Visegrad Animation Forum 2016 Awards the Best Animated Projects in Development

Almost 100 projects from all over Europe competed to participate in the 4th year of the Visegrad Animation Forum (May 3-5, Třeboň). 12 short films and 12 TV series in progress were selected for the contest where the Hungary clearly dominated on the winners’ box.

Link to original article at www.visegradanimation.com

The award for the best animated short film in development went to a French-Hungarian co-production „CARPEL“ by Tibor Banoczki and Sarolta Szabo. Both authors are deeply engaged in storytelling and look to discover mysterious, often obscure and bizarre worlds. Together they founded a multi-award-winning art formation Domestic Infelicity. „The jury were unanimous in their decision. We were impressed with the originality of the story and design and felt the project was excellently pitched.“, explained the jury members.

The Jury’s Special mention was received by the Romanian director, Paul Muresan, for his short film „SOMEWHERE“. The young animator studied art school in Cluj, Romania and his film Baby Nap was selected and awarded at many film festivals, including Stuttgart, Annecy and Anim´est Romania. „The jury decided to give a special mention to a Romanian film Somewhere just to show our support to its original idea, strong potential and interesting art design.“, added the jury of short films category.

The Main Prize in the TV Series category was received at the festive ceremony by the Hungarian-Croatian delegation headed by the Directors, Flora Anna Buda and Balazs Turai, for their project
“THE PIRACY OF PRINCESS PRICELESS“. Flora Anna Buda attended MOME in Animation Design. Balazs Turai is an animation writer, designer and director; for 3 years, he has worked as a graphic designer and animation artist for Prezi.com. „For the large effort at creating an entire new universe of funny, inspired and yet close-to-real-life characters. The jury wants to support their project in the probably long way of development and fund-raising for production phase.“, justified the TV Series jury.

Special mention amongst TV Series was awarded to “BORKA AND THE MAGIC DRESS“ by Hungarian directors Beata Gurmai and Balint Benkovits. Beata studied photography at Fotografus.hu and editing, directing and cinematography at the Dunaversitas master course of motion pictures. Balint has been doing animation, video mapping and vfx since 2000. From 2010 he has been working as animator in Glowing Bulbs and Derengo Animation. „For it´s unique, simple and tender way how it manages everyday ordinary family matters and problems through the eye of a little girl who finds helping hands in her family memories and tradition.“ , clarified the jury.

JURY / Short films:

Barbara Johnsonová — Creative Producer, Czech Television (Czech Republic)
Juraj Krasnohorský — Producer, Artichoke Film Production (Slovakia)
Christian Pfohl — Producer, Lardux Films (France)
Boško Picula — Film Critic (Croatia)
Graham Ralph — Director, Silver Fox Studio (Great Britain)
Kimmo Sillanmikko — Producer, Twisted Films (Finland)

JURY / TV Series:

Robert Baliński — International Relations Department, Polish Film Institute (Poland)
Michaela Sabolčáková — Acquisitions department, RTVS Slovakia (Slovakia)
Ádám Márton Horváth — Film Editor, Film Department, MTVA (Hungary)
Jan Maxa — Director of Programme Development, Czech Television (Czech Republic)
Frédéric Puech — Producer, Planet Nemo (France)
Lukáš Záhoř — Chief Producer, Stream.cz (Czech Republic)
Křešimir Zubčić — Editor-Buyer, Acquisition Department, Croatian Television (Croatia)

The list of SHORT FILMS in pitching competition can be found at this link: http://visegradanimation.com/short-films-advancing-to-the-finals/

The list of TV SERIES in pitching competition can be found at this link: http://visegradanimation.com/finalists-for-the-category-tv-serial-tv-series/

Author – Marta Obršálová

APAF is a coorganizer of VAF 2016, with the financial support of the Slovak Audiovisual Fund AVF

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