplay: Judit Wunder
Animation: Éva Darabos, Zoltán Debreczeni, Firkafilm Studio, Ágnes Karikó, Manó Megyeri, Borbála Mészáros, Eszter Monlár, Réka Anna Szakály, Imre Balázs Szentesi, Márton Szűts, László István Tóth, Péter Vácz
Technique:
Editing: Judit Czakó
Sound: Tamás Beke
Music: Balázs Gergely
Producer: József Fülöp
Production: Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (Eszter Glaser)
Dialogues: None
A woman lives in complete solitude tries hard to find love meeting with a shadow creature looks like a cat. Meanwhile new bonds evolve as she gives birth to three kittens. Suddenly the creature disappears and she stays between happiness of motherhood and suspense of her lover.
Judit Wunder
Judit Wunder graduated from the Animation Department of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design where she made Bond short animation film. She also works in several short films as set designer and animates short films for the Castle Museum's permanent and temporary exhibitions.
02. mARRY jESUS galaxy, 3’ 22’’
Slovenia, 2017
Directed by Mery Gobec, Asja Trost, Inês Sampaio
Screenplay: Asja Trost, Mery Gobec, Sandra Jovanovska, Ines Sampaio
Cinematography: Asja Trost, Mery Gobec, Sandra Jovanovska, Ines Sampaio
Editing: Asja Trost, Mery Gobec, Sandra Jovanovska, Ines Sampaio
Sound: Matjaž Bajc, Peter Kastrin
Music: Matjaž Bajc, Peter Kastrin
Animation: Asja Trost, Mery Gobec, Sandra Jovanovska, Ines Sampaio
Colouring: Asja Trost, Mery Gobec, Sandra Jovanovska, Ines Sampaio
Producer: University of Nova Gorica, School of Arts
Dialogues: None
Once upon a time the terrible unknown came around the corner.
Mery Gobec
Mery Gobec after graduation in drama-theatre high school in Nova Gorica, Mery studied video-film (BA) at the School of Arts, UNG and she is currently doing a MA degree in film at the same school. She is also an author of short fiction, experimental and animation films.
Asja Trost
Asja Trost is a student, currently doing her MA degree at the School of Arts, UNG. The projects that she is involved in contain a nonviolent propaganda of an unspecified ideology which has no boundaries, however, it highly respects all living things.
Inês Sampaio
Inês Sampaio studied at the High School of Arts in Lisbon, where she specialised in Audiovisual Multimedia. Currently, she is studying sound and image at ESAD.CR. Inês works in the fields of video, photography, illustration, design, animation and multimedia.
Sandra Jovanovska
Sandra Jovanovska is an artist from Skopje, F.Y.R. of Macedonia, working in the domain of arts and culture. Although her formal education started in the field of linguistics, she continued building her career in art. She is an active member of two associations, the first of which promotes creative documentary cinema (Makedox) and the second one promotes art and culture (Compressor). She incorporates her activism in stop-motion and 2D animation, as well as in film creation. In addition to this, she is a part of a designer duo that creates jewellery by recycling parts of electronic waste. She is currently doing her MA studies at the University of Nova Gorica, School of Arts.
03. TUTTI, 1’ 03’’
Slovakia, 2016
Directed by Marek Jasaň
Screenplay: Marek Jasaň
Editing: Marek Jasaň
Sound: Emil Smoliga
Music: Emil Smoliga
Animation: Marek Jasaň
Colouring: Marek Jasaň
Producer: Tereza Svatoňová
Production: Film and Television Faculty VSMU
Dialogues: None
An animated exercise on the topic of hands. It focuses on the strong connection between animation and music. Rhythm, movement and sound create an inseparable audiovisual non-narrative experience.
Marek Jasaň
Marek Jasaň lives in Senec, a town not far from the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava. Although he specialised in mathematics and information technologies at high school, his passion for art has led him to the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. He is currently a student of animation, working on his master's degree short animated film.
