The programme at the Europa cinema begins at 4pm with an introduction into the “master” Karel Zeman, the pioneer of Czech animation, on the occasion of his 100th birthday. The programme includes six short films, among which The Christmas Dream, his debut, combining live action and animated puppets.

Aardman Studio films are scheduled for 6pm: more than 20 films made by this world famous studio include animated works featuring well known animated characters, such as Purple and Brown, Angry Kid, Wallace and Gromit, but also the music video Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel, one of the most successful music videos in history. The Grand Competition programme continues at 8pm, screening the best animated shorts made in the last two years: these eight entries include acclaimed filmmakers such as the cult Estonian animators Olga and Priit Parn and their new film Divers in the Rain, followed by Love and Theft by the interesting German filmmaker Andreas Hykada, Spine by the American Chris Landreth, the 2004 Academy Award winner for Ryan. The Europa programme ends at 10pm with Grand Panorama.

The programme at the Tuškanac cinema begins with an 11am morning screening: the programme Eleven in Motion is an omnibus by eleven Canadian animators commissioned by TAIS, the non-profit organisation for animation promotion from Toronto. This experimental animation project is a tribute to the works of Canadian abstract expressionists from the 1950s and 1960s entitled Painters Eleven. Student films are scheduled for 2pm and 6pm, first those pertaining to the Student Panorama, followed by the Student Competition. At 8pm we present you the animation virtuoso, the winner of this year’s Animafest Lifetime Achievement Award, Frederic Back. The programme includes six of Back’s films. The programme at Tuškanac ends with the Visitors from the Galaxy, a cult film by Dušan Vukotić.

From 10am to 6pm Movieplex cinema will screen Children’s Competitions, while the Commissioned Films are scheduled for 8pm. The programme ends at 10pm with another Grand Competition batch.

The side events are also noteworthy: at 1pm at the Tuškanac cinema small hall, a Q&A with Grand Competition authors will be held. At 3pm Midhat Ajanović Ajan, the winner of the award for special contribution to animation studies, will present his book. At 4pm Antoni Trajanov, the author of more than 100 Bulgarian animated films, will hold a lecture, followed by Fernando Galrito at 6pm, animation teacher exploring the relations between moving images, performance and visual art.