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ANIFILM INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ANIMATED FILMS - Trebon, Czech Republic; 5 – 10 May, 2015

     When ANIFILM International Festival of Films comes to town for one week each year the historic spa town of Trebon becomes the animation capitol of the Czech Republic. The festival combines the best of the new animation with screenings of historic Czech films.  The festival is a puppet animator’s dream, with screenings of films by such masters of the art as Jiri Trnka and Vlasta Pospisilova.  There were even live puppet shows in the park which surrounds the castle in the center of town.

     When ANIFILM International Festival of Films comes to town for one week each year the historic spa town of Trebon becomes the animation capitol of the Czech Republic. The festival combines the best of the new animation with screenings of historic Czech films.  The festival is a puppet animator’s dream, with screenings of films by such masters of the art as Jiri Trnka and Vlasta Pospisilova.  There were even live puppet shows in the park which surrounds the castle in the center of town.

 

I was very honored to be invited to serve on the feature film jury along with two old friends, Italian composer and sound designer Andrea Martignoni and Paris based animator Bastien Dubois.  We three watched and thoroughly discussed 9 feature films in 4 days as well as giving special presentations so we were kept very busy.

The International Jury - Andrea Martignoni, Nancy and Bastien Dubois

I had already seen several of the films such as Signe Baueman’s Rocks in my Pockets and Tomm Moore’s Song of the Sea,  they are both such excellent films that I enjoy them no matter how many times I see them, but the real surprise for me was a Spanish film, Possessed (Pos Eso).  Spanish master of claymation animation Sam Orti Marti’s debut into feature films is his homage to classic horror films which he readily admits that he loves.  He artfully weaves the story of the romance of Gregorio, Spain’s most renouned matador and the beautiful world-famous flamengo dancer Trini and their son Damian  with scenes that any film lover will recognize from such classics as The Exercist and The Omen all done in glorious claymation.  Sam hoaned his skills working   at the legondary  Aardman Studio.

Our jury watched Possessed with a large audience who laughed from the beginning to the end of the film.  I can hardly wait to watch the film again because there is too much detail to take it all on at one viewing.   Our jury awarded the film the Grand Prix in the Feature Films for Adults category.  On the same evening that we honored the film, Sam was in Santriago, Chili receiving the Grand Prix at Chilemonos Animation Festival.  I am sure that there will be many more awards for this clever, entertaining film.

At the festival I also got my first look at The Prophet.  The film inspired by the classic Lebanese writer and philosopher Kahlil Gibran’s book The Prophet is the story of a young girl, Almitra, who meets the prophet Mustafa.  He relates his wisdom to her through poems set in different metaphores and realistic scenes.

Producer Salma Hayek brought together 10 internationally acclaimed animators.   Bill Plympton, Gaetan Brozzi, Joan Gratz, Joann Sfar, Michael Socha, Mohammed Saeed Harin, Nina Paley, Paul Brizzi, Roger Allers and Tomm Moore .  Each person selected a poem to animate in their own style.  The topics ranged from love and crime and punishment to friendship and death to form what was meant to be a kaleidoscope of contemporary styles of animation.  Many of the segments are beautiful on their own but as a whole the film doesn’t fit together.  The weaker segments, such as the ones done by Bill Plympton and Nina Paley, interrupt the flow of the film.  Bill’s contribution looks like a quick reworking of scenes from his latest feature altered just enough to be stuck into the film.  Nina’s black and white silloutte sequence is lovely on its own but just doesn’t fit into the overall feel of the film.  Maybe the point wasn’t to have the segments flow together but just be individual vinegettes because anyone of the parts would work as a short animation but as a whole it just didn’t flow together.

The Czech Republic has a long, rich tradition of puppet animation and I was really looking forward to watching a lot of it.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to see any but I did have the privilege of getting to know Vlasta Pospisilova over breakfast on several mornings.  The first lady of Czech puppet animation was honored with a Life Time Achievement Award at the opening night ceremony.  Vlasta began her career in 1956 when at the age of 21 she joined the studio of Jiri Trinka.  Under his tutelage she became one of the top Czech animators as well as an excellent director.