04. PROCESS / Proces, 5’
Croatia, 2017
Directed by Lucija Bužančić
Screenplay: Lucija Bužančić
Cinematography: Lucija Bužančić
Editing: Lucija Bužančić
Sound: Vice Ercegović
Music: Vojin Hraste, Mišo Komenda, Srdan Šegvić
Animation: Lucija Bužančić
Producer: Vinko Brešan, Aleksandar Batistta Ilić
Production: Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb and Zagreb film
Dialogues: None
The Process is an animated short about the process of animation as it's taught at universities and art schools. It follows the path from the idea, or the concept that we are working on, through layout, storyboard, and screenplay up to the final product – the film. The Process is divided into three parts that differ visually and in sound and music.
Lucija Bužančić
Lucija Bužančić studied Animation and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. In 2015 she took a semester abroad within the Erasmus+ programme at the Academy Jan Matejko in Krakow, Poland. In the same year she participated in the festival of animated film Animafest in Zagreb, where an animated trailer she worked on with her colleagues was screened. In 2016 she worked on the animated documentary called “Chriss the Swiss”, while simultaneously working on the animated film “Murder in the Cathedral”. In 2017 she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts with a master's degree in Animated Film.
05. OH MOTHER! / O Matko!, 12’
Poland, 2017
Directed by Paulina Ziolkowska
Screenplay: Paulina Ziolkowska
Cinematography: Joanna Dudek
Editing: Wojciech Janas
Sound: Piotr Mejran
Music: Tomasz Opalka
Animation: Paulina Ziolkowska, Natalia Krawczuk, Barbara Rupik, Karolina Specht, Aleksandra Wit, Artur Hanaj, Aleksandra Kucwaj, Zofia Skorka, Beata Strzelecka, Wojciech Wojtkowski
Producer: Piotr Furmankiewicz, Mateusz Michalak
Production: FUMI Studio
Dialogues: None
Mother and son are changing places and roles constantly: sometimes, the mother is an adult, other times, the son takes care of his suddenly childish mother. The relationship works fine until the boy decides to escape from under his overprotective mother’s skirts and to start an independent life.
Paulina Ziolkowska
Paulina Ziolkowska was born in 1988 in Wroclaw. In 2008 she began her studies at the Department of Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw. She is currently studying animation at the National Film School in Lodz.
06. WIRELESS, 7’
Hungary, 2016
Directed by Szandra Pataki
Screenplay: Szandra Pataki
Cinematography: Sándor Nemes
Editing: Szandra Pataki, Bori Mészáros
Sound: Péter Tornyai
Music: Péter Tornyai
Animation: Szandra Pataki, Krisztina Kubinyi, Noémi Márton, Bori Mészáros, Zsanett Mess, Dániel Papp, Zsuzsanna Rádóczy
Producer: Melinda Kiss
Production: Budapest Metropolitan University
Dialogues: None
Made of an infinite steel wire, the inhabitants of a strange world survive through unusual interactions and connections.
Szandra Pataki
Szandra Pataki is an animation artist who earned her bachelor's degree in Animation from Budapest Metropolitan University in 2016. WireLess is her graduation film.
07. OH GOD! / Oh Jezu!, 4’
Poland, 2017
Directed by Betina Bożek
Screenplay: Betina Bożek
Cinematography: Betina Bożek
Editing: Betina Bożek
Music: Kaja Szwarnóg
Animation: Betina Bożek
Producer: Robert Sowa
Production: Animated Film Studio, Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, Poland, Cracow
Dialogues: None
The reality presented in the film "Oh God" might be described using the terms like inertia or chaos. Its animated characters lack the will to take any action; they are passive and indifferent, unable to create their own reality. The author presents a world that is losing its original shapes and its identity. The groan “oh God” as a main theme combines it all, meaning the combination of grimace, sigh, and a quiet whisper of despair about our own impotence.
Betina Bożek
Betina Bożek was born in 1993 in Cracow. She is a graduate of high school of fine arts in Cracow and a student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. She has won several international open-air painting competitions and artistic scholarships. She has participated in film festivals (International Festival of Animation Animart in Łódź, Festival Polenmarkt in Greifswald). She works in the fields of illustration, painting and animation.
