The 26th World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb takes place in Zagreb, 6-11 June. Its Grand Competition selections includes 55 films promising one of the most entertaining festival editions so far

This year Zagreb will again become a global hub of film, 6-11 June, thanks to the 26th edition of World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb. The only Croatian A-list festival will again confirm its animation festival ‘Grand Slam’ status (next to Annecy, Ottawa and Hiroshima) by bringing over 150 acclaimed filmmakers and over 300 films covering almost all genres and animation techniques to Croatia. A detailed festival line-up in 11 sections of the programme will be presented early in April, when the first ticket sale is opening, as well. However, the entries competing for the main festival awards in Grand Competition are already known.

These 55 films have been selected among 1700 entries from more than 70 countries across the world – from renowned animation powerhouses like France, UK and Canada, to those that yet need to strengthen their position on the animation map of the world, like Singapore and Lebanon. This great interest among filmmakers was undoubtedly contributed by the fact that Animafest award-winners directly qualify for the European Cartoon d’Or Award, but are also included in the Oscar run – this year’s Oscar winner Bear Story last year won Animafest’s Audience Award.

Following in its footsteps will be one of 46 films included in the short film competition, including titles by animation masters like Georges Schwizgebel (Switzerland), Phil Mulloy (UK), Igor Kovalyov (Russia) and Theodore Ushev (Canada), as well as the new wave of animation up-and-comers like Peter Millard (UK), Paul Wenninger (Austria), Celine Devaux (France) and Laura Harrison (USA). Festival entrants also include the crème de la crème of the Chinese independent animation, Lei Lei (the author of the Animafest 2014 festival poster and trailer), Jie Shen, Haiyang Wang (a frequent festival guest), and Xi Chen and Xu An (the filmmakers counting their fifth appearance in Zagreb). The festival’s artistic director Daniel Šuljić is particularly pleased by the fact that last year was extremely fruitful to Croatian animation: Short Film Grand Competition includes four Croatian titles, which is in such a fierce competition an outstanding result. The colours of Croatian animation will be defended by Marko Tadić and his Moving Elements, Veljko Popović’s Planemo, Martina Meštrović’s Peter’s Forest and the Canadian-Croatian co-production Only Lovers Leave to Die by Vladimir Kanić.

Equally interesting will be the feature competition, including films quite different in theme and technique – from the acclaimed Anomalisa by Charlie Kaufmann and the Spanish eco-sensation Psychonauts by Pedro Rivero and Alberto Vázquez, over to the American documentary success story, the Sundance winner Nuts!, about the eccentric genius doctor John Romulus Brinkley. Raul Garcia’s Extraordinary Tales is a visually lavish animated anthology of five Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, which took nine years to create. Sabogal is a powerful political human rights drama, based on recent Colombian past. Romania is competing with Ance Damian’s socially engaged Magic Mountain, a film about an anti-communism fighter (voice by Jean-Marc Barr), and France with April and the Extraordinary World by Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci, about a girl searching for her parents, lost in the times of Napoleonic dictatorship. The feature competition closes with two Japanese treats, the sci-fi Harmony by Michael Arias and Takashi Nakamura, and the cyberpunk tale Empire of Corpses, focusing on Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.

The 26th World Festival of Animated Film is also presenting an outstanding line-up of films in its competitions, as well as countless side events, like open-air screenings which thrilled audience last year. This year their number will grow. A special programme section will be dedicated to Raoul Servais (1928), a Belgian master of animation, the winner of this year’s Animafest Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be presented to him at the official opening ceremony in Zagreb, 6 June 2016. Details of other programme categories will be made public at the media conference on 6 April, when ticket sale also begins. Don’t let your tickets slip away; follow the information on the official festival social network pages, as well as on the official festival website, animafest.hr.

