Festival Report of the 10th Kecskemét Animation Film Festival
Hungary’s Kecskemét Animation Film Festival, the event to attend right now for any film fan and industry player, is celebrating its 10th edition this year. We already launched a collection of the best earlier shorts and now here we are right in the heart of the festival. We kicked off the 10th KAFF with watching Ferenc Cakó’s live sand animated show. It was the classic old type of performance with an artist doing something unusual but definitely beautiful in front of a live audience. The simplest thing. He draws in the sand. Nothing more, but it takes your breath away.
Here is a piece to get a glimpse of it:
After the deserved applause Ferenc Cakó was followed up by the first block of the Hungarian Competition Programme. A couple of shorts made by the very new generation of Hungarian animation directors completed by some new pieces from elder players. We couldn’t wait to hear what they have to say. We were touched by Ferenc Rofusz’s Ticket. A short that tries nothing less than to address and answer the question of “What is life?”. The film follows a man’s life from his own point of view, from birth to death. The turning points of life constitute the very essence of what our hero’s existence is enveloped in. The meaning of life? It’s more like a life with a meaning.
Check out his most famous film, the Academy Award-winner The Fly:
Another film that surprised us was Chess! made by István Orosz. Based on the recorded moves and a multiple retouched photo, the film is a reconstruction of a 100 year old chess game. Though the political aspects of the match override those of the game: the two leader’s of the Bolshevik party, Lenin and Bogdanov face each other. The animated film attempts, though in an ironic manner, to do justice to Lenin, so that he somehow manages to get out of a tight corner as the winner although he is threatened with checkmate.
Here is an earlier piece made by István Orosz:
Then the evening was finished with the reception for festival guests. Free dinner and drinks on top of Kecskemét with a Iunar eclipse coming around. Did we need anything more? Maybe a little bit more craziness. Hungarian animators are not into partying live, they do it on the big screen.
Hungary’s Kecskemét Animation Film Festival is celebrating its 10th edition this year. On this occasion we collected 15 animated shorts connected to KAFF and made them available in a dedicated channel for a broad audience.
A Little Bit of History
The decision to organise a festival to celebrate both Hungarian animation and the city of Kecskemét itself was made over forty years ago with the foundation of the Pannonia Film Studio at Kecskemét. The era is customarily defined as the golden age of Hungarian animation film production. In 1996 a separate competition programme was established for European animated feature films as well. Hence, KAFF is two in one: the Kecskemet Animation Film Festival presents the latest Hungarian animated films, the Festival of European Animated Feature Films and TV-Specials shows European-made animations. At first KAFF was heId every three years, then in 2005 KAFF became a biennial. In 2011 the most prominent Hungarian and European animation artists will gather for the tenth time between June 15 and June 19 to celebrate Hungarian and European animation films.
Previous Winners of KAFF
On the occasion of the jubilee of KAFF the finest award-winning films of the previous nine festivals are included in this special edition.
The oldest piece is Mária Horváth’s Door No. 8, which won the award for Best Short Film at the very first KAFF in 1985. It is about an old man who finds himself in a pretty disturbing situation and place.
In 1993 Béla Weisz won the most prestigious award, the Grand Prix of the festival for Sprinkling. In this funny animation a pretty little mouse wakes up excited, and goes to open her front door expecting the “Eastern sprinklers”, however she gets more than a bit of a surprise.
The winner of the Best Short Film Award at the last festival in 2009 was Attila Bertóti. His film Ariadne’s Thread claims itself to be the true story of Ariadne, Theseus and the Minotaur.
Why KAFF 2011 Is Special
KAFF 2011 celebrates among others the round birthdays of such acclaimed Hungarian animation directors as Marcell Jankovics and Zsolt Richly who turn seventy and Ferenc Cakó, István Orosz, Zoltán Szilágyi Varga who have their sixtieth birthday this year. In this online collection you can find a piece from each birthday director.
Marcell Jankovics world-famous animation director is celebrating his seventieth birthday this year. One of his masterpieces Fight is included in this collection. It was the winner of Palme d’Or for Best Short Film in 1977. Fight shows an unquestionable talent of anatomic drawing skill and animation competency. The way it uses perspectives, rhythm and dramaturgy makes this film a unique experience.
