Once again, this year’s early June will be coloured by the World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb 2013, taking place at two already familiar locations in the city – Europa and Cineplexx Center Kaptol cinemas, 4-9 June. The odd year, according to the festival tradition, is spoken for the most interesting and exciting feature-length original animated works. We are pleased to inform you that of 65 submitted entries from 29 countries, 14 outstanding and interesting titles will presented to the audience, nine in the Grand Competition and five in the World Panorama.

The Grand Competition films compete for the prestigious main festival award – Grand Prix. Among the nine magnificent titles that made it through Animafest’s selection’s strict criteria, we highlight a real treat – the film about the life of a departed member and founder of the famous Monty Python crew, Graham Chapman, 'A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman' by a group of authors consisting of Bill Jones, Jeff Simpson and Ben Timlett. As the title suggests – the factually incorrect biography is a rude and Python’s reputation worthy comedy we cannot wait to see on the big screen. Another autobiography competes for the main award – 'Tatsumi', about the famous Japanese manga cartoonist Yoshihiro Tatsumi, while an additional touch of Japan comes from 'Wolf Children' by anima author Mamoru Hosoda.

The Belgian-French factory of animation is responsible for two works: the winner Cesar, of the most important French award, for best animated film, 'Ernest & Celestine' by Stéphane Aubier, Benjamin Renner and Vincent Patar, and a cartoon adaptation of 'Approved for Adoption' by Jung Henin and Laurent Boileau.

We will also see the animated interpretation of the children’s classic 'Pinocchio' by Enzo D’Alò, a film about senior citizen friendship 'Wrinkles' by Ignacio Ferreras and the last film by famous Jean-Francois Laguionie, 'The Painting'. 'Consuming Spirits' is the last of nine films from Great Competition, it is a critically acclaimed and award-winning debut and distopic story by author Chris Sullivan which took him more than ten years to complete.

The World Panorama, according to many one of Animafest’s most interesting programmes, once again this year brings a whirlwind of innovative and particular filmmakers who employed interesting and new techniques and told their stories in often unconventional and therefore (over)exciting narratives. Friend of Animafest and winner of the last year’s festival award, Don Hertzfeldt, returns with the trilogy 'It’s Such a Beautiful Day'. The ‘Panorama five’ also includes the Colombian dark comedy 'Fat, Bald, Short Man' by Carlos Osuna, Korean film by Sang-ho Yeon about social differences 'The King of Pigs', Fernando Cortiz’s feature debut 'The Apostle', and hand-drawn animated fairy tale 'The Day of the Crows' by Jean-Cristophe Dessaint.

We have a little over seven weeks before the beginning of the feature edition of the World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb 2013, meanwhile follow us on social networks Facebook and Twitter.