Vlasta Pospisilova accepting her award on opening night

Her long list of film credits include work on the famous scene with dozens of elves on Titania’s cape in Trinka’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  In the 1970’s she began to direct her own films such as Maryska and the Wolf Castle and in the 1990’s Vlasta created The World of Fireflies series.  Based on the famous Czech book Fireflies by Jan Karafiat, Vlasta’s magical world that she created in the Firefly series is a classic of Czech puppet animation.  She ended her long career four years ago with The King Had 3 Sons, a segment of the feature film Third Time Lucky.  Although primarily known for her work on children’s films she has made darker films such as Mrs. Poverty. 

Until the late 1960’s Czech animation was primarily dominated by men and for a long time Vlasta was the only female puppet animator in the country.  When other female animators and directors finally began to come to the forefront many of them cited Vlasta Pospisilova as their inspiration.  She is as charming as she is talented and made a delightful breakfast companion.

Among the people who came to Trebon especially to pay tribute to Vlasta Pospisilova on opening night was Finnish puppet animator Katariina Lillqvist who lives in Prague.  Katariina and I had a long chat at the opening night party and she told me that “in 1989 I moved to Prague with only one thing in mind, to learn puppet animation.  Since then Czechland has changed its name twice, lost most of the illusions of the Velvet Revolution, and buried many hopes, but I am still here, working together with the same artists I met 25 years ago in the late studio of Jiri Tranka and after my 15 own films I am still learning.”  Katariina is currently at work on Baby Box, a black comedy about post-socalistic society’s abandoned children.

ANIFILM had two special exhibitions that I made sure to visit.  The Re-Cycling Project celebrated the 100th anniversary of Norman McLaren’s birth.  The project brought together 10 noted European animators who each created 1 minute of animation drawn directly on film in their individual unique styles following a basic set of rules.  Each animator selected one common object such as scissors or a key which they sent to Paola Bristot, art director and originator of the project.  She then randomly distributed the objects to the participants without telling them who had provided their object or why.  The animators were Spela Cadez (Slovenia),Rastko Ciric (Serbia), Vessela Dantcheva (Bulgaria), Magda  Guido (Italy), Joni Mannisto (Fineland), Regina Pessoa (Portugal), Ulo Pikkov (Estonia), Marina Rosset (Switzerland), Gabor Ulrich (Hungary) and Petra Zlonoga (Croatioa).  The original soundtrack was created by my fellow juror Andrea Martignoni in collaboration with Gianluca “Shango” Pellegrino and Zerorchester.

This is the first animation project funded by Fondo Audiovision FVG.  Exhibition curator Paola Bristot was present at the opening reception to talk to the guests about the actual objects which were on display along with animatics and stills from the film.  The film ran continuously on a monitor in the exhibit.  You can see the film and learn more about the project at:   www.vivacomix.net/home/re-cycling/          The first part of the page is in Italian with English below.

Composer Andrea Martignoni, art director Paola Bristot with animator Joni Mannisto, at opening of the Recycled exhibition

The Trebon Chateau Gallery, part of the State Castle Complex,hosted an exhibition of works by 7 artists who have also been involved in animation.  Maria Axamitova, Ivana Fasianokovic Rakousva, Petra Makalousiva, Jiri Tyller, Jiri Plass, Ludek Barta, and Vit Pancir have all written scripts, created graphics, directed and or animated films.  Along with the beautiful samples of their art work and cartoons their animated films were also shown on a monitor on the gallery.

This year ANIFILM saluted 100 years of Swedish animation with a variety of programs from short films, children’s programs, and student films to animated documentaries (AnimaDocs).  I am very interested in AnimaDocs because I think it is the perfect medium to tell true stories that are often two painful to be shown in live action or when the person telling the story cannot be shown on screen.  The term AnimaDoc was coined by Professor Otto Alder, the former programmer of the Leipzig Festival of Documentaries and Animation, when the festival presented a program of six films combining documentary shorts with animation in 1997.

Sweden’s involvement with AnimaDoc’s can be traced back to the 1980’s.  By the 1990’s it had come into prominence with such films as Sverige a claymation bt Mangus Carlsson.  Based on a pre-recorded live sound track, Swedish citizens comment on various topics in a funny and shocking way such as should blind people be allowed to live in houses with a beautiful view.  Today Jonas Odell is Sweden’s most renouned proponent of the art form.  His 2006 animdoc Never Like the First Time in which four people talk frankly about their first sexual experiences won Jonas several major awards.  Tussilago which he made in 2010 is a hard hitting true story based on interviews with a Swedish woman who fell in love with a German terrorist, got involved in a bank robbery, and planned to kidnap a Swedish politican.  Her retelling of the events is chilling as she talks frankly about her ruined life.

