Milan Zivkovic, writer, director and CEO of Bikic Studio.

While in Annecy, I had an opportunity to speak with Milan Zivkovic, C.E.O of Belgrade's Bikic Studio. Founded in 1989 as a private, independent company by Veljko Bikic, the studio currently employs ten animators and roughly ten to fifteen technicians. Like most studios, they hire more people when work appears on the horizon. Mr. Bikic has been in the animation industry for over 25 years and has won many prizes at international film festivals like Leipzig, Annecy, Zagreb and Tampere. The studio is his heartfelt creation that he sometimes funds by selling his own possessions like his car and apartment. With this money he would be able to pay his staff so that they could stay in the studio and draw and practice. The studio specializes in the combination of live-action and animation. They were actually one of the first studios in Europe to combine the two when they completed the German produced Hatchi-Puh in 1986. This Serbian studio is currently trying to revitalize their business after six years of sanctions and war. In Annecy their short Big was in the short fiction films competition. Paradise, which was also presented at the last Hiroshima Festival, and over 20 other short animated films which have been produced over the past few years were screened at the MIFA. At their MIFA booth, Bikic Studio was promoting two projects which they have in the final stages of development: Captain John Pipplefox, a feature animated film for a general audience, and Pinkuluses, a television series for children. Besides, rebuilding from a war, this studio faces another problem, a problem that plagues studios throughout the world - the lack of a market.

The War's Impact
HK: How did the war affect your business?

MZ: We suffered a lot like the rest of the country. We didn't have any contact with the rest of the world for about six years, which impacted our business tremendously, which affected our talent and that affected our lives. So many people from our business left the company, and are working around the world, including the States, Canada, Australia, etc. For the first time, this year we are out of the country and trying to rebuild, re-establish what we were six or seven years ago. This festival [Annecy] actually helped us back in the Seventies, because our films were shown here and awarded here. Then we got several co-productions with the Canadians and Germans. But everything stopped after the war started. So this is our first outing after the sanctions, and our first try to make new contacts and explain to people that we are still able to do business.

HK: Did last year's Zagreb festival help you?

MZ: Yes, we were there. We were very surprised that they invited us, but we sent our films. We got the message from our friends that it would be better for us if we didn't come, because they couldn't guarantee our safety. Still, it was the first gesture of a good relationship on their side, and our films were well received there.

HK: How did the war affect the ties within the animation community within the former Yugoslavia?

MZ: Now we are separate countries (Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Macedonia), but we try to keep close professional ties with them. When we meet here or somewhere else in the world, we are good friends still. We don't talk politics and we just talk about what we are doing and how we can help each other. Unofficially, we talk to each other over the phone and we meet somewhere else and we try to rebuild the professional relationships we had. But politicians are still avoiding to come to a solution which will help us all rebuild the country. We hope that through the art of animation, or any other form of art, that we will be able to do that. Because we weren't in the war. We were not shooting at each other. Some other people did. And we all suffered the consequences of that.