DECEMBER AT ANIMATED FILM FESTIVALS
After a busy November, in December the festival paste seems to slow down a bit. This month Polish animated films will screen 23 times at merely seven festivals.
At the beginning of the month Polish animated films were listed in the catalogues of several film festivals including: Macedonian Animax (“The Tenement Building” by Agnieszka Burszewska), French Tous Courts (“A Blue Room” by Tomasz Siwiński and “Baths” by Tomek Ducki), Dhaka International Short Film Festival (“Danse macabre” by Małgorzata Rżanek) or Parisian Forum des Images (“Fuge for cello, trumpet and a landscape” by Jerzy Kucia).
December was inaugurated by the great success of Poles at the Canadian Les Sommets du cinéma d'animation. Three Polish films stood among the winners. Festival’s Grand Prix went to the latest film by Piotr Dumała called “Hippos”, the Audience Award was handed over to Jerzy Kucia’s “Fugue for cello, trumpet and a landscape” while the Special Mention in the category of student was given to “Ab ovo” – an animated etude by Anita Kwiatkowska-Naqvi. The Canadian festival ended last weekend, on December 7th. Six Polish films screened at Les Sommets du cinéma d'animation.
On Monday, the 11th edition of the Slovenian Animateka festival begun. It has become nearly a tradition now that Polish films form a part of the festival’s programme every year and screen both in the competitive and accompanying screenings. This year’s international competition was opened by the screening of “Fugue for cello, trumpet and a landscape” by Jerzy Kucia. Four Polish films competing for the festival laurels in the very same competition include “A blue room” by Tomasz Siwiński, “To Thy Heart” by Ewa Borysewicz, “Baths” by Tomek Ducki and “Hippos” by Piotr Dumała. Moreover four student films will form the part of the European student competition programme including “The incredibly elastic man” by Karolina Specht, “Of a forest” by Katarzyna Melnyk, “The Bear” by Zofia Antoniak and “Fat and skinny” by Aleksandra Brożyna. “The Tenement Building” by Agnieszka Burszewska was invited to sceen as a part of the Panorama section. Animateka is one of the most prominent animated film festivals in Central Europe. Despite its relevantly short history each year the festival’s programme includes the most important animated films made all over the world. The laureates of this year’s edition will be announced on December 14th.
The last festival’s appearance of this month will be marked by the screening of two animated films at the Bronx World Film Cycle held between 13th and 21st December. The audience and the guests of the American festival will watch “To Thy Heart” by Ewa Borysewicz and “Baths” by Tomek Ducki.
The list of the December festivals can be found here