Competition films

Star-Studded Short Film Selection

This year, our Competition of Animated Short Films will offer 38 films of various genres and geographical origins. The majority of films are personal testimonies and ani-docs complemented by fantastic and metaphorical films and also surprisingly realistic portrayals of today’s world. Even in these challenging times, the films don’t lack humour – even though it is often ironic, absurd or black. The competition will introduce many anticipated films (some of which will hopefully have their world premieres in Liberec), but let us mention for example Comeback by Vladimir Leschiov and Affairs of the Art by Joanna Quinn. Among the authors of the competing films, we can find many renowned animators known by Anifilm visitors such as Magda Guidi, Alberto Vázquez, Sarina Nihei, Andreas Hykade and Atsushi Wada. A complete list of selected films can be found here.

Contemporary World Through the Lens of Animation Students

In total 32 selected student films will form three competition blocks. In comparison with the short film category, this selection is even more varied. It can be said that in general, students focus more intensively on current social issues (intergenerational misunderstandings, homophobia, abuse, migration…). Quite a lot of films this year use the principles of musicals to convey rather unexpected messages. There are 4 films from the Czech Republic in the competition. One of them is a musical film – Old Gramophone’s Ghostly Tones (Hrůza v tónu gramofonu) by a collective of students of the Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín and the other three films were made by students of the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague: Red Shoes (Rudé boty, dir. Anna Paděrová), Love is Just a Death Away (Jsme si o smrt blíž, dir. Bára Anna Stejskalová) and And Hill (Mraveniště, dir. Marek Náprstek). A complete list of competing student films can be found here.

Non-Narrative Animation Dominated by Traditional Approaches 

This year, our selection of competing abstract and non-narrative animated films is dominated by classic – analogue – techniques such as direct animation, hyperlapse, drawing and even wool animation. Even though elements such as story and realism aren’t typical for this category, some of the 19 selected films address current issues and refer to reality. Whether it’s ecology, the Covid-19 pandemic or a loss of home. Most of the selected films also communicate by means of their visuality and soundtrack. They use their own methods to appeal to their viewers without words or story. Our selection includes films by renowned masters of non-narrative animation such as Paul Bush, Faiyaz Jafri and Donato Sansone. A complete list of the films can be found here.

Streams of Creativity in Almost Thirty Music Videos

Lovers of music and animation can look forward to a colourful selection of 29 music videos. The selection includes also Czech-made music videos. Just a reminder, last year, the prizes for best student film (Daughter) and best music video (Past:Tíseň) stayed here in the Czech Republic. This year, the Animorpha could go to Jan Piskač with his music video for the band The Ribs or Terezie Unzeitigová with her gloomy music video for the band Razumikhin. One of the few 3D computer animated music videos is also Czech, it was made by Jan Drozda for the band Ohm Square. The quality of competing music videos is higher every year and it is clear that this is a specific category in which not only Czech authors can utilize their creativity in a medium not unlike short film. All music videos competing at this year’s Anifilm can be found here.