THE 16TH KECSKEMÉT ANIMATION FILM FESTIVAL HAS STARTED

At the opening ceremony on Wednesday evening, Csaba Káel, Government Responsible for the development of the Hungarian national film industry, said that the festival is special because European feature-length and television animation films made in the last two years are competing alongside Hungarian animation, and that all Hungarians, wherever they live in the world, can enter the competition. Thus, films from Japan, Greece, France, Bulgaria, Romania and Austria have entered the Hungarian competition.

 

The President of the Board of the National Film Institute called the KAFF the biggest celebration of animation in Hungary, adding that the celebration of Hungarian animation had in fact already begun last week in Annecy, where there was an exceptionally strong Hungarian presence and three Hungarian films were awarded prizes at the international animation festival: Áron Gauder's Four Souls of Coyote won the Jury Prize, Flora Buda's Anna 27 animation won the Crystal Award for Short Film, and the Czech-Slovak-Hungarian co-production Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light won the Jury Prize of the Contrechamp programme.

 

Csaba Káel at the opening of the 16th KAFF (Photo: Róbert Banczik)

 

Speaking about the programme of the 16th Kecskemét Animation Film Festival, which will run until 25 June, Csaba Káel said that in addition to the film screenings, the festival will also feature exhibitions, master classes, book presentations, a coin issuance programme related to the Hungarian Folk Tales series, music programmes and a conference organised by the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH).

 

According to the Government Commissioner for Film, there is a big change in the world of animated cinema, because while in the past (perhaps because of the Disney influence) feature-length animated films were almost exclusively for children, there are now many films for adults made using animation techniques. As he pointed out, digital filmmaking has opened the door wide open, with easy and cheap access to the right software, so that a lot of animated films are being made, and a new "folk art" is emerging. The National Film Institute has a major role to play in supporting the creation of works that create cultural value and ensure the sustainability of our culture, and in helping to ensure that these works reach a wider audience, both within and beyond borders.

 

György Báron at the opening of the 16th KAFF (Photo: Róbert Banczik)

 

At the opening ceremony of the 16th KAFF, the KAFF Lifetime Achievement Award was presented. The festival's organising committee awards the prize to a non-filmmaker who has made a significant contribution to the history of Hungarian animation over several decades. This year, the KAFF Lifetime Achievement Award went to film critic and university professor György Báron.

 

On the first day of the festival, a retrospective screening of the films of this year's birthday celebrations was held. KEDD Animation Studio is 21 years old this year, and during the KAFF you can learn more about its history in the form of an exhibition in the Hírös Agora. The more than two decades of KEDD's work were presented in a film compilation, including episodes of Kuflik (Kuflis), Mitch-Match, Bogyó és Babóca (Berry and Dolly), Detti és Drót (Daisy and Dot) and the Naszreddin Hodzsa meséi (Tales of Nasreddin Hodja) series.

 

Three exhibitions were also opened on the first day of the festival: visitors can see the stages of production of the Toldi film through a wealth of images, behind-the-scenes footage of the seven-year-long making of Four Souls of Coyote, concept art, character and background designs, and the director's own Native American artefacts. The 150 years of Hungarian comics will be presented through the works of the most outstanding Hungarian comic creators, including a book launch on 22 June of Sándor Kertész's book Bubble Talkers – 150 Years of Hungarian Comics.

 

On Wednesday, Zoltán Varga's book titled Cat-and-Mouse Games was presented, in which he elaborated on the work of Béla Ternovszky, illustrated with a lot of colourful images, accompanied by never-before-seen story boards, character designs and work photos.

 

Éva M Tóth and Áron Gauder at the opening of the exhibition Four Souls of Coyote (Photo: Róbert Banczik)