There is a difference between the theory of a festival and the practice. Fantoche, which took place for the second time from September 9-14 in a small Swiss town called Baden not far from Zurich, is a good example of that. The intention was to be different from other festivals, to focus on the innovations in the field of animation, reduce the competition's attraction and present programs with unusual subject matter in order to establish new connections...

Thomas Basgier, oTTo Alder and Ron Diamond. © 1997 Animation World Network.

Innovation...A Definition
But, in fact, "innovation" means all and nothing. To realize such a goal seems to be rather easy for the organizers of Fantoche: you only have to avoid established names and incorporate mostly student films. That's the simple reason why, for example, Phil Mulloy's new film The Chain was not in competition. He is already too famous which is a strange way to program a festival.

As at every festival, the competition programs were, of course, the most attractive screenings to attend. The concept of some of the other programs were quite old fashioned ("Best of the World") or not very clear in presenting termini which are already established in film science. For example, during Fantoche we received a completely new impression about everything that we knew as "psychedelic film."

Polish animators Jerzy Kucia (left) and Piotr Dumala. © 1997 Animation World Network. Don't miss our interview with these two filmmakers in an upcoming issue of Animation World Magazine.

The Good and The Bad
It is true. There is a difference between the theory of a festival and the practice but that doesn't mean that Fantoche has no qualities of merit. The atmosphere was quite nice and intimate and the competition presented, despite all of the high demands about non-defined innovation, many convincing and original films. In fact, it was in general a much better competition than that of the last Annecy Festival. The retrospectives were also of a very high standard. Jerzy Kucia, Piotr Dumala, Oksana Cherkassowa and Vera Neubauer were all honored. The festival was also a good starting point to discuss the connection between animation and the Internet and the possibilities it presents for filmmakers as both a medium of art and for distribution, financing, etc.

On the other hand, the organizers should take more care about the projection, which is really the heart of a festival. The equation is quite simple: bad projection = bad festival. The organizers should also think about moving the festival to Zurich. There, they can expect a larger and more interested audience. Baden is really a contemplative place but after 10:00 PM it is as lively as a cemetery.

Marjut Rimminin (left) and Clare Kitson celebrate their win. © 1997 Animation World Network.

Scandal...
At the end of the Festival we also had a contemplative, little scandal. The jury, consisting of Nag Ansorge, Oksana Cherkassowa and Jayne Pilling, couldn't come to an agreement about the prize for Best First Film. The final result in this case was, indeed, quite unsatisfactory. Two films had been discussed in the last round: Walentin Olschwang´s Pink Doll and Grandmother by Andrei Zolotuchin. Russia against Russia. The prize went to Grandmother which is definitely the weaker film. Pink Doll is a great animated nightmare about a little girl who projects her aggressions against her mother's lover on her new, pink doll. The doll starts to fulfill all of her fantasies - until the bitter end. The question is, do we see only fantasies or do the fantasies become reality? A dark subject in dark colors. Oksana Cherkassowa was so angry about this (wrong) decision that she didn't attend the awards ceremony.