Animafest’s Thursday begins at Tuškanac cinema with joyful screams – a programme for the youngest fans, continues with the Russian Ugly Duckling that will cheer up both younger and older festival audience, while the evening offers two reruns – Chico & Rita thrilled the audience at Europa yesterday evening – check out why – Aleksa Gajić is the most frequently mentioned name at this festival after DAVID SILVERMAN – Technotise: Edit and I is the main reason.

The programme at Europa cinema begins at 6pm with a Batman-style atmosphere, however, instead of a bat, there is cat starring in Folimage’s film. The first Chinese independent hit Piercing I is scheduled for 8pm, while the 10pm slot will screen the cult musical film with 15 minutes of spectacular animation – Pink Floyd – The Wall.

The complete screening schedule and a phrase or two that might invite you to move towards Europa or Tuškanac forest follow:

CAT IN PARIS, Jean-Loup Felicioli, Alain Gagnol, 2010, 62'  / 6pm Europa cinema
The latest film hit by Folimage, the imaginative French cinematic workshop, represents Dino the cat that leads a double life. He spends his days with Zoé, the police superintendent's daughter, and nights as a thief on the rooftops of Paris.

PIERCING ILiu Jian, 2009, 74' / 8pm Europa cinemaThe first independently produced animated feature from China, Piercing I tells the story of Zhang Xiaojun, who put himself through college and found a job in a shoe factory. After he loses his job during a financial crisis, he gets beat up by a supermarket manager during a case of mistaken identity. As he prepares to return to his rural village, he is arrested, and storylines converge in a teahouse near the city rampart.

PINK FLOYD THE WALL, Alan Parker, 1982, 95' / 10pm Europa cinemaPink Floyd's 1982 film The Wall is an ambitious, intense, and challenging film. Eschewing a traditional narrative, the movie tries to convey a sense of story progression through a maddening parade of live-action scenes both real and imagined, plenty of music, and even surrealist animated segments.

ANIMAFEST FOR KIDS  / 11am Tuškanac cinema
Free admissionA selection of short films for the youngest audience will present the best European films from the educational programme Elephant compiled by Ljubljana's festival Animateka. Drawings and puppets of cats, mice, owls, carrots, rabbits and bats appear in the films, representing our heores and their entertaining and friendly situations in which they highlight courage, loyalty and friendship as the most important values.

THE UGLY DUCKLING
Garri Bardin, 2010, 74' / 1pm Tuškanac cinemaThe timeless fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen in an animated version with puppets. A cockerel discovers a giant egg and secretly adds it to the nest of a nearby hen. The hatched bird is very different from its sibling chicks. The others bully it and have great fun humiliating and excluding it from the community.

MASTERS OF ANIMATION III / PAUL DRIESSEN  / 6:15pm Tuškanac cinemaThe winner of Animafest's 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award returns to Zagreb with a comprehensive retrospective. A director with an outstanding sense of space and line creates timeless humorous and at the same time ambiguous films when it comes to optimism, and fosters irony towards the idea of the omniscient and omnipotent man. When you get to know this Dutch-Canadian artist, you will become humble followers of his works.

TECHNOTISE: EDIT & I
Aleksa Gajić, 2009, 86'  / 8:15pm Tuškanac cinemaEdit is a psychology student in Belgrade in 2074. Wishing to pass a difficult exam, she has a chip implanted which helps students learn. However, things take an unusual turn when Edit notices a graph for a mysterious math formula which unites all energies on the planet.

CHICO & RITA
Javier Mariscal, Fernando Trueba, Tono Errando, 2010, 94' / 10:15 Tuškanac cinema
A celebration of the music and culture of Cuba with an epic animated story of love and heartbreak, set against the colour and bustle of Havana, New York, Las Vegas, Hollywood and Paris in the late 1940s and early '50s. With an original soundtrack by legendary Cuban pianist and composer, Chico & Rita captures a definitive moment in the evolution of jazz music. The film features music by jazz legends Thelonious Monk, Cole Porter, Dizzy Gillespie and Freddy Cole.

MEET THE FILMMAKERS:
Diana Nenadić and Nedeljko Dragić, presentation of the book 'AVANTURA LINIJE: 699 crteža ispod šestinskog šeširića', Hrvatski filmski savez, Zagreb, 2011.

Maria Angelica Chalela, assistant director of THE MYSTERIOUS PRESAGES OF LEON PROZAK, Colombia, 2009.