Another film in the program Hidden made in 2002 by Gomd is an early 3D animadoc based on an interview with Giancarlo, a 10 year old boy from Peru who lives without a residents permit in Sweden with his family.  In the film he describes what his life is like living in hiding without friends and chased by the police.  Even though I had seen several of the films before Animdocs always hit me very hard and are thought provoking no matter how many times I have seen them.

Each jury member presented a program.  The only one that I was able to see was Canadian animator Michele Cournoyer who was on the shorts and student c ompetition jury.  I am familiar with Michele’s films which she made at the NFB (National Film Board of Canada) but it was a pleasure to see an entire program of her work.  A common theme in her films is the confrontational relationship between men and women in a surreal manner.  Her latest film Soif (2014), a tragedy in 5 acts, is her 4th film made with ink drawings on paper.  In an interview at the festival she described the film as being “characterized by very varying aestheticsm simple black lines, the use of mere gestures, and just a touch of the brush.”  She went on to say “I chose black to symbolize wine so that alcohol could be the dominant element.   In Soif the wine is  black, it’s black in the little girl’s head and it’s black in the heads of the couple in love symbolizing the drowning feeling a person has when drunk”.  It was a real pleasure getting to know Michele and talking to her has given me new insights into her films.

Nik gave a two day workshop on composing music for animation.  On the first day he gave tips to the animators on how to select the correct composer for their film, the preleminary stages he goes through to compose a score, and dealing with specific needs of a film.  On the second day animators brought their films in various stages of production and actually created sound for some of them.

Nik at his workshop

I presented a program of music driven animation but my big adventure was giving a workshop on writing about films and festivals.  In the festival catalogue listing students were told to read one of my articles on my AWN blog and come prepared to discuss it.  They were also asked to bring a short written paragraph about a festival or film of their choice along with pen and paper or a laptop.  Unfortunately none of them did any of these things.   They were very suprized when they realized that this was not a lecture but that I meant for them to work.  I’m not quite sure what they expected.  I talked about writing for a bit and then I gave each of them a sheet of paper and told them to write a paragraph about a film.  They read them aloud, the group analized each one and then they rewrote them based on their cretiques.   If the students didn’t learn anything else they did get a good lesson in reading workshop requirements, following directions, and that being unprepared is no excuse since I made them write anyway.  I did enjoy the experience and hope that I am invited to do it again somewhere.

Trebon is a beautiful historic town in the Southern Bohemian region established around the middle of the 12th century.  It is a spa town and tourists visiting to bicycle the beautiful flat countryside and soak in the healthy waters of the numerous spas are the main industry.  The entire population of Trebon supports the festival and turn out to watch films.  Each evening the square is full of people to enjoy the free films shown on the big outdoor screen.  The programs ranged from Shaun the Sheep Movie to Animated Fish Soup.  The aptly named program of short films paid homage to the history of the town by showing films connected to Trebon by their themes – fish, fishermen, water and the underwater world.

Water is indeed important to Trebon and the area is the largest producer of fresh water fish in all of Europe.  The carp is the symbol of the town.  The delicious fresh fish is served in restaurants throughout the town in a variety of ways from broiled to yummy fried strips sold in paper cones on the street.  On Saturday afternoon the festival treated its guests to a boat ride on the Svet River.  It was the perfect way to see the beautiful array of colors on the shore ranging from various shades of green leaves to the brilliant yellow mustard fields.

The town is also known for its Regent Brewery and the brewery patio is the perfect place to spend a sunny afternoon enjoying a delicious Regents beer.   The earliest written mention of brewing in Trebon dates from 1397 and the citizens of the city have definitely perfected the art.

At the closing night ceremony, held in the Rohac-Czech Television Hall, the results of the jurie’s week of work were revealed.  The Feature film jury that I had the pleasure of sitting on with Andrea Martognoni and Bastien Dubois gave the award for the best Feature Film for Grown-ups to Possessed by Sam as I have already said.  In our statement we said that we unanimously selected it “for the respectful treatment of homage to great classic films.”  Special Mention went to Rocks in my Pockets.  In the Feature Film for Children category we selected Tale of Princess Kaguya directed by Isao Takahata of Japan because “the Princess brought us into her visually stunning world accompanied by a perfect musical score”.  Song of the Sea earned Tomm Moore from Ireland a Special Mention.  A complete list of all of the winning films is at the end of the article.

