Ahead of tonight’s award ceremony (7:30 pm) and the screening of the award-winning films (Best of Animafest 2025, SC Cinema, 9:30 pm), the programme’s most attractive day of the 35th World Festival of Animated Film is just ahead of us – so rich that we’ll even forget for a moment that it’s also the last. Fortunately, thanks to Animafest sponsor Telemach, part of the program will soon be available on the EON TV platform for a whole year.

Today, children and youth ‘spread out’ from Kinoteka to MSU, where films suitable for them are screened at 11:30 am (7-10 years old), 12:30 pm (3-6) and 1 pm (4+, Baker Boris and Friends). At 5:30 pm, there is a second and last chance to watch the new feature film by the famous Quay brothers, Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass. But films for children and youth are now screened throughout the city – at NS Dubrava (Baker Boris and Friends at 10 am; films for ages 3-6 at 11 am, and those for ages 7-10 at 12 pm), the Centre for Art Education of the City of Zagreb (3-6 at 10 am, Baker Boris and Friends at 10:30 am) and KNAP (ages 7-10 at 12 pm). On Sunday, Zagreb’s Cultural Neighbourhoods – Novi Jelkovec will host this year’s last open-air with Films for Children Competition for ages 7-10 at 9:15 pm. However, Kinoteka will not remain completely without its youngest visitors, who will find a suitable retrospective of 50 years of the School of Animated Film (ŠAF) Čakovec at 2 pm – 17 films from the period 1981-2025, selected by the current head of the School Jasminka Bijelić Ljubić. The films reveal the deep connections and friendship between the Čakovec institution and the Zagreb festival. Admission to all children’s screenings, regardless of the venue, is free, except for the extraordinary Tales from the Magic Garden (6+) which is also screened at Kinoteka at noon. The evening screening of the feature-length puppet film Living Large (8 pm, Kinoteka) is also suitable for slightly older kids (10+) to whom the plot of this teenage, partly musical humorous drama is fundamentally addressed.

Saturday provides so many attractions that it is almost impossible to say how it will be ‘marked by someone’, but among the most significant ‘signifiers’ is certainly Michaela Pavlátová, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, who will attend the finissage of her exhibition ‘Are You Listening to Me’ at the Kranjčar Gallery today at 2 pm, and is also expected to attend the screening of her film retrospective at 4 pm at the MM Centre. She will also give a masterclass at the MM Centre at 10 am, revealing the processes and passions behind her work. Finally, the Czech master of animation will personally receive the highest honour that the Zagreb festival offers as part of the awards ceremony.

The largest review of new domestic animated production is being held at 1 pm and 3:30 pm at the SC, when we will watch 24 works in two slots of the Croatian Film Competition and talk to most of their authors. Famous animators of different generations (Meštrović, Bakliža, Volde, Jevremović, Oroz, Balekić...), new or less frequently present in our animation, but artistically established names with top-notch works (Radas, Srabović, Dučak, Aimara Borjas...), as well as students (Pavetić Kranjčec, Milunović, Margetić, Cuculić, Miletić...) – all together this year for the first time in equal competition for Oscar qualification. Speaking of the Oscars, the screening of Flowby Gints Zilbalodis today at 10 am at Kinoteka is included in collaboration with the Filmaktiv Association with audio description and AD subtitles and is free for all visitors and suitable for ages 8+.

For those who will get up early even on Saturday, SC Cinema will already at 11 am offer a selection of classics from the 65-year history of ASIFA, whose first president, the great Scottish-Canadian artist Norman McLaren, is also represented in it. In the MM Centre, Michaela Pavlátova’s masterclass will be followed by Martin Vandas’s at 11 am. A jury member of the Grand Competition Feature Film and producer at the Maurfilm studio will talk about long distance running as a metaphor for the production of animated films and professional experiences from more than 20 years of his career. At 12 pm at the same venue, Olga Bobrowska will give a lecture (accompanied by a screening) on ​​the topic of uniting the animation community to support Palestine, the victims in Gaza and animators trapped in wartime circumstances, i.e. the groups AC4Pal and Palestine Animated. Bobrowska will especially highlight the work of Haneen Koraz, Nour A-Jawad, Shouruq Darwish and other organisers of workshops for children, youth and women in Gaza. That the world is truly on the edge, Animafest 2025 will demonstrate for the last time with the second (2 pm) and first (6 pm) slots of this year’s theme programme dedicated to war, migration and refugees. And this year’s Grand Competition Short Film can be seen for the last time at 4 pm and 6 pm in Kinoteka (segments 3 and 4).