Animafest Zagreb 2008
By and large I felt that the competition screenings were very weak. I don't know if this is due to the fact that not enough good films were submitted or that the selection committee had very strange tastes. Since the short film competition takes place every two years, I have seen many fine works that fit in this time frame at other festivals. There were a few very excellent films screened, such as George Schwizgebel's beautiful painted-on-cel animation Jeu and Luis Cook's The Pearce Sisters.
One very nice surprise was She Who Measures by Veljko Popovic, who was born in the gorgeous seacoast town of Split, Croatia. This beautifully executed 3D film asks the question, "Are we truly free? Are we slaves to the culture and society that we were born into or is there a way to escape?"
Doxology by Michael Langan from San Francisco brought back a flood of memories when I saw a scene depicting the cliffs above Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Nik and I used to walk our dogs in that exact spot every day. It was also a lovely surprise to see Copenhagen Cycles by United States animator Eric Dyer, with music by my husband Nik.
I feel that the juries did an excellent job with the films they were given to select from. The jury for the "grand competition" -- Joanna Quinn (Great Britain), Moustapha Alassane (Niger), Caroline Leaf (USA/Canada/Great Britain), Igor Kovaljov (Russia/USA) and Danijel Suljic (Croatia) -- gave the best short film in the festival award to The Pearce Sisters by Luis Cook of Great Britain, "for its original and unique graphics and direction which pulls us into the bleak world of two misfit characters." The award includes a festival statue and 2,500 Euros, and Luis will be the honorary president at the next festival.
The Golden Zagreb Prize went to The Runt by Andreas Hykade of Germany. "The jury has given the Golden Zagreb to the film we consider the second film of the festival for its strong, simple, clear design and direction which delivers a powerful and shocking message." Andreas was given a festival statue and 2,000 Euros. Madame Tutli-Putli by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski of Canada won one of the three special prizes that were given at the discretion of the jury.
ASIFA Croatia hosted a lovely brunch for the ASIFA members at the festival. Buba (former head of Animafest Zagreb and vice president of ASIFA Croatia) and Vesna Dovnikovic (secretary of ASIFA International) brought tasty and powerful traditional Croatian liquors, which truly added to the festive air of the party. A good time was had by everyone.
Another nice event was when several of us took the funicular up to the Old Town for the opening of Portuguese filmmaker Regina Pessoa's exhibition of original studies and designs for her film Tragic Story with a Happy Ending. The exhibit was beautifully presented, showing the various steps that Regina went through to create her award-winning film. The setting in the Campana Latrunculorum (The Bell of Thieves) was equally charming. The 13th-century tower is located at the site of the old city wall and the bell was rung every night to signal the closing of the city gates.
A Different Way to See the Festival The new staff was very friendly and tried to do everything that they could to make their guests feel at home. Unfortunately, most of them lacked experience running an animation festival, and that showed in their inadequate attention to small details.
It was not until half-way through the festival that foreign guests were provided with daily English-language schedules. The program guide had a weekly schedule in Croatian with a color-coded key on the side in English, but unfortunately many of the colors were very similar, so unless you were in bright sunlight it was very difficult to tell some of the color shades apart. As much as we would all like to speak our host countries' languages, an international festival must provide all information in English as well as the native tongue.
Animafest has traditionally been held the week after Annecy, which was the perfect time for those of us who attend many festivals. After a frantic week of running around and trying to see everything and everyone at Annecy, I always looked forward to a week where both screening rooms were in the same building and you could just walk out from a screening and find lots of friends in the front or back bar. I also missed the long lunches and dinners at the little restaurant behind the festival headquarters. I did make one pilgrimage to the family-run café and had a delicious calamari dinner, but missed the easy proximity of good company from years past.
The following notes are to give readers a better idea as to how difficult it is to run a major animation festival smoothly. I found the 18th edition of the Zagreb festival to be a mixture of good and bad. In the past I have looked forward to the festival because of its warm hospitality and relaxed atmosphere. Since there was a totally new administration running the festival this year, many people were curious as to how it would operate and what direction the festival would take. There were many big changes this year, most crucially with longtime festival director Margrit Antauer (affectionately known to her friends as Buba) being replaced.
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