Online catalogue

Creative EUROPE MEDIA (2021–2027) is a European Union programme designed to support the European audiovisual industry. What possibilities of support and other opportunities does it bring to the animation industry? The presentation will focus mainly on support channels for producers of animated films but it will also introduce the possibilities for distributors, festivals, educational programmes and co-production markets. The CE MEDIA Programme will be introduced by Vlaďka Chytilová from the Creative Europe MEDIA Czech office.

Hello friend.

We’ve got a slot. We’ve got gifs. Short and juicy.

We’ve got a screen, we’ve got beer. The way you like it.

Don’t put your things in the drawer. Contribute.

Each author has four minutes to fill with audiovisual content of their choosing. Use our slot to strut your stuff or just come and have a beer – more at the Facebook event Prasení #7: hello friend

Prasení is organised and its visual identity created by: Mikoláš Fišer and Adela Križovenská.

Představení patnácti nominovaných indie her, které do letošní mezinárodní soutěže počítačových her vybrali Jakub Dvorský, Pavel Dobrovský a Martin Vaňo. Přijďte se podívat, jaké zajímavé tituly se urodily na indie scéně za poslední rok. Hry si můžete zahrát v Game zóně.

Czech Television has modernised its main online platform, iVysílání, and begun producing programmes and other content intended primarily for the internet. How can Czech animation benefit from the development of online activities of public television? What projects have already been carried out? What are the limitations of expanding the offer of Czech animation in Czech Television’s online catalogue? These and other questions will be answered by representatives of the content team of iVysílání (content for 13+ audiences) and the Centre of New Media Dramaturgy (content for children).

The biggest challenge with games is their interactivity. For most games, it’s not enough to have ‘nice’ graphics. They have to be functional so the gamers' nerves are spared. Ashborne Games Senior UI Designer Jakub Špiřík will introduce the relation between graphic design, UI graphics and visual style in games.

Eva Nečasová, Art Director of Charles Games, will introduce her work and focus mainly on practical presentations of several tools she uses: photogrammetry 3D scanning, generative adversarial network image generation and facial animation in Crazy Talk.

The programme will include screenings (a selection of Jan Saska’s own work and the work of his close colleagues) and their subsequent analysis. His own filmography will be represented, for instance, by Happy End and a clip from his film Hurricane, still in development. The analyses of creative processes (short films, clips from feature films, trailers etc.) are intended primarily for other filmmakers but will definitely be of interest to fans of animated film as they will provide an insight into the production process.

Creatoola Animarket is the biggest industry networking event in the Czech Republic. It is a meeting of animation, VFX, game and VR/AR professionals. At Creatoola, you can visit various presentations and use the platform to address potential job seekers. The exhibition part, with presentation stalls of individual participants, will be followed by one-on-one meetings in the afternoon during which individual studios can meet potential candidates from the ranks of graphic artists, illustrators, programmers and other authors.

Jiřina Pěčová, the recipient of this year’s Anifilm Lifetime Achievement Award, will talk about the work of a film editor before the rise of digital technologies. What should the editor know about collaborating with the director, how do you make sound for film, how do you work with the score, what are the challenges of various language versions and what’s MEZMIX? This and much more will be covered at Pěčová’s masterclass, which will include a Q&A session.

Familiar with pressure and anxiety around efficiency and productivity? Most of us could do with a little more time wasting, and one can say it’s almost a necessity for creativity! Away with the toxic stigmas, chill out and listen to advice by Céline Veltman, the art director best known for her work on Hidden Folks. Let’s redefine wasting time.

Tereza Stehlíková will discuss her own moving-image practice within the framework of her artistic research into sensory perception and the role of embodiment in filmmaking. The session will include a screening of her selected short films with a particular focus on food and eating. The audience will also be invited to take part in a ‘ritual of sensory initiation for filmmakers’, a playful exercise in the spirit of surrealist games. Films on the programme: Dinner for Deep Surface Divers (2016), Summer Rituals (2014), Theatre of Fruit (2016), Across the Unseen Sea (2014), Ophelia’s Last Supper (2018), Self-Isolation Dinner (2020).

