How Did Czech Animation Do in 2019 And What Does It Have in Store for the Audience This Year?
Last year was a breakthrough one, especially for the youngest generation of filmmakers – they were successful at the most important international festivals and at the American Film Academy, so one could say that a “new wave” of animators was born in the Czech Republic. Czech animation in Czech cinemas A total of five animated feature films were produced in 2019, four of which were screened in cinemas, the fifth one’s distribution premiere is planned for early 2020 (The Impossible Voyage). Several of these were sequels to popular films or television and comics series (The Great Adventure of the Lucky Four, Pat and Mat: Handymen’s Adventures, TvMiniUni: The Question Thief). Cinema releases also included the coproduction Fritzi – A Revolutionary Tale, which familiarizes children with the fall of the Iron Curtain. More and more often, short film reels for children and adults are shown in Czech cinemas. In 2019 Three Voices was presented to the audience, a set of three puppet student works created simultaneously at three Czech art schools – FAMU, UMPRUM and University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. The organizers of Anifilm festival compiled two short film reels for cinemas: Ready, Get Set, Go! (Ke startu připravit) or […] ...
STUDENT FILM DAUGHTER TO COMPETE FOR THE PRESTIGIOUS ACADEMY AWARD – THE OSCAR
On 13th January 2020, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the nominations in all 24 competition categories, from which the winners will be announced on 9th February at the awards ceremony in the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The animated puppet drama Daughter by Daria Kashcheeva, student of the Department of Animated Film at FAMU, which was co-produced with MAUR film, was selected as one of the last five finalists in the Best Animated Short Film category! Daughter is thus the only Czech animated film that has in recent decades managed to compete for an Oscar. The director has already won many awards, the most prestigious being the Student Oscar for the best foreign animated film, which was awarded to her last September by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her film also won in the world-wide competition of 1615 best film-school movies. Its world premiere took place in the biggest festival of animated film in the world, in French Annecy, where it was awarded the highest award, Le Cristal d’Annecy, for best student film. Since its premiere Daughter has entered more than 80 festivals all over the world, including major festivals […] ...
Two Czech Animated Shorts Made Their Way to the Sundance Film Festival
Two animated short films supported by the Czech Film Fund will compete at Sundance — the most prestigious independent film festival. It is another accolade in the collection of major achievements for Daughter and SH_T HAPPENS. Both films were included in the Short Film Competition. The festival will take place on 23 January to 2 February 2020 in Utah, USA. “I was delighted to learn that our school and Czech animation is represented by two films at Sundance. I am very happy that Czech animated film is riding on such a good wave now and I can be a part of it. It gives me a feeling of encouragement,” said Daughter director Daria Kashcheeva. This animated puppet drama comes from the university FAMU (Department of Animated Film), co-produced with MAUR film company. “Sundance is great news for us that came in the middle of a working night and boosted our morale by at least 300 percent. We are very excited to have an American premiere at their biggest and one of the most popular festivals in the world. Every year we follow the selection at the festival and we are pleased that Sundance has been dedicating a lot of space to […] ...
CEE Animation Forum Opens Call for Animated Projects and Launches New VR Category
CEE Animation Forum (5–8 May, Liberec, Czech Republic) is a co-production pitching, B2B and networking event with the intention to boost the projects´ international circulation potential, visibility and their access to a wider European market. For its 2020 edition, the organisers have expanded the number of categories open to animated projects in development. The deadline for submission 10 January 2020. The CALL is open in four categories: Short Films (maximum length 20 minutes; all stages of development except for concept stage), Series and TV Specials (web and TV series of any format and single films, minimum length 20 minutes; all stages of development except for concept stage), Feature Films (minimum length 60 minutes; in development or in production), VR Immersive Media (VR, AR, 360 and other immersive formats; in development or in production). The new VR Competition is open to all original works in development and production that use VR technology and explore new kinds of storytelling, regardless of format or device, including 360° films and videos, immersive experiences and installations – whether interactive or not –, VR Theatre, and Room-scale VR projects. Only producers or other project rights holders can submit projects. The producer and director of the submitted […] ...
Grown-up Czech animation for grown-up audiences
Acclaimed director Michaela Pavlátová is currently working on a feature-length animated film for adults, My Sunny Maad, produced by Petr Oukropec and Kateřina Černá, of the production company Negativ. Article by Eliška Děcká for Czech Film Magazine / Fall 2019 The story of My Sunny Maad is based on the critically well-received and popular book Freshta (2012, Stork Press, UK) by Petra Procházková, a Czech investigative and war reporter with a wealth of personal experience of the realities of Afghanistan and everyday family life there. At the center of her novel Procházková set the partly autobiographical character of Herra, a foreigner who comes to Afghanistan to live with her beloved husband and his family. The original screenplay was adapted from Procházková’s book by Ivan Arsenjev. However, a variety of production problems, not least among them the impossibility of shooting in contemporary Afghanistan, meant that the production company, which has enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership with Pavlátová, from the feature films Faithless Games (2003) and Night Owls (2008) to animated short Tramvaj (2012, winner of the Annecy festival the same year) began to think in terms of a feature-length animated production. At the time, Negativ had only one feature […] ...
