Newsletter

Thank you for sticking with us and supporting our festival during these uneasy times as Anifilm moved not only in place
but also in time! Anifilm 2020 team

Who are the winners of the first Anifilm in Liberec?
The winner of the International Competition of Feature Films for Grown-ups is the Japanese film On-Gaku: Our Sound (directed by Kenji Iwaisawa), a humorously crazy film about the power of music and the need of self-realisation. The award for the Best Film for Children goes to the film Marona’s Fantastic Tale (directed by Anca Damian) about the need for happiness and search for a home from a dog’s perspective. In the category of films for children, the jury composed of Luce Grosjean, David Silverman and Pierre Yves Drapeau also decided to award a special mention to the artistically captivating film The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily (directed by Lorenzo Mattoti).
Best short film is the Polish hallucinogenic road movie Acid Rain (directed by Tomek Popakul) and the jury’s special mention goes to Portugal for the film Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days by Regina Pessoa. The same jury – Anna Mantzaris, Eliška Děcká and Serge Besset – also picked the best student film, Czech film Daughter by Daria Kashcheeva. Special mention was awarded to the tragicomic story In Her Boots (directed by Kathrin Steinbacher).
The winner of the category for non-narrative and abstract animation is the Swiss film Average Happiness (directed by Maja Gehrig) originally animating ordinarily dull charts and graphs. The jury composed of Michaela Čopíková, Joost Rekveld and Milen Alempijević decided to award a special mention to the American film Wind (directed by Dana Sink). The same jury also picked the best music video of the festival – Czech music video directed by Bety Suchanová and Nora Štrbová for the song Tíseň by rap duo P/\ST. Special mention went to Polish director Mateusz Jarmulski for his music video Resina: In.
In the new category for VR films, the jury chose American-French coproduction BattleScar – Punk was Invented by Girls (directed by Martín Allais and Nico Casavecchia). Jury Bára Anna Stejskalová, Lukáš Medek and Robin Pultera also awarded a special mention to Passenger by Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine.
The Competition of Computer Games has also a Czech winner – the award for Best Visual Art goes to Jakub Dvorský’s game Pilgrims by the Czech studio Amanita Design. As the Best Computer Game for Children, the jury composed of Lukáš Medek, Marek Plichta and Rafael Varona picked the British project Heaven’s Vault by Inkle Studios.
A detailed overview and a gallery of all winning films including the jury statements can be found here. On its first day, Anifilm also presented awards to the winners of the national competition Czech Horizon – you can find them here.

The winners of CEE Animation Forum and Animation Espresso
Also two industry events organised as a part of this year’s Anifilm know their winners. CEE Animation Forum, the most important professional platform of the animation industry in CEE, was held online this year due to the pandemic. Anifilm visitors had a chance to watch the pitching session online as it screened in the Mirror Hall of Chateau Liberec. The main award in the feature film category was awarded to Georgian project IGI. Best TV series / special is the Czech project Dozvonil zvonec and the award in the short films category goes to the Hungarian project Garden of the Heart. The winner of a new category for projects with augmented reality is the Lithuanian project Paperback VR. And the Audience Award of the CEE Animation Forum stayed in the Czech Republic as the winner is the project Plešouni.
Twenty-two Czech projects in various stages of development were introduced in Liberec live at the Animation Espresso pitching session organised by the Association of Animated Film in cooperation with Anifilm. The main award went to short film Odpusť directed by Alžběta Mačáková Mišejková (produced by Jiří Pecinovský, FAMU) and special mention to short film Electra. A Poem by Daria Kashcheeva (produced by Martin Vandas, Zuzana Křivková, MAUR film, FAMU).

Animated film for the first time at Czech Lion Awards – submit your films!
Another indicator that Czech animation is in good shape is the new category of the Czech Lion Awards – Best Animated film. The most prestigious film award in the Czech Republic introduced this category after 27 years. “A lion’s share” in this can be attributed to the animation community, Association of Animated Film and also Anifilm who have persistently pushed for introducing the category. The category is open for animated films with minimum running length of 5 minutes and you need to submit your films by 31st October 2020. More information, rules and submission form can be found here. 

Call for entries to Anifilm 2021
Anifilm may have just ended, but you can already submit your films to the festival’s next edition. Please submit your work online here by the end of the year. The festival will take place in Liberec from 4th to 9th May 2021 and for its upcoming edition, you can submit films in these competition categories:

Only films finished after 1st January 2020 which haven’t competed at the festival will be accepted to the competition. Just like in previous years, the submission is free of charge and the deadline is moved to 31st December 2020.
For more information about the festival statutes and the competition rules, please visit our webpage. In case of any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at program@anifilm.cz 

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