Saturday at Animafest 2026

Award Ceremony – Stellar Anime – The Best of Croatia

Socijalizacija bika? / Socializing the Bull? (Milan Erič, Zvonko Čoh)

Ahead of tonight’s award ceremony (8 pm, SC Cinema) that will eternalise the luckiest filmmakers in animation history and include them in the competition for the Oscar, BAFTA, Annie Awards and Emile Awards, the richest day of Animafest 2026 in terms of programming is yet to come. Among the brightest events are definitely Samurai Ballerina at 10:30 am (SC Cinema) (a new anime by One Piece director Goro Taniguchi, which is being shown outside of Japan for the first time, followed by a Q&A with the author who will reveal everything about the making of this story about the clash of East and West and tradition and modernity in the Parisian cultural milieu on the eve of World War I), the presentation of a new Croatian production (the Croatian Film Competition at 1:00 and 3:30 pm with a total of 19 works is traditionally accompanied by a Q&A with the authors, and the winner also receives an Oscar qualification) and the screening of awarded films (Best of Animafest, 9:30 pm, SC Cinema). However, in the words of the famous slogan, “but that’s not all” because there is also ‘Animation Secrets of Joanna Quinn’ (masterclass by the Lifetime Achievement Award winner at 10 am, MM Centre), ‘The Evolution of Puppet Cinema’ (masterclass by Oscar winner Chris Lavis at 12 pm, MM Centre), Decorado (Grand Competition Feature Film, MSU, 8 pm), Caribbean animated documentary Olivia & The Clouds (a surreal exploration of the complexity of love from the Dominican Republic, KIC, 8 pm), masterclasses and discussions about video games and Socializing the Bull? (yes, with a question mark), and Zagreb cultural centres will welcome rivers of children and parents at screenings of the series Koyaa and the Annoying Objects and the Films for Children Competition.

At 11 am, the masterclass ‘Sound and Music for Animation’ will be held in the MM Centre by Pierre Yves Drapeau, a member of the jury of the Grand Competition Feature Film, sound designer and composer of film music and a collaborator of many famous animators. Those who missed the theme programme of Animafest 2026 during the week, also dedicated to music in animated films, will have the opportunity to catch up at the same place at 4 pm (‘Tango, techno and other movements’), 6 pm (‘Classical and contemporary music’) and 8 pm (‘Jazz’).

An opportunity for those whose working week did not allow them to escape into the painted worlds of imagination is also scheduled this morning at Kinoteka, where the focus is on Slovenia, first with two free segments adapted for children. At 10 am Koyaa and the Annoying Objects, a high-budget produced stop-motion animated series about an Alpine clumsy boy, is suitable for viewers aged 3 and up. At 10:30 am, the segment ‘Animals and Other Creatures’ (age 6+) is accompanied by a Q&A with Timon Leder (Weasel), Greg Mastnak and Mojca Zlokarnik (Prince Ki-ki-do: On the Run), Kolja Saksida (Koyaa – Elusive Paper), Nejc Saje (director of photography for the film Spuffies: Jubees), Rok Predin (Slipper Keeper Kitty) and Kaja Balog (screenwriter for the film Mouse House). At 12:30 pm, the third segment of this large retrospective of our neighbours (‘Modern Scene’) will be rerun, and in the attractive afternoon slot (6 pm) there will be an unmissable screening of the groundbreaking first Slovenian feature-length animated film Socializing the Bull? by Zvonko Čoh and Milan Erič. The curator of the Slovenian Film Archive, Igor Prassel, will introduce us to the significance of this work. Between the Slovenian ‘blocks’ there will be ‘Visual Music" (2 pm) from the theme section, also selected by an internationally renowned curator (Michał Bobrowski), as well as the Grand Competition Short Film 3 (4 pm) with Krešimir Pernek’s Strive, ‘beer films’ from Ireland and China, a horror melodrama, an animated documentary about virtual pets, and a voyeuristic look into the relationships and secrets of an apartment building. Animafest at Kinoteka will end with Decorado (8 pm) by Alberto Vázquez - an existentialist-absurdist black comedy about a mouse who, in a hypercapitalist dystopia, feels like he lives on a film set. The ironic, occasionally brutal depiction of the contemporary human condition, with its high intensity and lavish colours, will be commented on by José Luis Agreda, who is responsible for its visual design.

Grand Competition Feature Film is also represented at MSU today with the Chinese existentialist SF Light Pillar (6 pm) and the phenomenally witty but also layered Brazilian comedy drama Son of a Bitch (8 pm).

The 1^st Animaton x Gamedev Lab Zagreb, whose masterclasses, presentations and panels (as well as an interactive exhibition of video games, 11 am to 7 pm) are open to the public again today, continues and ends in the Klet Studio Gallery. Aleksandar Gavrilović from Gamechuck (‘Adapting Stories into Videogames: Professor Baltazar’, 11 am) and Admir Elezović from Croteam (‘Team Work in Game Dev Studio’, 1:45 pm are speaking, Filip Ugrin, Leon Fomin and Frano Petruša will present their games from 12:15 pm, and the panel on ‘The Power and Potential of Intellectual Property Between Animation and Games’ starts at 3 pm hosted by Maroš Broja from CEE, Museum of Slovak design and the Slovak Arts Council.

Koyaa and the Annoying Objects is screened today at 11 am at NS Sesvete, CM Ribnjak and the Centre for Art Education of the City of Zagreb, and NS Sesvete will immediately continue with the Children’s Film Competition (age 3-6). NS Dubrava also plays both programmes, but from 10 am, and then continues at 12 pm with films for ages 7-10, while the Maksimir Cultural Centre screens the same competition (7-10 years old) from 7 pm.