The soft grassy lawn of Zagreb’s central park Zrinjevac has proven on Saturday to be a perfect backdrop for a family cinema picnic, i.e. Animaefst’s journey out of the movie theatre to an open-air screening. The time before the festival opening and pleasant days of May should definitely be taken advantage of, and a great novelty – an open-air screening under the stars in the city centre – turned out to be an ideal choice. Zrinjevac square  was full with people who settled on their blankets before the screen and spent an evening with Approved for Adoption by Laurent Boileauand Jung Henin, the winner of Grand Prix and Audience Award at Animafest 2013.

The open-air get-together began at 4pm, when the famous Zagreb-based visual artist initiative Pimp My Pump began painting the nearby old water pump, dressing it as Animafest’s mascot Mandlek, which the children particularly liked, ready with their colouring books with the same motifs, followed by a narrative performance.

Poco Loco Theatre used their imaginative spirit to perform Alice in Wonderland, which is the thematic mainstay of this year’s Animafest. For this opportunity they create show inspired by a special edition of Alice, illustrated by famous Croatian artist ZdenkoBašić, and published by Planetopija. The Poco Loco Theatre’s performance also included several musicians.

After the screening, the get-together was wrapped up with a theme party Alice in Vinyland and the opening of the namesake installation by Marko Nuić at the festival’s official club Vinyl.

Animafest is planning a similar programme for the festival period too, more accurately on 12 June, when Zrinjevac will host the visual fairy-tale treat by the winner of Lifetime Achievement Award, cult French animator Michel Ocelot – Azur and Asmar.