Fest Anča International Animation Festival has become the first film festival in Slovakia with the prestigious status of Academy Awards Qualifying Festival. Two Anča Award-winning short films are eligible to compete in the short film category at the 96th Academy Awards. These films are in the Best Animated Short and Best Slovak Animated Short categories. Slovak cinema is now one step closer to the prestigious Oscar award.
The jury selected the Swiss film Armat by Elodie Dermange and the Slovak film Doubt by Adela Križovenska. The 16th edition of Fest Anča took place from 29 June to 2 July 2023 in Žilina. It is the only Slovak multimedia festival dedicated to this genre. It focuses on films intended primarily for adult audiences. The aim of the event is to present contemporary progressive animated works alongside the best of the genre's history.
Fest Anča has joined the exclusive family of Academy Awards qualifying festivals. These include the world's most prestigious festivals such as Venice, Cannes and Berlinale, as well as animation festivals such as Annecy in France and Animafest in Zagreb. Jakub Spevak, programme director of Fest Anča, who also curated two section for the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France. He speaks of the Oscar potential as a significant milestone for Slovakia:"It's great news for us. But also for the whole audiovisual production and culture in Slovakia. This step proves that the Slovak festival is worthy of the prestigious Oscar award".
Lea Pagacova from the Audiovisual Information Centre of the Slovak Film Institute stressed that this will make Slovak productions more popular in the world: “This is even better news for Slovak directors, because the Slovak competition is also linked to this. That's why I think our festival will get more attention. It definitely deserves it.”
You can find out more about the festival in Thursday's programme. Our colleague Martin Bednarik prepared the story.
