Anifilm to Award Václav Mergl

Graphic artist, screenwriter and director Václav Mergl will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the opening gala of this year’s Anifilm. Václav Mergl is a distinctive artist whose style significantly enriched Czech animation with elements of sci-fi but mainly with original films with philosophical dimension and an artistic style which is not reduced to a mere formal device. Anifilm will remember Mergl’s animated films with a screening of his films a screened mostly from film-strips. The festival will also screen a showcase of Mergl’s films for children made in cooperation with his wife Pavla. A special lecture by pedagogue and theorist Vladimír Suchánek will put Mergl’s work in a very interesting context and a unique exhibition in Dům Štěpánka Netolického called Sequence of Stopped Time will show the connection of Mergl’s other artworks with his animated films. The exhibition, prepared in cooperation with the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery, will be open until 20^th June.