08. THE STRANGER IN MY HEAD, 4’
Croatia, 2017
Directed by Petra Balekić
Screenplay: Petra Balekić
Cinematography: Petra Balekić
Editing: Petra Balekić
Sound: Vjeran Šalamon
Animation: Petra Balekić
Producer: Vinko Brešan, Aleksandar Batista Ilić
Production: Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb and Zagreb film
Dialogues: Yes (english subtitles)
The film is a kind of reconstruction of The Stranger, novel by Albert Camus I read 12 years ago. I remember the impression it left in me and the atmosphere it evoked, but when it comes to characters and action, only fragments got stuck in my memory. In this short animation I tried to put those fragments into some context.
Petra Balekić
Petra Balekić graduated from Graphics Arts Department in 2013 and from Animation and New Media Department in 2017, both at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. She's a member of HDLU Zagreb. She’s had four solo exhibitions and has taken part in three short film and animation festivals. She got two awards at the Encounters film festival in Bristol in 2016 (DepicT! competition).
09. CONTRAST / KONTRAST, 4’ 24’’
Slovakia, 2017
Directed by Barbara Bárková
Screenplay: Barbora Bárková
Editing: Laco Okasa
Sound: Matej Wolf
Music: Matej Wolf
Animation: Barbora Bárková
Colouring: Barbora Bárková
Producer: Kristína Gajdariková
Production: Film and Television Faculty VSMU
Dialogues: None
A surreal depiction of a toxic relationship, when one only takes but never gives.
Barbora Bárková
Barbora Bárková is an art student from the Czech Republic, currently studying animation at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia. She loves drawing, she loves animating, but her biggest passion is painting. She feels she can expresses herself the best through composing various colors and shapes, using different interesting textures and maybe adding some line touches now and then. She takes a lot of inspiration from nature: plants, trees, rocks, animals. You can find them all in her art, usually stylized and recreated in her own way.
10. MUKUMU / Mukumů, 8’
Czech Republic, 2017
Directed by Pavla Baštanová
Screenplay: Pavla Baštanová
Cinematography: Pavla Baštanová
Editing: David Lorenz
Sound: Eva Dobružská
Music: Eva Dobružská
Animation: Pavla Baštanová
Colouring: Pavla Baštanová
Producer: UMPRUM/Pavla Baštanová
Production: Pavla Baštanová
Dialogues: None
Mukumů is an animated film that illustrates the peculiar Scandinavian nature and the people who live there and fight with both the nature and their own existence. The film shows everyday life and the unpredictable situations caused by the nature. The word "mukumů" is used for calling cows to come from the fields. It represents casual activities that give life a sense of purpose. Humans, animals and nature - all of them are trying to survive.
Pavla Baštanová
Graduate in Animation Studies from UMPRUM in Prague and UTB in Zlin. Animator, illustrator and artist who works on both commercial and artistic projects (films, spots, graphics, illustrations for books and magazines).
11. THE FRUITS OF CLOUDS / Plody mraků, 10’
Czech Republic 2017
Directed by Kateřina Karhánková
Screenplay: Kateřina Karhánková
Cinematography: Kateřina Karhánková
Editing: Blanka Klímová
Sound: Jan Richtr
Music: Jan Richtr
Animation: Kateřina Karhánková
Producer: Tomáš Michálek, Dagmar Sedláčková
Production: MasterFilm s.r.o.
Dialogues: None
Furry and his friends live in burrows on a glade surrounded by dark woods. They feed themselves with seeds that turn into glowing fruit after touching the ground. However, these are quite rare. The animals’ fear from the wood does not allow them to leave the glade and look for the food somewhere else. Instead, they resignedly wait until it falls from the sky. But Furry does not want to wait anymore. The wood awakens curiosity in him. He wants to know what is hiding in there…
Kateřina Karhánková
Kateřina Karhánková graduated from the Animation Department at FAMU, Prague. She focuses on films for children, often visiting schools to interview kids. Her graduation film "The New Species" competed at Annecy in 2014, it was presented at the MoMA in NYC and was selected at several international festivals where it won awards from both juries and audiences. Her following film, "Tony and Mr. Illness", won several awards including the 2015 Gold Panda.
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