Curating Socialist Animation: Animafest Zagreb and the Cold War Circulation of Polish Animated Film - Ewa Ciszewska

PANEL 3: CURATING ANIMATION Srijeda, 10. lipnja, 10:35-11:05

Curating Socialist Animation: Animafest Zagreb and the Cold War Circulation of Polish Animated Film
Ewa Ciszewska (University of Łódź, Polish Animation Research Group)

This paper examines the ASIFA-sponsored festival Animafest Zagreb as a curatorial site that actively shaped the visibility, circulation and canonization of Polish animated films during the Cold War. Established in 1972, Animafest Zagreb functioned not merely as a showcase of animation, but as a transnational platform where programming strategies, jury compositions and critical discourse intersected to produce aesthetic hierarchies across the global animation field. Focusing on the period between 1972 and 1990, the study addresses four interrelated dimensions of curatorial authority. First, it analyses programming tendencies that governed the selection and thematic framing of Polish films in festival line-ups, examining how these choices reflected broader conceptions of animation promoted by festival organizers and ASIFA. Second, it investigates the reception of Polish animated works screened in Zagreb through press reviews tracing how critical language contributed to their international positioning. Third, it considers the role of Polish professionals serving as jury members, examining how participation in evaluative structures translated into symbolic capital and professional recognition. Finally, it explores the “echoes” of Animafest Zagreb in Polish professional discourse, mapping how the festival was reported, interpreted, and instrumentalised in domestic debates on animation. Methodologically, the paper combines archival research (festival catalogues, press clippings, ASIFA documentation) with reception analysis and institutional history. The case of Animafest Zagreb is read within the framework of Association Internationale du Film d'Animation, which consciously promoted animation as a medium capable of transcending ideological divisions. This positioning makes the festival a particularly revealing site for studying how socialist-bloc animation circulated internationally without being subsumed into Cold War binaries. By foregrounding curatorial practices as agents of canon formation, the paper contributes to current debates on festivals as knowledge-producing institutions. It argues that Animafest Zagreb played a formative role in shaping the international perception of Polish animation, demonstrating how curatorial authority mediated between artistic practice, institutional networks and global circulation in the Cold War era.

Ewa Ciszewska is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film and Audiovisual Media at the University of Łódź. Her research focuses on the history of Polish animation, cultural heritage management in animation, Polish–Czechoslovak film cooperation during the communist period, and film education in Poland. She is the co-author of Społeczne światy Studia Małych Form Filmowych “Se-Ma-For” w Łodzi (Social Worlds of the “Se-Ma-For” Small Form Film Studio in Łódź, University of Łódź Press, 2025) and the founder of the Polish Animation Research Group.