Izabela Plucińska and Tomek Popakul together with Kasumi Ozeki have multiple reasons to celebrate. Their films were awarded in the Polish as well as the international competition. Zima left Poznań with the third place in both categories while Izabela Plucińska won the national competition with Outside and the international competition with Joko.

The International Animated Film Festival ANIMATOR is an Oscar® qualifying festival and the largest cultural event in Poland dedicated solely to animated productions.

This year, Polish animated films dominated the international competition. The main award went to Izabela Plucińska for Joko. The titular character is a young man who supports his entire family by working on a cistern. On the second anniversary of his employment, Joko and his colleagues are surprised by a visit from unidentified delegates who order them to… carry them on their backs. Initially, Joko rebels against such a humiliating practice, but – under the pressure of his peers and the desire to earn money – he gives in. The delegates begin to increasingly dominate the young man. Red blisters appear on his back, and one of the carried guests can't get off his back. Every subsequent delegate who touches Joko sticks to him permanently. Joko presents a grotesque vision of eternal exploitation and human dominance, filled with absurd humour and macabre.

Zima by Tomek Popakul and Kasumi Ozeki placed third in two competitions – the international competition and the Polish competitions. This has never happened before in the entire history of the festival. Zima is a mosaic portrait of a small fishing village, where man and man, man and animal, animal and animal are interdependent in a delicate balance of warm, tender care, and cold, emotional cruelty. It is an amazing story about loneliness and community in the spirit of magical realism.

The first place in the Polish competition also went to Izabela Plucińska but this time for her earlier film – Outside – while Martyr's Guidebook by Maksymilian Rzontkowski placed second. Potatoes by Marcin Podolec received a Special Mention.

The list of all awarded films can be found here.

JULY 2024