Come to Anifest starting tomorrow May 4th in Trebon, CZ!

Come to the 5th International animated film festival which takes place in a small city Trebon situated in the lovely countryside between the fishponds in the south of Czech Republic. This is the year of the records: over 1100 films from 49 countries entered the competition, expected attendance of about 30 000 people, lots of important guests and many more…

Anifest 2006 - May 4th - 10th Trebon, CZ

 

Anifest 2006 - May 4th - 10th Trebon, CZThe festival staff finished all the necessary preparations and started the final countdown. The happening starts tomorrow May 4th and will last till next Wednesday May 10th.

All the visitors can look forward to seeing not just the obvious competition films, but also the large films retrospective of Great Britain, the animation world leader. The central european children film projections organized under name Visegrad films: Kids and the animation will also be very interesting.

„We are very pleased that AniFest becomes more powerfull year by year and still offers something new. This year we were really surprised by the number of films entered into the competition. Jury committee chose from almost 1100 films, which is a festival historical record.“ AniFest director Petr Slavík says as follows: „We are succesfull in attracting more and more important persons of the animated film to the competition and to the festival organization as well.“

Image from Corpse Bride (2005) Festival VIPs
The festival director mentioned the fact e.g. Henry Selick entered his film into the competition. He is a co-worker of the animation star Tim Burton for many years. (BTW you can see his last piece Corpse Bride within the attendant projections).

In the jury committee we can see Timothy Searle, who creates the animated series for british TV stations since late 80-ies. The films will also be judged by Jayne Pilling, the director of British Animated Awards and the member of the committees of some other international festivals. Clare Kitson appears as the president of this year’s AniFest. For a long time she was the animated films producer for Channel4 and she is subscribed under various internationally awarded films.Anifest 2006 - May 4th - 10th Trebon, CZ

 “The fact Clare Kitson is going to be this year’s president is a real credit for us. I think her participation at AniFest can again raise the international prestige of this festival. However it is really amusing, the  president of the festival that takes place in Trebon is someone who enforced broadcasting the series Pond Life at the Channel4 TV station.” Slavík is laughing about Trebon countryside full of the ponds surrounding the town.

Until now there are over 100 international creators accreditted and this number is still increasing. There will be animators from around the world attending e.g. Congo, Brazil, Iran, Libya or Israel.

AniFest will also become the meeting point of the most important Czech animators. This year the attendees include B?etislav Pojar, Michaela Pavlátová, Jan Balej, Aurel Klimt or the  screen-writer Edgar Dutka.

Britain vs. Central Europe
This year will also be highly saturated by British attendees. The most number of the competition films (149 total) is from Great Britain and the attendant projection is also focused on Great Britain.

“Great Britain is next to France european animation leader. Every year the most new films are created there. So we had a large portfolio to choose from.” Tomáš Rychecký, the program-chief says.

The compilation of the other large project – Visegrad 4 films can be also very interesting. “The environment and the conditions of the creation of these films is so different it can offer a very good alternative in contrast with the British retrospective for visitors. The best and most interesting is to see both projetion series.” Rychecký recommends.

Anifest 2006 - May 4th - 10th Trebon, CZAmazing attendant pogram
AniFest are not just films. You can visit traditional animation workshops for adults and kids too. Seminars, presentations and demonstrations within ProfiForum are targeted to film professionals.
Within the festival tradition is also the children theater which will not be missed this year.

All the visitors (organizators expects over 30 000) can also see the exhibition of Artists and the animated film. The Sunday evening on May 7th will be enhanced by a Monkey Business concert – the Czech funky star.

Come to AniFest this year. Enjoy the films and have a nice time. In case you will not be able to attend, you can look forward to reading our reportage.