Visegrad Animation Forum Announces Official Project Selection

The projects have been selected from across Europe, including the Central and East European region – Bosna and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia or Ukraine. All selected projects will take part in the pitching preparation with an experienced professional on their story concept, project development, financial plan, market or festival strategy, possible coproduction workflow separation etc. This will be followed by the pitching competition and individual meetings where they will face industry professionals. Every participant’s objective is to find partners, distributors, and broadcasters and win their interest – and maybe even “sell” their projects.

The winning project in both categories will receive EUR 2,000 for further development and the winner of the category Series/ TV Specials will have direct access to Cartoon Forum 2018 without the need to undergo competitive pre-selection. The collaboration between the VAF and the world respected association CARTOON is extending. For the first time, a pitch for animated feature films will be organized. In this pilot edition, five VAF board members will choose the best project from the CEE region. After being pitched to different European distributors, 1:1 meetings with key representatives of the animation industry will be followed. The most promising project shall automatically advance to Cartoon Movie 2019 (Bordeaux, France).

Thanks to the cooperation with the European Animation Development Lab Animation Sans Frontiers(ASF), one selected director or producer will receive a scholarship in amount of EUR 1,500. Tim Leborgne, project leader of ASF will follow the pitches in both categories and choose the winner. The price worth EUR 1,000 will receive the best short film and will cover the sound postproductionincluding studio and sound engineer for 5 days. This award is offered by Polish Playade Sound studio by Piotr Kubiak.

The projects selected for the category SHORT FILM are as follows:

1. The Bird

dir. Daria Kashcheeva (Czech Republic)

2. Black & White

dir. Anna Benner, Zoe Eluned Aiano (Germany)

3. Criss Cross

dir. Nina Turčanová (Slovakia)

4. Finding Home

dir. Maria Stanisheva (Bulgaria)

5. Floating

dir. Jelena Milunovic (Serbia)

6. I Come Undone

dir. Piotr Chmielewski (Poland)

7. Iris

dir. Lucija Buzancic (Croatia)

8. Lights & Shadows

dir. Rastko Ciric (Serbia)

9. Marble and Lemons

dir. Anna Katalin Lovrity (Hungary)

10. Matia Dances

dir. Marko Dješka (Croatia)

11. Toomas Beneath the Valley of the Wild Wolves

dir. Chintis Lundgren (Estonia)

The projects selected for the category TV SERIES & SPECIALS are as follows:

1. The Adventures of Tubby and Stretch

dir. Mladen Djukic (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

2. As Many Kings, As Many Tales

dir. Bella Szederkényi (Hungary)

3. How It Grows…

dir. Miha Kalan , Jernej Žmitek (Slovenia)

4. KA-BOOM!

dir. Veronika Kocourková (Slovakia)

5. The Little Odyssey

dir. Jakub Kouřil (Czech Republic)

6. Noah’s Tree

dir. Péter Vácz (Hungary)

7. Pixie Fix and the Lost Dewdrops

dir. Zoltán Miklósy, Attila Herkó (Hungary)

8. Planthéon, History’s Losers

dir. David Freymond, Thomas Pons (France)

9. Rabbit From a Tin Hat

dir. Ivan Knežević (Serbia)

10. South Farm

dir. Roman Kepkalo (Ukraine)

The VAF Třeboň takes place on May 1 – 3, 2018 and is held jointly with ANIFILM – International Festival of Animated Film (May 1 – 6, 2018, Czech Republic).