Czech Animated Film Daughter to Enchant at the Final of This Year‘s Oscars
Just shortly after the world premiere of the film Daughter at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where it won the top Crystal Award, and winning the main prize this week at the Melbourne International Film Festival, this puppet drama is heading overseas to Los Angeles for the final of the Student Oscars. Daughter was selected as one of the best three movies from a field of 1615 competitors from around the world. It follows the success of the Czech director Jan Saska, who made the shortlist of the best animated shorts Oscar in 2016. Czech cinematography has a chance to equal the success of Jan Svěrák 30 years ago, whose film Ropáci (Oil Gobblers) the American Film Academy awarded an Oscar in 1989. „It is a great honour for FAMU, for the Czech Republic and for me personally. Such a success raises the expectations of an artist and encourages me to work even harder,“ says the director of Daughter, Daria Kashcheeva. „I congratulate the whole team who cooperated in making the movie and we thank everyone who supported us in making it. To be in the final is a great honour and a dream come true,“ adds the executive […] ...
CEE Animation Workshop Opens the Call for Submissions
CEE Animation Workshop is a year-long project development and production skills advancement programme for professionals: established producers and creative teams with animated projects of any format (short, TV, features, hybrid) in development. It is also open to a limited number of participants without projects, representatives of industry and public institutions. The workshop delivers a comprehensive and integrated approach on script and art design development, legal matters and copyright, funding opportunities and production models, production planning and cash flow, music and sound, acting and dubbing for animation, distribution and exhibition, promotion, new technologies and marketing. It focuses on the roles of producer’s portfolio, project’s bible, producer’s package and pitching preparation. It helps identify a clear roadmap for project execution (target audiences, marketing and promotion, distribution strategies, production plans) and promotes co-production possibilities. The programme is structured as a combination of group work, lectures, masterclasses, panels and case studies, with a practical orientation towards concrete progress of projects and participant’s skills. It offers an opportunity to present projects to a large group of selected decision-makers, representatives of the industry, funding bodies, broadcasters and sales agents and to pitch projects in front of the CEE Animation Forum audience. The programme consists of three […] ...
ROBERT LENCE: Every story needs to be set free
Robert Lence is behind films as different as Beauty and the Beast, Shrek and Toy Story. During his career, he’s worked in the art departments of Disney, Dreamworks and Pixar studios. What is the secret of success and quality? Are these two things related at all? How has animation changed in the last twenty years and why is it interesting to come and teach at ANOMALIA? What motivates you to come to the Czech Republic to Anomalia? I like creating stories, making them up and discussing their form. And I like helping others come up with their own ones. I like getting to know the amazing things hidden in other filmmakers’ minds and supporting them to discover their strengths and make full use of their ideas. Every story needs to be set free from one’s mind and cleaned before we can expose it. This creative process of discussion and searching is inspiring for both them and me, and that’s why I really like coming to Litomyšl. In the Czech Republic we often wring our hands over the fact that we don’t have the funds to be able to afford as expensive animation as the Americans. But people from the […] ...
PHILIP LAZEBNIK: Art is the only thing that survives
The tutor of this year’s CEE Animation Forum in Třeboň also included Philip LaZebnik, screenwriter of Hollywood blockbusters such as Pocahontas, Mulan and The Prince of Egypt. He is also the author of Broadway musicals and the screenwriter for television series. LaZebnik relocated from the US to Denmark several years ago. He recalls his work for DreamWorks and Disney in an interview with ASAF, gives his opinion of Central and Eastern European animation and gives advice on what Czech animation needs. You have collaborated with great American animation studios Disney and DreamWorks and now you live in Denmark, where the situation of animated films production is different. What’s your perception of Central and Eastern Europe animation with this experience? This is my third time at the CEE Animation Forum and just like every year I am amazed at the amount of creativity and ingenuity of the films here as well as the level of their animation. There are really a lot of talented people in this region. I would say that this is an advantage, in a way, that in Central and Eastern Europe there is not so much money in animation. This gives the authors the creative freedom that […] ...
