Animation. What else? At the Zlín Film Festivalu. Where else?
Argentina, Indonesia, Iran, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Russia, the United States of America. These are not the only distant countries whose short animated films for children will be presented at the 60th Zlín Film Festival. More than 60 films from 25 countries have been selected for the International Short Animation Competition for Children, which will compete for several awards in September. One of the awards is named after a legend of animated film Hermína Týrlová and will be for the best film for children under 6.
Variations of different animation techniques, diverse themes and exotic countries will delight the eye not only of our youngest moviegoers, but also of those who are interested in contemporary worldwide animated production.
Festival films bring audiences audiovisual pleasure and education. This is no different in this year's competition. They will follow the original inhabitants of the distant Hawaiian Islands in the film Kapaemahu, the recent Grand Prize winner of the Animayo festival. Director Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, who is from a local tribe, tells in her native language an engaging mythical story about magical stones on Waikiki Beach. Children will gain new information about the history of space conquest thanks to the film To the Stars by director Gemmy McGivern, who captivates with the story of the first Irish astronaut Dr. Norah Pattern. The subject of Foreign Tales and Legends will include one about the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv from the animation The Towel by Oksana Karpus.
One of the attractive components of animated films has always been their unique sense of humor. This truth is even more confirmed in those for children. An example is the Russian film The Bear by director Svyatoslav Ushakov about a bear who works as a stuffed bear at a train station restaurant and longs for a career in a circus. The fun-filled animal children's party was organized by the French director Loïc Bruyère in his further entry in the Zlín Film Festival, The Kindergarten Show. A slightly different, but very original version of the fairy tale The Seven Goats is being presented to the world by Marina Karpova in The 7 Kids.
This year's competition showcasing of worldwide animated films for children is dominated by productions by women, and such evidence of this fact is that all three Iranian films were directed by women. Recently, the very productive Reyhane Kavosh entered with several films, just like last year, and ZFF finally chose the film Coward Ghost, which is about an unusually timid spirit. Maryam Kashkoolinia brings the somewhat bitter story of a lion cub in a zoo in The Eleventh Step, and Reyhane Mirhashemi sets her story about a mysterious guardian in a protected reserve in the film Jebeer.
The program organizers for the animation competition are always very happy to see filmmakers return to the Zlín Festival. Among those loyal returnees this year is Verena Fels, who, after her past entries Rockin´ Rhino, Mobile and Frozen Fun, will fight for the Golden Slipper with her newest film Tobi and the Turbobus. Award-winning Russian director and screenwriter Evgenia Golubeva has entered her humorous animation The Witch & the Baby, about what happens when a royal couple acquires a local witch as a nanny. After the films I Want to Live in the Zoo and I am not a Mouse, this is her third participation in the prestigious Zlín competition. Aside from additional faithful Russian directors, the name of Argentine director Nicólas Conte has also reappeared, who made his debut in Zlín with his I Want It and this year has contributed to the competition with another stop-motion animated film, Cracks in the Pavement.
The annual Czech representation was again secured by Czech Television with the Cosmix bedtime story series and Who’s Afraid of the Devils? and Tomas Bata University in Zlín with the student films Shoot, The Tree and Leaf. The latter got into this year's Generation competition in Berlin, and its director Aliona Baranova received financial support from the FILMTALENT ZLÍN Endowment Fund, to which money from the auction of the Film Clapperboard Salon goes every year. The creators of the popular series Live from the Moss, Filip Pošivač and Barbora Valecká, will also make a stop in Zlín on their long journey to world festivals. Their new film Overboard! will introduce big and small audiences to the bigger and smaller animals on Noah's ark.
It is also worth mentioning two names of Czech directors working abroad. After studying in the Czech Republic and Belgium, Martina Svojíková created the animated film So High Up for the famous French-Belgian production company Les Films du Nord. At the University of Bournemouth in the UK, Rachel Portman is doing well, inserting memories of Czech Christmas and the carp tradition into her student film Carpe Diem.
There are 33 Czech, 2 European, 6 international and 6 world premieres in this competition. One of the animations fresh from the oven is called Mitch-Match by the acclaimed Hungarian director Géza M. Tóth who won Hermína Týrlová Award for best young artist with his animation Maestro at 46th Zlín Film Festival in 2006. Géza M. Tóth came out after 10 years with this playful series with matches as main characters in the various human activities.
More than 60 animated films from all over the world will compete at the Zlín Film Festival from September 4 to 10, 2020.