ANIFILM 2020 – SUBMIT YOUR ANIMATION NOW
Next edition of Anifilm taking place in Czech Republic May 5–10, 2020 opens right now submissions for your animated films, music and abstract videos or computer games! Now you can submit VR films as well! If you have not competed in Anifilm previous edition, do not hesitate to submit your work finished after January 1, 2019. Feel free to choose one of the following categories of international competition and/or national contest Czech Horizon: Feature Film Short Film Student Film Music Video Abstract and Non-narrative Animation VR Film Independent Computer Games Czech Horizon Short films / Student films / TV / On-line Film and Series / Music Video / Commissioned Work Please register your film by filling in the online form at vp.eventival.eu/anifilm/2020/. If you have not submitted any work before your first step will be registration. We would be honoured by accepting your application. You can complete it by January 5, 2020 when deadline for submissions is set. There is no fee for applicants. For more information about the festival, festival statutes and competition rules please check out the festival’s official website at www.anifilm.cz. Please do not hesitate to contact the organizers at any time on program@anifilm.cz. ...
Canary Islands Film: “We are animation” Inspiration for an Animation Cluster
On 26th February 2019 the Association of Czech Animation Film (ASAF) organised a meeting with representatives of an animation cluster from the Canary Islands at the Spanish Embassy in Prague. “Tourists are the main source of income for our economy. However, the government realises the need to diversify the economy and offer a perspective of interesting application to young people too, so in 2015 it decided to focus on the animation industry. This sector has a future. In addition, it is an environmentally friendly industry, which is important for our little paradise on earth here, ” as Natascha Mora explains the motivation behind establishment of Canary Islands Film. The organisation is established and run by government agencies represented by Natacha Mora (Government of the Canary Islands, Culture Sector), Pila Moreno (PROEXCA agency for the internationalisation of the Canary Islands and attracting strategic investments) and Sabita Jagtani (Canaria ZEC agency promoting investment within the Canary Islands tax zone). The main objective of the Canary Islands Film is to create favourable conditions for animation production, e.g. through film incentives in the amount of 40% to support the outsourcing of local studios or tax advantages for setting up new companies or subsidiaries. As […] ...
Czech Producers Visiting Animation Media Cluster Region Stuttgart
In connection with the Association of Czech Animation Film’s long-term strategic focus on increasing the competitiveness of Czech animation and the economic performance of individual subjects, an excursion to the Animation Media Cluster Region in Stuttgart, Germany, took place at the end of last year. Stuttgart is one of the most industrialised areas in Europe. Thanks to Mercedes and Porsche car manufacturers, many tens of thousands of people work in the automotive industry and employment in the area is predominantly dependent on this industrial commodity. The government of the German state of Baden-Württemberg is therefore trying to develop other industries too and, similarly to economists in places like South Korea, are turning their attention to the “leisure economy”: the development and production of audiovisual works, especially animation and digital postproduction. Representatives of the creative industry in cooperation with the public sector (government of Baden-Württemberg) aim to set up a cluster of companies that will offer high-quality animation and visual effects services to clients from all over the world. The idea to visit the cluster in Stuttgart (AMCRS) stemmed from a growing need to bring new impulses and trends to animation in the Czech Republic, particularly from developed markets. As the […] ...
“Of Unwanted Things and People” is the winner of the Eurimages Co-production Development Award at Cartoon Movie
The project “Of Unwanted Things and People” by David Súkup, Ivana Laučíková, Leon Vidmar & Agata Gorządek and co-produced by Maur Film (Czech Republic), Artichoke (Slovakia), ZVVIKS (Slovenia) & WJTeam/Likaon (Poland) was awarded the Eurimages Co-production Development Award at the Cartoon Movie (Bordeaux, France) on 7th March 2019. The story of two orphans and a magical cat is a modern, short puppet film set in the present day, based on Arnošt Goldflam’s book Of Unwanted Things and People. The four-country coproduction won the first animated feature film pitching award at the CEE Animation Forum 2018 (formerly Visegrad Animation Forum). The success of this project was confirmed by receiving Nespresso Audience Award. The Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund has joined forces with ten co-production markets all over the world – and Cartoon Movie is one of them once again this year – in order to award the Eurimages Co-production Development Award. This cash-prize of €20,000 has been created to promote the Fund’s role in encouraging international animated co-production from the initial stages of a project. The project has to be designed from the outset as an international co-production for cinema release and initiated by a lead producer based in a Eurimages country willing to […] ...
What’s on the Menu for Czech Animation in 2019
The year 2018 did not yield any box office hit in the field of Czech animation, yet festival showings and achievements abroad imply that our creators are not resting on their laurels. There are a number of interesting feature films, series, and TV bedtime-story animations in development or production. They will also include this year’s anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the 50th birthday of Lucky Four or one hundred years since the death of historical Czech figure Rastislav Štefánik. And How Did Czech Animated Production Do Last Year? Four feature films by Czech filmmakers came to cinemas. One of them made it among the top 50 most visited: Pat & Mat: Winter Adventure, directed by Marek Beneš, attracted nearly 88,000 viewers, while the American animated Hotel Transylvania 3: Monster Vacation brought in nearly half a million. The highly anticipated and latest film by Jan Švankmajer Insects was released after seven years of production and nominated for the Film Critics’ Awards. In December, cinema-goers had a chance to see the Christmas story of Mimi & Lisa: Christmas Lights Mystery (directed by Ivana Šebestová and Katarína Kerekesová). Famous personalities such as Dagmar Pecková, Arnošt Goldflam, Linda Rybová or David Prachař supported its creation […] ...