During his masterclass Plympton will show several of his favourite films of his own and will talk about how he survives as an independent animator. He will do some drawings to explain the trades of his craft. At the end, he would like to do a Q&A session concerning his career and everyone who comes will get a free Bill Plympton sketch.

Screening of this year’s short film awards winners in all categories of the national competition, the Czech Horizon. Before the screening, producer and member of the Board of the Council of Animated Film (RAF), Libor Nemeškal, will inform the audience about the activities of this independent body, which decides on the awards in the Czech Horizon competition, including an overview and statistics from this and previous years.

Based on the recent collective book Video Games and Comedy, this talk will discuss the many intersections between video games, humour and comedy. It will dispel the myth that video games cannot do comedy well and show the range of opportunities for humour and comedy facilitated by the medium of video games, from simple physical gags to postmodernist meta-humour. It will focus on scripted humour in games as well as unexpected uses of games and game engines for player-created comedy.

Since 2017, the independent association Council of Animated Film (RAF) has, under the auspices of ASAF (Association of Czech Animated Film) and Anifilm, been selecting the winners of five categories of the festival’s National Competition Czech Horizon. Producer Libor Nemeškal, a member of the RAF Board, will present statistics from recent years, including this year. The event will include a panel discussion of selected council members and all the participants will have a chance to take part in a debate about the future of the association.

For RAF members only.

Trends, macro-trends, meta-trends: when the hype has settled, what remains of all the visual overload we live in? As visual artists and designers, how do we cope with the ongoing struggle between originality and repetition, novelty and recognisability, chaos and order – in one word, ‘style’? Tracing her own experience in independent video games, 2D artist Claudia Molinari will stress the importance of (involuntary?) memory and the influence of personal and cultural identity throughout the visual design process.

The Warner Bros. cartoon studio (1930–1964) with its brash, violent, cynical style, produced some of the most enduring works of American film comedy and countless beloved characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Foghorn Leghorn. Jaime Weinman, author of the Warner Bros. cartoon history Anvils, Mallets & Dynamite, examines how the studio created a comedy style combining the best of the silent and sound eras, and got laughs through precise timing that can only be done in hand-drawn animation.

During the lecture Hisko Hulsing will show his short films Seventeen (2004) and Junkyard (2012), but it will be an extensive look into all his films, paintings, illustrations, storyboards, comics and methods he used. Also he will talk about the techniques used for Undone (2019 -) series. Lecture will include the animation of Montage of Heck (2015), feature documentary about Kurt Cobain and clips of Undone. He is going to show also a preview of film Resurrection, that is still in development.

See how authors play their own games on a big screen – with commentary, naturally. As it does every year, Anifilm organises gaming sessions with authors. This year, you will have a chance to see two competition games – the psychedelic horror fairy-tale Happy Game by Jaromír Plachý of Amanita Design and a game about card tricks, Card Shark, by NERIAL Studio, played by Arnaud de Bock.

The independent game scene is thriving and Amanita Design’s Lukáš Kunce and Jakub Dvorský will present the most interesting games of this year. Do you prefer a beautiful intimate adventure made of paper, a horror story set in the Swiss Alps or a bloody, atmospheric card game? This year’s Indie Menu has something in store for everyone, be it younger, older, experienced or occasional gamers.

A leading Czech expert in bioinformatics, Tomáš Větrovský from the Czech Academy of Sciences’s Institute of Macrobiology grew up in the era of 8-bit computers and is fascinated by computers to this day. Ever since he played his first ‘90s titles such as Diablo, Starcraft, Dungeon Keeper, Fallout and Half-Life, he has aspired to make his own game. Eventually, he succeeded. Tomáš will acquaint festival visitors with his love of programming, science, insects and computer games.