Another birthday director is Zsolt Richly who turns seventy this year. His ouvre is represented by Night in Transylvania, an episode from the sketch film Hungarian Pictures inspired by the work of Béla Bartók. The collection also includes the other episodes as well made by acclaimed Hungarian animation directors. You can watch Etude by Kinga Rofusz, Slightly Tipsy by Miklós Varga, Ballad by Éva Korda and Swineherd Dance by Tamás Patrovits.
Ferenc Cakó, one of the most well-known Hungarian animation film directors celebrates his sixtieth birthday this year. He gets a place in the collection with his Golden Bear-winning animation Ashes, which was created with his groundbreaking sand animation technique. It was made in the memory of her mother and talks about death and passing in a very touching way.
István Orosz also turns sixty in 2011. Private Nightmare, a truly representative short by him is included in the collection. Private Nightmare, an animated dreambook about a man’s eerie nightmare full of grotesque images and scenes that take place in the socialist countryside.
At last but definitely not least Culturhistorical Manoeuvre at Night can be watched by another celebrated director Zoltán Szilágyi Varga. The film is a parable about the aggressive political misinterpretation of the living and proud Trojan horse of culture.
Kecskemétfilm Studio’s 40th Jubilee
2011 is a double celebration for the residents of Kecskemét and for the fans of animation, as in addition to the 10th KAFF, Kecskemétfilm Studio is also celebrating another important anniversary: the 40th year of its foundation. In the spirit of the jubilee some of the most successful earlier creations of the studio are also included in the collection.
In Péter Szoboszlay’s How Did Ester Get On the Table? the fantastic and the prosaic-realistic aspects of the world are depicted from a little girl’s perspective who goes for a trip on her father’s table.
Gábor Homolya’s Western from the earlier creations of the Kecskemétfilm Studio is a bloody drama takes place in a far away western countryside.
Zoltán Szilágyi Varga is represented by another film in the collection, too. Court Record – In Memoriam Péter Mansfeld tells the story of the counterattacks that followed the suppression of the 1956 revolution and war of independence in Hungary. The short film focuses on Péter Mansfeld, who had just turned 18, when he was executed on March 21, 1959 in a solemnly premeditated political manoeuvre…
To learn more about KAFF 2011, visit their website: www.kaff.hu!
Check out the very best of KAFF and Hungarian animationhere at Daazo.com!
Synopsis:
The film is a personal 6 minute animated short. It tells the story of a lonely young woman dealing with her personal and emotional defenses, and what happens once the defenses she worked hard to put in place and live with are
compromised. The film is an attempt to explain the feeling a lot of us get in life, when dealing with certain situations, when for a brief second our world is turned upside down.
You also have the editor’s credit on your short film. How do these two artistic approaches work together? How can you perform both roles?
Making an animated film is a little bit different than a live action one in this respect, at least when talking about a personal graduation project. While I was directing the film on paper, I already did a lot of the editing, from the storyboard to the video board stage, so that I had an edited rough version of the film before I started working on it. In the end, after animating the film, I already had all the shots and scenes in place. Every shot was timed when I animated it and already fit together with the entire context of the film. Probably, on a different project, I would have worked with an editor as well.
What was the production like for the film? How long did it take you, how did you fund it, etc.?
Well, the film was made as a graduation project. I worked on it for less than 10 months. Most of the time was for developing the story and main character, looking for the general look of the film, and directing it. Only the last 2.5 months were for animating the whole 6 minutes, and at the same time Noam Elron started work on composing the music and building the soundtrack. I was lucky to find people who related to the film and agreed to contribute to it, like Noam. The film wasn’t funded by anyone so I had to save in different aspects, doing most of the work myself on the film, relying on friends and some teachers for critique and advice and good friends and family for assistance with the film.
What do you expect from the Cannes Film Festival?
I think the thing I’m looking forward to most is both screening my short film in front of fellow filmmakers as a part of such a prestigious film festival, as well as meeting young and experienced filmmakers from around the world. I hope that getting to know filmmakers from around the world will open the possibility of collaboration and cooperation in the future.
