A record number of films entered ? The dark soul of animators ? Films from almost fifty countries ? Iran will be competing against Israel
PRAGUE, 22nd February ? The selection committee of the International Festival of Animated Films, AniFest 2006, has completed its selection of films to be included in the competition. It had to choose from a record thousand films that were entered. However, it selected only a quarter of the works for the competition so visitors to the festival can look forward to high quality films. As usual AniFest will be held in Třeboň from 4th until 10th May. Each year it is harder to make it through to the competition at AniFest. As the festival?s popularity grows so does the standard of the competition. This year the organisers received more than a thousand entries! That is roughly 300 films more than last year. Nevertheless the selection committee has kept the number of competition films at the same level as in 2005: there will be just 254 competition films. ?We are pleased with the increase in the number of films entered. It is a clear sign that the festival?s international credit is growing and that filmmakers from all over the world want to take part in our festival?, says Petr Slavík, AniFest?s director, ?With the high number of films entered there was, of course, a temptation to increase the number of competition films. But because we also want the quality of the festival to grow we have decided to keep the competition at its original size. It shows that only really good films will have a chance of success in the international competition? he adds.
The chairman of the selection committee and the head of FAMU?s animation department, Jiří Kubíček, says, ?This year we have received a relatively high number of feature-length films which is pleasing. I have noticed that the standard of short and student films is considerably higher than the standard of television and commercial films.? According to Kubíček, when you compare it internationally French student films come out best. France is also where the most films were entered from ? a grand total of 148. Another member of the selection committee, the animator Michal ?abka, agrees with Kubíček. ?France and Great Britain definitely have the highest standard. In these countries the largest number of films are also made each year?, he says.The selection committee agrees that the common denominator of films entered for AniFest this year is darkness and an absence of humour.
And a few statistics to end with:
This year films from 49 countries have been entered for AniFest (last year there were 39).
A total of 1056 competition films have been entered (last year 738).
The greatest number of films has come from France (148), Great Britain (129), the Czech Republic (114), the USA (83), Belgium (53) and Germany (52).
As is traditional several films have been sent from Iran (15), with strong competition from Israel (18).
This year the Columbian David Castrillón has again entered a film into the category for films made by children. Last year thanks to AniFest he became a celebrity in Columbia even though his film did not take any prize home from Třeboň.
For more information please contact:
Ondřej Drábek
777350077
Gabriela Zajícová
776757546
pr@anifest.cz
www.anifest.cz
AniFest ? Corona s.r.o.
Jindřicha Plachty 28, 150 00 Praha 5
Czech Republic
tel.: 257 324 507
mail: info@anifest.cz
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