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World Festival of Animated Film /
short and feature edition 4 to 9 June 2018
World Festival of Animated Film / short and feature edition 4 to 9 June 2018
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WEDNESDAY AT ANIMAFEST: WORLD PREMIERE, CLAYMATION HORROR AND PROFESSOR BALTHAZAR PARTY
06/06/2018

The third festival day at Animafest 2018 again opens by young early birds at Kinoteka – with two Children’s Competitions (age 7-10 and 10-14), followed by Q&A sessions with filmmakers and film analyses, including must see titles such as The Hungry Little Wolf, Strength in Numbers and The Fruits of Clouds. At 3.30pm the Family Programme ‘On Love’ is scheduled (age 6+), followed at 5.30pm by the hit title Revolting Rhymes (age 7+), based on a potpourri of classic fairy tales like The Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Three Piglets, with a mischievous twist. The film by Jan Lachauer and Jakob Schuh was based on Roald Dahl’s children’s favourite book, illustrated by Quentin Blake. At 20pm Animafest’s audience will have a second and last chance to see the sci-fi musical by the Italian quartet of directors and yet another modernisation of a classic fairy tale in the film Cinderella the Cat. The line-up at Kinoteka will close with the finest films from the history of Latvian animation in the section Baltic Focus.

Tuškanac cinema opens with the Short Film Grand Competitions (4 and 1) at 11am and 1pm, with films such as How Steel Was Tempered by Igor Grubić, presented in the fierce Competition 4, opposite the Oscar nominated Negative Space, Alternative Walk by legendary Ivan Maximov, and Rosto’s Reruns, as well as ‘uriseidlian’ Wildebeest, Sasha Svirsky’s erotic Lavo and the stunning combination of techniques inspired by Romanian Dada The Blissful Accidental Death by Sergiu Negulici. In the first Grand Competition selection we will be watching crowd-pleasers like the video Mark Lotterman – Happy, with a choregraphy of Egyptian geese and a music reminding of Nick Cave, a film about Woody Allen and the humorous Heroes by the Argentinian master Juan Pablo Zaramella, as well as art favourites La Chute by Boriss Labbé and Lagune by Mathieu Labaye and Hannah Letaïf.

The following screening will present the finest films made at the famous CalArts, the winner of Animafest’s Best Animation School Award, at 3.30pm. Programme curated by Alexander Stewart, professor of experimental animation at CalArts, will feature Wormholes, graduation film by Stephen Hillenburg who later went on to create animated series SpongeBob SquarePants, and Commuter by Michael Patterson who later directed A-ha’s music video Take on Me.

The Student Film Competition 2 at 5.30pm includes Paranoja paranoje by the Croatian filmmaker Katarina Jukić, opposite the visually lavish Comfort by Weronika Banasińska, production-wise rich films made at NFTS and CalArts Facing It and The Northeast Kingdom, as well as the psychedelic and ‘potentially epileptic’ miniature by Dan Safonov Brain Cable 12197. The screening will be accompanied by a Q&A with the authors. Another Baltic Focus, at 8pm, is presenting Estonia, the most famous animation nation in the Baltic region, with great names like Priit and Olga Pärn, Riho Unt and others. A real treat for the lovers of horror films is suitably scheduled for the late 10pm slot, with the iconic Seoul Station by Yeon Sangho, the prequel to the live action film A Train to Busan, in the same zombie apocalypse genre.

The Student Film Competition at Europa cinema starts at 11am with films like Ooze by Kilian Vilim about an unusual lift boy, the minimalist Gals by Caori Murata, the visually monumental Sigh of Sighs by Gim Bo-seong, the shocking Barbeque by Jenny Jokela, the pixel art BOOM by Zyn, the lavishly coloured Heart Chakra by Angela Stempel and Paulina Ziolkowska’s second film Bless You!, the amazing success of the author whose two films qualified for the competition. Up next is World Panorama 2 at 1pm, with an accent on films by the animation veteran Paul Driessen The Origin of Sound and Miloš Tomić’s Musical Traumas. Classic films made at the Zagreb School in 1970 are next, selected by Borivoj Dovniković, followed by another ‘last chance’ – this time for the Taiwanese feature omnibus A Dog’s Life.

After the particularly strong Grand Competition 3 (with films such as the weird dystopia of original visuality Finity Calling, the  erotic grotesque Mermaids and Rhinos, the latest film by the comic book author and animator Vincent Parronaud Death, Dad & Son, the emotional Obon about a survivor of Hiroshima and her relationship with her father, the narrative ambience video channelling Poe Eluvium – Regenerative Being, the humorous Manimals and a miniature about a crying baby Waaah) and a Q&A, the world premiere of Captain Morten and the Spider Queen follows. The film, directed by Kaspar Jancis from the legendary Estonian studio Nukufilm is a coming-of-age allegory told through the experiences of an eight-year-old boy, magically reduced to the size of a bug and forced to navigate his favourite toy. Kaspar Jancis will attend the world premiere of his film and have a chat with the audience after the screening, and he announced his arrival to Europa cinema on his handmade motorcycle, appearing in the film, and other film props.

The programme at Art Park ‘Three Nights of Complete Horror’ continues with a Claymation workshop and a screening of films by Lee Hardcastle, the viral celebrity of stop-motion trash gore humour. The workshop for adults is scheduled for 7pm, and a screening of short films, music videos and film parodies for 10pm, with an exclusive overview of new, still unseen horror films in Claymation technique.

Another central Animafest event takesplace at 7pm at the Museum of Arts and Crafts. Professor Balthazar’s birthday party will be attended by distinguished guests who will speak about the multiple importance of this miraculous professor’s character. The short film with memories of original authors of the series will also be shown. The Museum of Arts and Crafts is also hosting, since 2 June, an animation workshop under the title ’50 Years of Professor Balthazar’, for children age 8+, mentored by Antonija Veljačić.

Today, the Balassi Institute will wrap up the international symposium Animafest Scanner V, with talks inspired by animation and horror and the use of animation outside animated films domain. Their findings will be presented by Nag Vlademersky, Jorgelina Orfila, Martina Tritthart, Ana Carolina Estarita Guerrero, Francisco Ortega-Grimaldo, Millie Young, Georges Sifianos and Midhat Ajanović.

At 10pm, Mesnička Cultural Centre is hosting another festival party.