What are your plans for the future?
I plan to continue making films and being involved in different creative projects. I truly love telling stories and striving to touch people in the process. So I plan working on that by making more films and hope that meeting fellow filmmakers in Cannes may be the gateway to new collaborations and opportunities.
I am also currently in the stages of developing the concept for a new short film. It will be very different than this film (Befetach Beity) in structure, genre and technique.
Find more interviews and articles about the World of Shorts in our Cannes 2011 Special Edition!
KAFF 2011
7th Festival of European Animated Feature Films and TV-Specials
June 15-19, 2011, Kecskemét, Hungary
Qualification for Entries
The following qualifications are required for entry works in the Festival:
- The entered works – features (min. 52 minutes) and TV-Special (min.24 minutes) – shall be made “frame by frame”, including computer graphics animation.
- For the pre-selection procedure entry works shall be either on DVD or Blu-ray.
- Works shall be those that have been completed after 1 February, 2009.
- For festival screening 35 mm film, BETACAM SP, DIGITAL BETACAM, Blu-ray and DVD to European specification are accepted.
- The works entered in the Festival must be in European ownership of at least 50%.
- Copyrighted characters, scripts, music, etc., cannot be used in the works without the copyright owner’s agreement. Failure to obtain such agreement will result in the disqualification of the work from the competition.
Entry Procedures
- The online entry form is available at www.kaff.hu. Printed and signed entry forms must be sent together with DVDs to the Festival Office no later than 11th March 2011.
- For works with narration or dialogue, the script must be enclosed. If any narration or dialogue is spoken in a language other than the official languages of the Festival, an English translation must be attached to the script. It is desired that the films have English subtitles.
- One entry form is required for each work.
- No entry fee is required.
Selections and Competition
- The Organizing Committee will select the members of the International Selection Committee and the International Jury in accordance with ASIFA regulations.
- The selection will take place at the end of March 2011.
- If the work is selected the screening copy must arrive till 13th May 2011.
- The official competition will be from June 15 to 19, 2011.
- The decisions of the International Selection Committee and the International Jury will be considered final, and no questions regarding the decisions will be accepted.
- Each film/videotape/DVD shall contains one work. Works shall be sent as follows:
Films:
- Films will be presented in 35mm (optical sound) projection format, should have a 3 minutes leader. Each 35mm film containing one work shall be wound around a core.
- The film shall have the title of the work clearly printed on the leader.
- Each film shall be sent in a canister inside an adequate shipping container.
Videotapes:
- Betacam SP and Digital Betacam are acceptable for the screening but only in PAL format.
- Videotapes shall start with a colour bar for 3 minutes and 5 seconds black. Each videotape shall have the title clearly written on it.
- Each film shall be sent in a canister inside an adequate shipping container.
DVD:
- Each DVD shall contain one work.
- DVDs shall have the title clearly written on them.
- DVDs shall be sent in an adequate shipping container.
- All films/videotapes/DVD-s will be sent at the sender’s risk. Any works sent collect on delivery will be refused.
Festival Prizes and Cash Awards
The official prizes of the jury are:
- KECSKEMÉT PRIZE – 2500 €
- BEST FEATURE FILM – 2000 €
- BEST TV SPECIAL – 2000 €
Other prizes:
AWARD OF THE HUNGARIAN STUDENT JURY
The Organizing Committee also welcomes certain organizations wishing to present their own special prizes and cash awards.
Entry materials should be addressed to:
KECSKEMÉTI ANIMATION FILM FESTIVAL
Liszt Ferenc u. 21.
H-6000 Kecskemét
Hungary
Tel/fax: (36 76) 481-788, (36 76) 481-787
E-mail: kfilm@kecskemetfilm.hu
Web: www.kaff.hu
Find more information and the detailed rules on the official website.
The 83rd Academy Awards came to an end. The winners of the three categories where short films compete are the following. In the category of live action Luke Matheny won the Oscar for God of Love. The best animated short film was The Lost Thing by Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan. The documentary award was given to Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon for Strangers No More. Congratulations to the winners!
