POLISH ANIMATED FILMS AT ANNECY FESTIVAL

The official selection of the upcoming edition of the Annecy Festival – which is the biggest and the most prominent animated film festival worldwide - has been revealed. This year five Polish short animated films were selected to the programme.

Precisely 2,298 films made in 88 countries were submitted to 38th edition of Annecy festival. It was on Monday when the festival’s artistic director – Marcel Jean – announced the results of the selection carried out by his team for the last few months. In result 200 films were invited to screen in four competitive sections as well as a noncompetitive one. 176 films will compete in the following categories: short films, TV films, commissioned and  graduation films while the best among them will be awarded a Crystal Awards.

After last year when Polish animated films were celebrated in Annecy with a Focus on Poland - an extensive, panorama screenings, this year again one will easily track Polish films in the programme. Four short films received the invitation for the competitive sections. 43 films were selected to screen in Short Film competition including two Polish titles – “Ex animo” by Wojciech Wojtkowski that has already received acclaim at festivals as well as “Hipopotamy” the latest film by Piotr Dumała. Both shorts were produced by Warsaw based Fumi Studio  that so far produced “Lumberjack” by Paweł Dębski and “The Mystery of the Malakka Mountain” by Jakub Wroński to list just a few. Among 56 films selected to the Graduation Film competiton there are two Polish ones made by the students of Polish National Film School in Łódź – “An incredibly flexible man” by Karolina Specht and “Fat and Skinny” by Aleksandra Brożyna (coproduced by Fumi Studio). Additionally “Baths” by Tomek Ducki (prod. Studio Miniatur Filmowych, Peek and Boo) will be screened as a part of non-competitve short film programme.

Just like last year a delegation of Polish animators and producers will be present at the MIFA market that is held within the festival. It is for the fourth year now that the Krakow Film Foundation supported by the Polish Film Institute organizes of the national Polish Animations stand. Poland will be one of 60 market exhibitors.

The feature film official Selection will be announced on April 25th.

More on Annecy Film Festival can be found here

At the top: a still from „Hipopotamy” by Piotr Dumała