A list of competition animated films at the 60th Zlín Film Festival:
A Fishy Fishing Trip, dir. Fabrice Luang-Vija, FRA/BEL, 2019, 7 min, Czech premiere
A Lynx in the Town, dir. Nina Bisiarina, FRA, 2019, 7 min, Czech premiere
About a Tree, dir. Michaela Mašánová, CZE, 2019, 5 min
Apple Tree Man, dir. Alla Vartanyan, RUS, 2020, 10 min, Czech premiere
Beauty and the Monster, dir. Natalia Darvina, BLR, 2019, 8 min, world premiere
Blanket, dir. Marina Moshkova, RUS, 2020, 6 min, Czech premiere
Blind Date, dir. Camiel Schouwenaar, NLD, 2019, 2 min, Czech premiere
Blue and Curt, dir. Jesse Cote, CAN, 2019, 1 min
Candy Monster, dir. Devi Kartika Dewi, IDN, 2019, 9 min, world premiere
Carpe Diem, dir. Rachel Portová, GBR, 2019, 3 min, Czech premiere
Cosmix – Comet, dir. Vojtěch Dudek, CZE, 2020, 5 min
Coward Ghost, dir. Reyhane Kavosh, IRN, 2019, 8 min, Czech premiere
Cracks in the Pavement, dir. Nicolás Conte, ARG, 2019, 9 min, international premiere
Duodrom, dir. Basil Vogt, SUI, 2019, 8 min, Czech premiere
Elsa and the Night, dir. Jöns Mellgren, SWE, 2019, 10 min, Czech premiere
Final Act, dir. Miguel Amendola-Borrallo, Clara Obeidi, Yohan Gantelet, Lucie Krencker, Geoffrey Rakotoarisoa, Antonin Géral-Ariès, FRA, 2019, 8 min
Florian, dir. Keshav Abrol, Lucas Londoño-Clayton, Pavel Loparev, Alicia Velasco, SPA, 2019, 4 min
Grand Adventure Railroad, dir. Hsiao-Shan Huang, TWN/CHN, 2020, 15 min, European premiere
Grizzy and the Lemmings - Game Madness, dir. Victor Moulin, 2018, 7 min
Hannibal the Elephant, dir. Aurélie Monteix, FRA, 2019, 4 min, Czech premiere
Heat Wave, dir. Fokion Xenos, GRE, 2019, 7 min
How Much Does the Cloud Weigh?, dir. Nina Bisyarina, RUS, 2019, 6 min, Czech premiere
Hug Me. The Big One and the Small One, dir. Tomek Miazga, Klaudia Robat, POL, 2019, 6 min, Czech premiere
Chin Up, dir. JoAnne Salmon, GBR, 2018, 5 min
Jebeer, dir. Reyhane Mirhashemi, IRN, 2019, 10 min, Czech premiere
Kapaemahu, dir. Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, USA, 2020, 8 min, Czech premiere
Leaf, dir. Aliona Baranova, CZE, 2020, 6 min
Listen Papa!, dir. Olga Poliektova, Tatiana Poliektova, RUS/GER, 2019, 13 min
Little Big Dream, dir. Nina Bisyarina, RUS, 2019, 5 min, Czech premiere
Maestro, dir. Florian Babikian, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Caire, Théophile Dufresne, Gabriel Grapperon, Lucas Navarro, FRA, 2019, 2 min
Maïja, dir. Arthur Nollet, Maxime Faraud, Mégane Hirth, Emma Versini, Julien Chen, Pauline Charpentier, FRA, 2019, 8 min
Mitch-Match, dir. Géza M. Tóth, HUN, 2020, 2 min
Me, a Monster?, dir. Belinda Bonan, SPA, 2020, 6 min, Czech premiere
Merry Grandmas!, dir. Natalia Mirzoyan, RUS, 2020, 8 min, Czech premiere
Northern Lights, dir. Caroline Attia, FRA/SUI, 2019, 15 min, Czech premiere
Overboard!, dir. Filip Pošivač, Barbora Valecká, CZE/SVK, 2019, 12 min
Patchwork Penguin, dir. Angela Steffen, GER, 2019, 4 min, Czech premiere
Rainbow Friends, dir. Thomas Goletz, SPA/GER, 6 min, Czech premiere
Shoot, dir. Ema Mlynarčíková, CZE, 2020, 2 min, world premiere
So High Up, dir. Martina Svojíková, FRA/BEL, 2019, 13 min, Czech premiere
The 7 Kids, dir. Marina Karpova, RUS, 2020, 5 min, European premiere
The Atelier, dir. Bianca Mansani, FRA, 2019, 4 min, Czech premiere
The Balloonman, dir. Pablo Río, SPA, 2019, 5 min
The Bear, dir. Svyatoslav Ushakov, RUS, 2020, 14 min, international premiere
The Bird & the Whale, dir. Carol Freeman, IRL, 2018, 7 min, Czech premiere
The Eleventh Step, dir. Maryam Kashkoolinia, IRN, 2020, 11 min, world premiere
The Girl-Bird, dir. Ekaterina Nevostrueva, RUS, 2019, 5 min
The Chimai and the Storm, dir. David Bisbano, ARG/PER, 2020, 8 min, world premiere
The Kindergarten Show, dir. Loic Bruyere, FRA, 2019, 8 min, Czech premiere
The King & The Pear, dir. Nastya Voronina, RUS, 2019, 5 min
The Little Boat That Wanted to Fly, dir. Ekaterina Filippova, RUS, 2020, 6 min, international premiere
The Pack, dir. Alina Natakhina, RUS, 2019, 8 min, international premiere
The Peak, dir. Satoshi Takahashi, JAP, 2019, 5 min, Czech premiere
The Tomten and the Fox, dir. Yaprak Morali, Are Austnes, NOR, 2019, 9 min
The Towel, dir. Oksana Karpus, UKR, 2019, 7 min, international premiere
The Witch & the Baby, dir. Evgenia Golubeva, RUS, 2020, 4 min, Czech premiere
To the Stars, dir. Gemma McGivern, IRL, 2020, 2 min, Czech premiere
Tobi and the Turbobus, dir. Verena Fels, Marc Angele, GER, 2020, 7 min, Czech premiere
TOC, dir. Aitor Herrero, SPA, 2020, 6 min, world premiere
Truffles, dir. Kateřina Karhánková, Alexandra Májová, CZE, 2019, 7 min
Under the Ice, dir. Milan Baulard, Ismaïl Berrahma, Flore Dupont, Laurie Estampes, Quentin Nory, Hugo Potin, FRA, 2019, 7 min
Warm Star, dir. Anna Kuzina, RUS, 2020, 4 min, Czech premiere
Who's Afraid Of The Devils? - They Appeared Out Of Thin Air, dir. Jiří P. Miška, CZE, 2020, 9 min, world premiere