Live Action God of Love by Luke Matheny (New York University). A love-struck, dart throwing lounge singer finds his prayers answered when he receives a mysterious box. See a short clip below!
A love triangle between two musicians and a young woman takes a surprising turn when one of them finds a collection of magical darts.
Animation The Lost Thing by Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan is about a boy who finds a strange creature on a beach, and decides to find a home for it in a world where everyone believes there are far more important things to pay attention to.
Documentary Strangers No More by Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon talks about an exceptional school in the heart of Tel Aviv where children from forty-eight different countries and diverse backgrounds come together to learn. Many of the students arrive at Bialik-Rogozin School fleeing poverty, political adversity and even genocide. Here, no child is a stranger.
We are only two days away from the 83rd Academy Awards, so it’s high time to focus on the nominees of the best short films. Shorts compete in three categories: live action, animation and documentary. We have already presented the five nominees of the live action section. Check them out by clicking here!
This post is dedicated to animation and documentaries. Unfortunately these types of films usually get less attention from the broad audience and from the media as well. On the other hand there are some serious film lovers who would die to see these. Here at Daazo.com we personally believe that that these usually neglected or treated as secondary films are definitely worth watching. So here is a glimpse of them for everybody interested.
The five animation film directors nominated for the Oscar in 2011 are:
- Teddy Newton (Day&Night)
- Max Lang, Jakob Schuh (The Gruffalo)
- Geefwee Boedoe (Let’s Pollute)
- Andrew Ruhemann, Shaun Tan (The Lost Thing)
- Bastien Dubois (Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage)
Day&Night by Teddy Newton is a story about Day, a sunny fellow and Night, a stranger of distinctly darker moods and their encounter. Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at first, and quickly get off on the wrong foot. But as they discover each other’s unique qualities – and come to realize that each of them offers a different window onto the same world – the friendship helps both to gain a new perspective.
The Gruffalo by Max Lang, Jakob Schuh tells the magical tale of a mouse who takes a walk through the woods in search of a nut. Encountering three predators who all wish to eat him – a fox, an owl and a snake – the plucky mouse has to use his wits to survive, creating an imaginary monster who then turns out to be only too real.
Let’s Pollute by Geefwee Boedoe using the style of of 50’s & 60’s educational films is a modern satire on how pollution is our heritage and keeps our economy growing strong, while instructing us how to be better polluters for a better blighted tomorrow.
The Lost Thing by Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan is about a boy who finds a strange creature on a beach, and decides to find a home for it in a world where everyone believes there are far more important things to pay attention to.
Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage by Bastien Dubois is a visual travel journal demonstrating the importance of dance, death, and traditional customs present and vibrant in the Malagasy society.
The five documentary filmmakers nominated for the Oscar in 2011 are:
- Jed Rothstein (Killing in the name)
- Sara Nesson (Poster Girl)
- Karen Goodman, Kirk Simon (Strangers No More)
- Jennifer Redfearn (Sun Come Up)
- Ruby Yang (The Warriors of Qiugang)
Killing in the name by Jed Rothstein is talkes about the case when in 2005, a suicide bomber walked into Ashraf’s wedding, killing 27 people. Now Ashraf is on a quest to confront terrorism around the globe.
Poster Girl by Sara Nesson is about an Apple pie cheerleader turned tough-as-nails machine gunner in the Iraq War, Sgt. Robynn Murray who comes home to face a new kind of battle she never anticipated.
Strangers No More by Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon talks about an exceptional school in the heart of Tel Aviv where children from forty-eight different countries and diverse backgrounds come together to learn. Many of the students arrive at Bialik-Rogozin School fleeing poverty, political adversity and even genocide. Here, no child is a stranger.
Sun Come Up by Jennifer Redfearn tells the story of some of the world’s first environmental refugees, the Carteret Islanders. The film follows relocation leader Ursula Rakova and a group of young families as they search for new homes in war torn Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea.
The Warriors of Qiugang by the Oscar winner Ruby Yang presents villagers in a remote district of central China taking on a chemical company that is poisoning their water and air. For five years they fight to transform their environment and as they do, they find themselves transformed as well.
