(Last updated: 4th May)
The 31st World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb is planning to be held from 7th to 12th June in Zagreb, Croatia.
Animafest Zagreb is one of the most important animation festivals in the world, contributing to the global animation industry for many years as the world’s second oldest animated film festival. In this article, Animationweek, as an official media partner of the festival, will continuously deliver comprehensive information on this year’s festival, from the film competitions and screening programme to all of the other wide range of programmes.
Programme Highlights
1.Lifetime Achievement Award
On 3rd March, the festival announced that Ralph Bakshi is the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 31st World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb.
The festival says:
“Ralph Bakshi is a unique phenomenon in the cinematic universe and one of the most influential authors on the global animation scene.”
“Bakshi’s films never tried to run away from death, just like they never tried to run away from life. They portrayed what was happening ‘somewhere here’, between dream and reality, between our reality and our caricature. He never shunned to depict violence, sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, but rather gave them a chance to blossom, like life itself blossoms.”
The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to him at the official opening ceremony of Animafest in Zagreb on 7th June 2021.
2. Film Programmes
2-1. Competition
On 17th March, the festival announced the this year’s official selection for the Grand Competition – Short Film (44 films selected), Croatian Film Competition (23 films selected) and Student Film Competition (45 films selected). The festival received more than 820 films for the category Grand Competition – Short Film, including 840 student films. The information on each competition is given below:
Grand Competition – Short Film (List of the selected films)
Awards:
– Grand Prix – Short Film (best short film of the festival) – cash award of 2,500 €
– Golden Zagreb (for creativity and innovative artistic achievement) – cash award of 2,000 €
– Zlatko Grgić (best first film production apart from educational institutions) – cash award of 1,500 €
– Mr. M – Short Film, audience award
Grand Competition – Feature Film (List of the selected films)
Award: Grand Prix – Feature Film (best feature film of the festival) – cash award of 2,500 €
Student Film Competition (List of the selected films)
Award: Dušan Vukotić (best student film) – cash award of €1,000
Croatian Film Competition (List of the selected films)
Award: Best Croatian Film – cash award of €1,000 sponsored by the Croatian Film Directors’ Guild
Films for Children Competition (List of the selected films)
Award: Best film for children
VR Animation Competition (List of the selected films)
2-2. World Panorama
World Panorama is a diverse, non-competitive programme. It will present 25 films (from 18 countries) of original, innovative and daring titles that will offer a broad insight into the recent global production of specifically narrated films. The list of the selected films is here.
