Animanima 2009 – International Festival of Animation in Cacak

By: Valentina Radulovic

Cacak, Sept. 09 2009 ( Serbia Today) - The third Annual International animation festival – ANIMANIMA – is going to be held in Cacak, between 9th and 12th of September. Competition program includes 67 films from 22 countries. Members of the International Jury are Rastko Ciric (Serbia), Mohamed Ghazala (Egypt) and Krysztof Kamrowski (Poland).
Main festival awards are traditional ‘Golden Pen Bar’ for the best film. ‘C & M Special Award’” for the best animated commercial or music video. There are also Special Distinctions for the best direction, animation, script, sound design and overall artistic achievement.
Festival will open with a new Disney-Pixar film ‘Up’. This will be its Serbian premiere as well. The other two titles in Feature films program are ‘Animal Crisis’ by Diego Akel (Spain) and ‘Technotise, Edith and I’ by young Serbian author Aleksa Gajic.
ANIMANIMA 2009’s guest of honor will be Geza M. Toth, animated film director, lecturer at Mahony Nagy University in Budapest – base of studio KEDD Animation. Toth’s artistry will be presented within a program called Portrait of an Animator.
ANIMANIMA presented programs are dedicated to the films made in multi-awarded postproduction studio Platige Image from Warsaw, Poland.
Milos Tomic is one of the most distinctive authors at Serbian contemporary film scene and his activities span from documentaries, TV jingles, commercials and music videos, up to the experimental films. Milos Tomic has created ANIMANIMA 2009 promo video as well. In Cacak, Milos will present Special program called My favorite films. It will be a revue of his own films and some of his favorite films from the world underground production.
Must-see program for all animation classics admirers is definitely Maestro from the Prague, through which one can find ways right to the nightmare-like but immensely fun world of the one of the most celebrated authors nowadays – Jan Svankmajer.
Additional program includes ‘Graphisms’, an exhibition by graphic designer, illustrator and author of comics, Nebojsa Cvetkovic; presentation of new books published by Film Center of Serbia; and program for children Animated Matinee, offering to the youngest animated film lovers several films, among them ‘Spike’ by French authors.
Abundance of films, a wide range of themes, diversity in visual and poetical expressions, in other words: a real pleasure for all visitors of the Cultural Center’s Grand Hall who will attend seven screening in main program and four additional as well, containing ‘the best of the rest’.
ANIMANIMA 2009 organizer is Cultural Center Cacak, under the auspices by The City of Cacak.