Czech Films at Annecy 2019
At the 43rd Annecy International Animated Film Festival (10-15 June) and Mifa (11 – 14 June), Czech Republic will be represented by 3 films and 2 upcoming projects. Apart, Daughter and The Kite will be screened as a part of this year’s official programme, while Even Mice Belong in Heaven and My Sunny Maad will be presented during the Works in Progress and Gap Financing session of the market. An animated documentary Apart by Diana Cam Van Nguyen has been selected for the Graduation Short Films in Competition. A short by young FAMU student (co-produced by Alkay Animation Prague) thematizes a difficult topic, dealing with life after the loss of a loved one, and uses techniques of both live-action and animated film. The film was screened earlier this year at Rotterdam, and won the award for Best Czech experimental documentary at Ji.hlava IDFF 2018. Another FAMU project (co-produced by MAUR film), Daria Kashcheeva’s Daughter, will be screened in the Graduation Short Films in Competition. A tender short tells a story about a complicated relationship between a daughter and her father. A girl was hurt as a child and keeps alive the memory of it. She lacked love and empathy from […] ...
MANUELA LUMB: If I wanted to make an animated puppet series for children, I would definitely look for animators from Eastern Europe.
Manuela Lumb has been working as a producer for children and family TV channels for many years. During her prolific career, she has gained broad experience in fundraising and brand-management of children and family projects. She spent twelve years as the chair of Cartoon Movie, Cartoon Network and Cartoon Springboard. In her native Germany, she worked with TVFilm Studio or Motionworks production company before embarking on a successful path toward the independent producer and consultant she is today. I met Manuela in Třeboň, where she was a jury member of the CEE Animation Forum’s category Series and TV specials. Your domain in the field of animation is mostly projects oriented at child audiences. Have you noticed any gradual changes or trends during your prolific career? In my experience, children are the only audience that isn´t really interested in trends. Trends and children don’t go together – children are new creatures with no previous experience, and to them anything can be quite new, as they have nothing to refer back to or compare with. So I think that from the content/narrative point of view this is still the same: the crucial thing is to have a strong story they can relate […] ...
“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 […] ...
Animated Documentary – A Hundred Years Old and Still Alive
Last year, it was one hundred years since The Sinking of the Lusitania by Winsor McCay, considered by historians to be the first animated documentary. Since then, this hybrid and sometimes controversial genre has changed and evolved. Popular films include the recent Another Day of Life or Waltz with Bashir released some years ago. Czech animation is represented by Diana Cam Van Nguyen, whose short film Apart will compete at the prestigious Rotterdam festival. This year’s Anifilm, the International Festival of Animated Film will also focus on this unusual film format. In the last few years, animated documentaries (or anidoc as this format is sometimes called) have been growing in popularity among creators. They offer the director a wide range of options of self-expression. Movies are often based on actual events. The combination of animation and documentary allows for a metaphorical representation of things, situations, memories or traumatic experiences, while the unlimited possibilities of animation grant the authors artistic freedom. Cinema attendance points to another phenomenon. Animated documentaries bring adult viewers to the screen and break down the prejudices of animated film being only for children. Successful feature-length animated documentaries include a film about a Polish reporter in the Angolan […] ...
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 […] ...
First Edition of CEE Animation Workshop Brings Together Renowned Names in Script and Promising CEE Filmmakers
The first module of the year-long CEE Animation Workshop will take place from November 30th to December 6th in Ljubljana and will focus on content development. Invited tutors who will guide the participants are two experienced script advisors Rita Domonyi and Phil Parker. The group sessions will be led by Ewa Puszczyńska and Ole Wendorff-Østergaard. The workshop will bring together 12 animated projects, including 4 feature films, 4 series, 4 short films, and 5 participants without project. MEET THE SESSION EXPERTS Two SCRIPT CONSULTANTS will work individually or in group sessions with the project teams, helping them to formulate the voice of their story in the best possible way in terms of dramatic structure, genre and story arc. Rita Domonyi started her carrier in animation at Varga Studio, where she became the Creative Development manager of the company. She is also the teacher of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, and gives script editing lectures on the Faculty of Animation Studies. Screenwriter and creative producer Phil Parker has developed original content in over twenty countries demonstrating there is a global capacity for new concepts. His clients have included Aardman Animation (the Oscar winning Wallace and Gromit – Curse of the […] ...
