Editor

For the seventh time, the South Bohemian spa town of Třeboň has turned into the Mecca of animated film. Theatres, streets and parks are full of visitors. The entire town vibrates with the festival. “The beautiful weather makes the overall friendly atmosphere even better,“ says Festival Director Petr Slavík.

In the theatres, at the marketplaces, cycling or enjoying their cup of coffee, visitors can meet film professionals such as Michaela Pavlátová, Břetislav Pojar, Michiel Snijders, Ron Diamond, Moon-Saeng Kim and, last but not least, this year’s Honorary President Raimund Krumme.

Every day, competition films are screened at the Světozor Cinema. There are seven competition categories:
• Feature-Length Films
• Short Films
• Very Short Films
• Television Films and Serials
• Video Clips, Advertisements and Introductory Spots
• Internet Animation
• Student Films

International Competition Jury Members:
Honorary President of the Festival: Raimund Krumme
Feature-Length Films, Short Films, Very Short Films: Ron Diamond, Rony Oren, Břetislav Pojar
Student Films: József Fülöp, Krzysztof Rynkiewicz, Lucie Štamfestová
Television Films and Serials, Video Clips, Advertisements and Introductory Spots, Internet Animation: Phillip Bergson, Moon-Saeng Kim, Gabriele Zucchelli

Non-competition film sessions include films such as De Profundis, Shrek the Third, A Deadly Invention (celebrating its 50th anniversary this year), Ratatouille, The Simpsons Movie, Surf’s Up, Bee Movie, Drawn from Memory and others.

Also screened are films from the Czech Republic, such as a collection of films by Vladimír Jiránek and Václav Bedřich. As part of the “Dialogues” section, filmmaker Michaela Pavlátová presents a screening of films which she finds especially inspiring. These are, for instance, The Garden and Darkness, Light, Darkness by film director Jan Švankmajer or David by Paul Driessen. The CAS section in the Konírna Hall featured contemporary Czech, Austrian and Slovak films. The Czech Republic presented the most recent Večerníček bedtime stories produced by the Czech Television as well as student films Scary Accidents and The Module, among others. AniFest also pays a lot of attention to Visegrad countries film schools: apart from a presentation of their works, international students’ teams are working on animation projects, the results of which will be presented to the audience at the end of the festival. When night falls, the visitors can watch a selected feature film at the Masaryk Square.




Accompanying program includes puppet theatre performances, concerts, lectures by animation professionals, workshops, or the exhibition of cartoonist and caricaturist Vladimír Jiránek. A great attraction is the performance of the Buchty a loutky (Cakes and Puppets) theatre company called “Tibet – Through the Red Box” and based on a popular book by Petr Sís. The theatre company also presents its fairy-tale performances at AniFest.
The evenings are also filled with music of such bands as Tata Bojs, The Prostitutes or James Harries.

Visitors also enjoy the opportunity to have a hand-on animation experience at AniFest. Throughout the festival, especially children can take part in Schools of Animation held in the Exhibition Hall Pod Věží. These animation workshops are very popular: every day, about 350 children come. Animation techniques are presented here by students of art schools in Jihlava, Prague, Hradec Králové and Zlín. The fields of animation presented include traditional techniques and principles of animated film, drawn clay animation including sound, virtual puppet theatre, 3D and puppet animation using the classic jointed skeleton and others.

And what do visitors say?
“It is really great that you can learn here how animated films are made”, says a visitor on her way out of the Chateau Hall, where juror Gabrielle Zucchelli presented his work in detail.

“I knew that there would be workshops where children would be able to try this. However, I did not expect that the workshops would be so professional and diverse. It was great fun for the children.” – this is how Jan Dvořáček, one of festival visitors, describes the Schools of Animation.

The winners of the International Competition will be announced on Monday 12 May, 2008.

For further information please visit www.anifest.cz.