Following the closing night ceremony there was a lovely dinner and then the real fun began with the Animation Karaoke Battle at the festival cafe.  Contestants preformed a running commentary on a randomly selected animation in any way they wanted - poetry, music, noise, singing, rapping – and there were some amazing performances.  A randomly selected jury picked from audience members narrowed the finalists down to three contestants who they considered the most creative and funny.  In the end Bastien Dubois took the top honor with a rousing performance.  After that the party continued late into the night.

I am extremely lucky to be invited to many wonderful festivals and ANIFILM is definitely on the top of my list of favorites.  The hospitality was first rate and the festival staff went out of their way to help make jury duty a real pleasure.  A special thank you goes to Pavel Horacek, Program Director and Katerina Zajicova, Head of Guest Services.  I especially appreciate the good care taken of us by Miroslava Janicatova and Jaroslav Balvin who made sure the juries always knew when and where to be on time in the role as jury guides.  I do hope that I will be invited to return to this excellent festival.  You can learn more about ANIFILM at:  

www.anifilm.cz

Nancy and festival director Pavel Horacek


After our week in Trebon Nik and I had a lovely train ride through the beautiful Czech Republic country side to Karlsruhe, Germany where we had both been invited to give presentations to the Karlsruhe Cinema Club.  The student run club is quite amazing.  The members raised enough money to purchase a state of the art digital projection system in their cinema and present regular screenings that range from cult favorites and documentaries like Citizenfour to big hits such as The Grand Budapest Hotel and Matrix.   I was amazed to learn that the students responsible for the club are not film students.  The majority are studying engineering or IT both of which the University of Karlsruhe is known for but they are all cinema lovers.  Nik gave a through presentation about how music for film and animation is structured and I gave a screening of historical animation.  The audience gave us a warm welcome and asked excellent questions at the end of our programs. 

Our host Thomas Penner gave us the red carpet treatment even though he was in the middle of studying for exams.  He took us on a tour of the city and university campus and gave us a lot of history about the area.  Karlsruhe is a young city by European standards, founded in 1715.  The very moden city center is dominated by the beautiful Karlsruhe Palace and it is surrounding Botanical gardens.  It is impossible to get lost  down town because all of the streets radiate from the palace which can be seen down any street.  Thomas also treated us to some wonderful meals at world class restaurants.  The most memorable meal of all was at Badisch Brauhaus.  The interior murals look like a Hunderwasser painting and the hotel rooms are all themed.  It is worth a trip to Karlsruhe just to see this restaurant and enjoy their delicious local style food such as their pork dishes.  It was a very memorable time in Karlsruhe.  My next trip will be to FIKE Short Film and Animation festival in Evora, Portugal.

At lunch with Thomas and Nancy

ANIMFILM JURY RESULTS

FEATURE FILM JURY AWARDS:

Jury:  Andrea Martignoni (Italy), Bastien Dubois (France), Nancy Denney-Phelps (Belgium)

Best Feature for Adults

     Possessed – Sam Orti Marti (Spain)

Special Mention

     Rocks in my Pockets  - Signe Baueman ( America-Latvia)

Best Feature for Children

     Tale of Princess Kaguya – Isao Takahata (Japan)

Special Mention

     Song of the Sea – Tomm Moore (Ireland)

Short Film and Student Film Awards:

Jury:  Michele Cournoyer (Canada), Lukas Skalnik (Czech Republic), Niki Lindroth von Bahr (Sweden)

 Best Short Film

     World of Tomorrow –Don Hertzfeldt (America)

Special Mention

     Mr. Spider’s Anatomy – Vojtech Kiss (Czech Republic)

Best Student Film

     The Bigger Picture – Daisy Jacobs (United Kingdom)

Special Mention

     Food – Siqi Song (China)

Non Narrative Film and Music Video Awards:

Jury: Lou Sanitrakova (Czech Republic), Maros Brojo – Slovakia), Anna Ida Orosz (Hungary)

Best Non-Narrative Film

     Fugue for Cello – Jerzy Kucia (Poland)

        Special Mention

             Folk Nabo Distorio – Francesco Rosso (Estonia)

         Best Music Video

              Zhu: Paradise Awaits – Tomek Ducki (Poland)