24th edition of International Film Festival Etiuda&Anima is over. We will remember these six amazing days of festival, full of movie screenings, meetings with incredible guests, music and trade events and varied workshops.
On 21-26 November Etiuda&Anima made Cracow a Poland’s capital of cinema. The Festival was visited by many excellent guests, including Tony Palmer – a live legend of documentary about counter-culture of 60’s and 70’s, an outstanding camera operator – Slawimir Idziak, Oscar-nominated for Animated Short Film: Kōji Yamamura, Géza M. Tóth, Theodore Ushev, highly valued animation creators - Claudius Gentinetta i Svetlana Filippova, icon of Polish independent film and director Bodo Kox and many others.
On Tuesday, the first day of Festival, we honoured the memory of distinguished animator and producer, Marek Serafiński, who passed away earlier this year. At the opening gala in the Malopolski Ogrod Sztuki we watched the latest Hieronim Neumann movie „The Elevator” and the full-lenght animation „Window Horses” by Canadian graphic artist Ann Marie Fleming.
On Wednesday we enjoyed two music documentaries by Tony Palmer – “Bird on a Wire” and “The Beatles & World War II” – announced by the creator himself. We also watched the first screenings of Etiuda and Anima contests. National Film School in Lodz, last year’s winner of the Special Gold Dinosaur for the best film school, presented the short movies directed by the students.
On the third day the series „Self-Portraits of Animation Authors” began with a meeting with Hungarian artist Géza M. Tóth. We also watched the first screening of the new contest – ANIMA.PL. We presented the documentaries directed by Herz Frank, outstanding Lativian documentary filmmaker, and full-lenght animations in Kijow Centrum: „Loving Vincent” (2017), „Ethel&Ernest” (2016), “Revengeance” (2016) and „In the Forest of Huckybucky” (2016). Thursday evening belonged to Tony Palmer – after „All my Loving” (1968) screening our guest was interviewed by Piotr Metz with live audience.
On Friday Slawomir Idziak awarded the Special Gold Dinosaur for the outstanding artists and distinguished pedagogues. The ceremony was followed by the screening of „A Tale of Love and Darkness” directed by Natalie Portman with our Laureate behind the camera. We also enjoyed another meeting in the „Self-Portraits of Animation Authors” series with Claudius Getinetta, a Swedish artist. In the Malopolski Ogrod Sztuki the retrospective of Kōji Yamamura was preceded by a splendid dance and music performance by Japanese group Toranoko P.A.C. The fourth day of Festival ended with viewing of the Georges Méliès' silent movies with guitar accompaniment performer by Kuba Duda and the „Theatrum Magicum” (2017) directed by Marcin Giżycki.
On Saturday Svetlana Filippova presented her original workplace in „Self-Portraits of the Animation Authors”. We also presented the review of the avant-garde movies directed by Stefan and Franciszka Themerson. In Kijów Centrum we celebrated 25 editions of the International Animated Film Workshops. It was an occasion to present animations, that came into existence thanks to the initiative of Workshops.
The last day of the Festival begin with the screening of the full-lenght animated movie for children „Richard the Stork” (2017). Then we watched ten movies that Janusz Korosadowicz selected from the laureates of last twenty editions of the Polish Amateur Animated Film Festival (OFAFA). On Sunday afternoon we watched the „Man with the Magic Box”, which was followed by meeting with Bodo Kox conducted by Lukasz Wojtusik.
During the Closing of the Festival we got to know the winners of this year’s ETIUDA, ANIMA and ANIMA.PL competitons. The Golden Dinosaur for the best short film went to
“Dregs” directed by Kordian Kądziela, the Golden Jabberwocky went to “Oh, Mother!” directed by Paulina Ziółkowska, and the Golden Żmij went to “Impossible Figures and Other Stories II” directed by Marta Pajek . The best film school of the Festiwal is Nederlandse Filmacademie.
For those who want to experience it all again – this year’s chronicle records are available on Etiuda&Anima youtube channel.
Thank you for being with us. See you next year!
25. edition of International Film Festival Etiuda&Anima will be organised 20-25 November 2018.
Tłumaczenie: Angelika Harat
25. IFF Etiuda&Anima new poster
