AniFest's blog

Anifest, an annual, international competition festival of animated films, which first took place in 2002 in Třebon, came about spontaneously as reEvents in the absence of any kind of platform for animation in the Czech Republic, where animation work, up until recently, was among the “family silver” of the country. The first year was just local, but as of its second year, and for the past 8 years, has welcomed participants from around the world. Honorable Presidents of AniFest have been personalities such as Břetislav Pojar, Jurij Norštejn, Tim Searle, Jayne Pilling and a number of others, and the competition awards for AniFest are carried off by renowned filmmakers of global animation work (Koji Yamamura, Gil Alkabetz, Bill Plymton, Michela Pavlátová, Pavel Koutský and many others). AniFest provides opportunities Czech filmmakers and the general public to become acquainted with world-wide animation that does not get picked up in the usual, primary distribution networks, and also presents classic and modern Czech animation work to international audiences. In an attempt to interconnect kindred communities with the same “artistic obsession”, AniFest does not limit its activities to Czech territory and cooperates with other world festivals and animation institutes (Festival of Animated Film Stuttgart, Bienále animácie Bratislava, Kecskemet Animation Festival-Hungary, Anima Brussels, Filmfest Dresden, German Institute for Animated Film, and others). The anchor of the festival is the international competition, but the festival also includes a broad spectrum of accompanying cinematic (retrospectives, thematic series) and non-cinematic (exhibitions, concerts) programs as well as professional events (workshops, panel discussions). A part of the festival are thematic conferences – this year it is the international meeting of professionals and old timers on the theme: “The personality of Karel Zeman and his innovative contribution to world cinematography”. AniFest also pays a lot of attention to children – in addition to numerous film screenings, we also organize the now-traditional “Schools of Animation”