In a grey kitchen Monika lives a solitary life disturbed only by the sounds of a dripping water tap and a buzzing housefly. Monika is seducing the housefly, when a sad stranger suddenly surprises her by entering the wrong door. Heavy Heads is a minimalistic black comedy about loneliness and solitude.
Interview with Helena Frank
What is your short film about?
Heavy Heads is about loneliness and the habits in solitude.
What kind of approach to the story was important for you as a director?
To tell the story with as few and as precise elements as possible.
What is the financial background of the film? Was it easy to get it?
Heavy Heads is my graduation film from the National Film School of Denmark, so the financial part was not a concern.
How was the shooting of the film? (A nice story?)
It was a fun and unimaginably hard time making the 11350 drawings.
33 countries, 230 buyers, 700 delegates so far at next Cartoon Forum in Hungary
These few numbers give a glimpse of Magyar Cartoon Forum that will take place from 14-17 September 2010 in Sopron (Hungary).
62 projects of animation series for TV or cross-media will be pitched in order to speed-up their financing and strengthen their distribution, representing a total budget of 160 million EUR.
The full programme with the pitching sessions schedule and the list of restaurants is now online, as well as the list of attending buyers.
The short film “Krokodill” by Estonian director Kaspar Jancis has been selected as one of the five finalists for the Cartoon d’Or 2010, the pan-European award for the best animated short film of the year. Produced by Eesti Joonisfilm, “Krokodill” is the fifth animation film by Kaspar Jancis, and has already won several awards, including two Grand Prizes at Fredrikstad Animation Festival and at Animateka (Ljubljana).
The finalists for the Cartoon d’Or 2010 were chosen among 29 shortlisted films that received an award over the past year at one of Europe’s most prestigious animation festivals. Competition for the Cartoon d’Or is limited to winners of awards from one of these partner festivals.
The jury composed of directors Joanna Quinn (UK) and Géza M. Tóth (Hungary), and producer Valérie Schermann (France), have nominated the following films
“A Family Portrait”, Joseph Pierce, UK (4′ 40”)
“Krokodill”, Kaspar Jancis, Estonia (17′)
“Logorama”, H5 (François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy & Ludovic Houplain), France (16′ 5”)
“Sinna Mann”, Anita Killi, Norway (20′)
“The Tale of Little Puppetboy”, Johannes Nyholm, Sweden (18′)
The winner will be announced in Sopron, Hungary, on 17th September 2010 during Magyar Cartoon Forum, the platform to boost the co-production and distribution of European animation for television. The directors of each nominated short will present his or her film to an auditorium of important players in European animation, providing them an opportunity to strengthen their ties with the industry.
The winner will receive a trophy together with a financial aid of 10,000 EUR, thanks to the support of the MEDIA Programme of the European Union.
In 2009, Irish director David O’Reilly won the Cartoon d’Or award for his innovative short film “Please Say Something”.
CARTOON and the MEDIA Programme of the European Union are glad to offer scholarships to animation professionals from the following countries of the enlarged European Union (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia) to enable them to participate in the Cartoon Masters.
The scholarship covers the registration and subscription fee, the travel costs (for a maximum of 250 EUR), the hotel costs and the meals package.
To apply for a scholarship, the applicant has to download the scholarship application form and send it to CARTOON by email to Audrey Sersté or by fax: +32 2 245 46 89.
CARTOON will grant a scholarship after having considered the applicant’s CV and motivation letter. Per Master, Cartoon will grant only one scholarship per company. CARTOON will grant only one scholarship per person per year. In any other case, CARTOON will observe a “first come, first served” policy.
Daazo.com is the online center of European short Films. Beside of our weekly film premieres it is also a collection of short films made by you. Visit Daazo now!
Hungary’s Kecskemét Animation Film Festival, the event to attend right now for any film fan and industry player, is celebrating its 10th edition this year. We already launched a collection of the best earlier shorts and now here we are right in the heart of the festival. We kicked off the 10th KAFF with watching Ferenc Cakó’s live sand animated show. It was the classic old type of performance with an artist doing something unusual but definitely beautiful in front of a live audience. The simplest thing. He draws in the sand. Nothing more, but it takes your breath away.