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26th World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb
Grand Competition – Short Film 

A COAT MADE DARK, Jack O'Shea (Ireland / 2015)
A LONG HOLIDAY, Caroline Nugues-Bourchat (Belgium / 2015)
ALL ROT,Max Hattler (Great Britain, Germany, Hong Kong / 2015)
APPLE & ONION, George Gendi (Great Britain, United States / 2015)
BAMBOO TEMPLE STREET, Baoying Bilgeri (Germany / 2015)
BEFORE LOVE, Igor Kovalyov (Russia / 2016)
BLIND VAYSHA, Theodore Ushev (Canada / 2016)
BOOKS ON BOOKS, Lei Lei (China / 2016)
BROKEN – THE WOMEN’S PRISON AT HOHENECK,Volker Schlecht, Alexander Lahl (Germany / 2016)
CELEBRATION, Nina Bisyarina (Russia / 2016)
COMPOSITION, Mitja Manček (Slovenia / 2015)
DATUM POINT, Ryo Orikasa (Japan / 2015)
DEER FLOWER, Kangmin Kim (South Korea, United States / 2015)
ENDGAME, Phil Mulloy (Great Britain / 2015)
ERLKING, Georges Schwizgebel (Switzerland / 2015)
FOREVER, zhongsu (China / 2015)
GEIST, Alex Sherwood, Ben Harper, Sean Mullen (Ireland / 2015)
GINNY, Jirkuff Susi (Austria / 2015)
IT WOULD PISS ME OFF TO DIE SO YOOOOOUNG..., Filipe Abranches (Portugal / 2016)
LILI BRUSHES HER TEETH, Siri Melchior (Denmark, Great Britain / 2015)
LOCUS, Anita Kwiatkowska-Naqvi (Poland / 2016)
MAMIE, Janice Nadeau (France, Canada / 2016)
MONKEY, Jie Shen (China / 2015)
MOVING ELEMENTS, Marko Tadić (Croatia / 2016)
OF SLAVES AND ROBOTS, Miloš Tomić (Serbia / 2015)
ONE HELL OF A PLAN, Alain Gagnol, Jean-Loup Felicioli (France, Belgium / 2015)
ONLY LOVERS LEAVE TO DIE, Vladimir Kanic (Canada, Croatia / 2015)
PERIPHERIA, David Coquard Dassault (France / 2015)
PETER'S FOREST, Martina Meštrović (Croatia / 2016)
PLANEMO, Veljko Popović (Croatia / 2015)
RED OF THE YEW TREE, Marie-Hélène Turcotte (Canada / 2016)
RHIZOME, Boris Labbé (France / 2015)
SUGAR LUMP, Ryo Okawara (Japan / 2015)
SUNDAY LUNCH, Celine Devaux (France / 2015)
TANGO, Pedro Giongo, Francisco Gusso (Brazil / 2016)
TANZONK, Sasha Svirsky (Russia, Hungary / 2015)
THE FIVE MINUTE MUSEUM, Paul Bush (Great Britain, Switzerland / 2015)
THE LINGERIE SHOW, Laura Harrison (United States / 2015)
THE POEM, Xi Chen, Xu An (China / 2016)
THE TIGER OF 142B, Henry Zhuang, Harry Zhuang (Singapore / 2015)
UNCANNY VALLEY, Paul Wenninger (Austria, France / 2015)
UNHAPPY HAPPY, Peter Millard (Great Britain / 2015)
VERY LONELY COCK, Leonid Shmelkov (Russia / 2015)
WALL DUST, Haiyang Wang (China / 2016)
WAVES '98, Ely Dagher (Lebanon / 2015)
WINTER LOVE, Isabel Herguera (Spain, Italy / 2015)

26th World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb
Grand Competition – Feature Film

PSICONAUTAS, LOS NIÑOS OLVIDADOS (PSICHONAUTS, THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN), Pedro Rivero, Alberto Vázquez, Španjolska, 2015.
MAGIC MOUNTAIN, Anca Damian, Rumunjska, 2015.
AVRIL ET LE MONDE TRUQUÉ (APRIL AND THE EXTRAORDINARY WORLD), Christian Desmares, Franck Ekinci, Francuska, 2015
ANOMALISA, Charlie Kauffman,Duke Johnson, SAD, 2015
NUTS!, Penny Lane, SAD, 2015.
EXTRAORDINARY TALES, Raul Garcia, Luksemburg, Belgija, Španjolska, (2015) SABOGAL, Juan José Lozano, Sergio Mejía, Kolumbija 2015.
HARMONY, Michael Arias, Takashi Nakamura, Japan 2015.
SHISHA NO TEIKOKU (EMPIRE OF CORPSES), Ryotaro Makihara, Japan, 2015.