“Etiuda & Anima”
The International Film Festival “Etiuda & Anima” will take place Nov. 16-22 at the CK Rotunda and Kino Kijow theatres. Nearly 1,000 film schools are invited to the festival. Three hundred films were submitted to the competition, and only 43 were accepted. In the course of 7 days, a vast number of 400 films will be presented during the fun and intriguing fall film festival. Since it’s first organization in 1994, the “Etiuda” Festival (since 2005 “Etiudza & Anima”) is dedicated to the works of students from film and art schools from Europe and around the world.
Each year their final graduation film projects and short studies compete for individual awards: Gold, Silver and Bronze Dinosaurs. Besides these awards, in the competition for world animation masters and their students, professional and independent artists, creators of traditional animation and computer animation will fight for the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Jabberwocky. The best film school on the Old Continent gets the Special Golden Dinosaur Award.
During opening night Nov. 16 at 18:00 in Kino Kijow, Priit Parn, a remarkable Estonian artist of animated films, receives the Special Golden Dinosaur. This award is held for an outstanding teacher who successfully combines his/her own artistic output with educational work at art schools. Past recipients have been: Jerzy Kucia from the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts; Kazimierz Karabasz from the Lodz Film School; and Paul Driessen from the German Kunsthochschule in Kassel.
Animated films chosen by the members of the jury will be brought to a list called the Canon of New Century Animation. At this year’s festival, retrospectives of Estonian and Iranian animations take place. But “Etiudza & Anima” is not only for short films. “At this year’s festival, there will be very interesting premieres of full-length films,” Lukasz Kluskiewicz, spokesman of the festival says. “For example an animated comedy from Brazil ? “Sex, Oregano and Rock N’ Roll” is a movie about former hippies.” There will also be feature films. “Students who made their debut a few years ago during the festival, have now done full-length feature films, so it is hard not to present them,” Kluskiewicz says.
It was at the festival that these brilliant creators took their first steps: the producer of “The Return of the Idiot” Sasa Gedeon; winner of an Oscar for the film “Quiero Ser” Florian Gallenberger; Julia Loktev, author of the shocking personal documentary “Moment of Impact”; Marcin Wrona, one the most talented members of the young Polish generation of filmmakers; Leszek David, multiple award winner at Krakow Film Festivals and Gyorgy Palfi, creator of the hotly controversial film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival “Taxidermy.”
Besides competitions, “Etiuda & Anima” proposes many additional events: Animators’ self-portraits seem to be the most interesting. These are retrospectives of Priit Parn, Bill Plympton and Gil Alkabetz ? directors of animated films. There will also be meetings with the artists who come to Krakow. But besides this, filmgoers can look into the methods of animation. Artists will be creating animation live after screenings and demonstrate how they work, thanks to the camera, which will be shown on screen simultaneously. 10 of the best German, vanguard films from the 20s, chosen by Prof. Andrzej Gwozdz will be screened on Nov. 18. The festival also wishes to celebrate 50 years of English Free Cinema and present the famed short features of British Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson or Lindsay Anderson. There will also be screened prized films from festivals in Annecy, Stuttgart and Trebon.
More information and detailed program events: www.etiudaandanima.com