Kecskemét Animation Film Festival (KAFF) Celebrates 40 Years – and 111 Years of Hungarian Animation
Key Points:
– KAFF, Hungary’s first animation film festival, is marking its 40th anniversary. Now, that’s what I call a mid-life crisis with style!
– Emphasizing Hungary’s finest animation artisans, KAFF also prides itself in rolling out an impressive international programme.
– The fun and frolic run from 27th May to 1st June, offering a diverse smorgasbord of animation for hungry eyeballs.
– This year’s festival not just celebrates KAFF’s 40 years of existence, but also 111 years of Hungarian animation. Talk about aging gracefully!
Festival Shakes Its Mane At 40!
Let’s not kid ourselves; turning 40 can be terrifying for some (and fabulous for others!) But unlike most of us, the Kecskemét Animation Film Festival decided to throw a massive party! Going strong for 40 years, KAFF has decided to take a long, loving look back at over a century of Hungarian animation. These guys aren’t just aging, they’re doing it in 3D technicolor!
KAFF: Hungary’s Pride in Animated Grandeur
KAFF is embracing not only the national gems of Hungary’s animation industry, but also showcasing a global-level program. Ambitious? Sure. Admirable? Absolutely. This is a festival not just delighting in its own birthday, but saluting an industry and craft that has evolved exuberantly for 111 years.
With days spanning from May 27th to June 1st, the KAFF is nothing less than a six-day feast for animation aficionados. Prepare yourselves because the festival promises to dish out a wide selection of animated treats, enough to satiate even the most ravenous of visual appetites.
In conclusion, while some may think animation is just about technicolor cartoons and snazzy visual FX, KAFF knows it’s about celebrating the journey, the milestones, and the razzle-dazzle that’s been bringing our screens to life for more than a century. So, grab a tub of popcorn and take your seat, because this Hungarian fiesta of frames is set to paint the town “animated”!
Kecskemet Animation Film Festival (KAFF), Hungary’s oldest and one of its most continuously held film festivals, turns 40 this year, spotlighting illustrious Hungarian animation artists and featuring a curated programme packed with international offerings. From May 27th to June 1st, festival attendees will enjoy a rich selection of Hungarian animation spanning a grand 111 years. The festival will also host an exhibit focusing on the history of slide film in Hungary over the past 70 years, pay tribute to some legendary Hungarian animation artists celebrating major anniversaries this year, and offer six days of interdisciplinary events at no cost.
This year, KAFF is brimming with anniversaries to be commemorated. Not only KAFF’s 40th birthday, but the festival will also be opened with an exhibition devoted to its own history, curated by film historian Zoltán Varga. The opening will be followed immediately by a 90-minute showcase of the festival’s most acclaimed, award-winning short films throughout the festival’s storied existence.
The anniversaries also mark milestones for Hungarian animation figures. This year would have been the 80th birthday of Csaba Varga, a key figure in Hungarian animation whose film, The Wind, is featured as a highlight during the festival, and is reputed as one of the all-time greatest works in animation. Varga is also credited with founding Ixilon Studio and the first independent animation studio in Hungary, which gained renown for its high quality international commissions and auteur support.
The year is also poignant as it marks what would have been the 90th birthday of Jószef Nepp, the mind behind The Mészga Family and Dr. Bubó, and an intrinsic figure in Hungarian animation history. An exhibit in the festival will shed light on his expansive career and his contributions to multiple facets of animation, from scripting and directing to animation designing and music composing. His 1984 work, Snow White, a classic animated feature known for its dark humour, will take center stage at an outdoor screening in Kecskemét’s main square.
József Nepp’s Snow White (Hófehér 1984)
Coincidentally, it would also mark the 90th birthday of Sándor Reisenbüchler, who was once dubbed an “extrreme lunatic” for his unique and forward-looking works in animated filmmaking. Béla Vajda, another significant figure known for his contributions to documentary and caricature animation, would also turn 90 this year. His film, Moto perpetuo, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival in 1980, will also shine on the KAFF screen.
To cap the bunch of anniversaries, KAFF is lined up to celebrate the 111th year of Hungarian animation with a specially curated programme featuring the best of Hungarian animation, shown in three 90-minute blocks that cover works from the 1960s till date.
Announcing KAFF’s Programme Lineup
From an initial 409 entries from 23 countries, KAFF has shortlisted films for its competition programme. These included shortlisted works for the animated feature film competition, European TV specials, European and Hungarian TV series, Hungarian short and student films, and Hungarian applied animations. Among these exciting line-up are films that have scooped awards in global film festivals.
Also in the line-up are poignant works like Michel Hazanavicius’s The Most Precious of Cargoes, a hand-drawn Holocaust story projected on a screenplay of a fairytale, Claude Barras’s Savages, an environmental tale set in the Borneo rainforest, and Benoît Chieux’s Sirocco and the Kingdom of Air Streams, a dynamic fantasy adventure story that expertly weaves imagination and reality.
Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow stands out for its mesmerizing visual narrative, telling the story of a cat’s survival and the importance of friendship, trust, adaptation, and cooperation. The film sweeps the Jury and Audience Best Original Music awards at the Annecy Festival last year and the Best Animated Feature category at this year’s Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, and the European Film Awards.
Finally, laced within the abundant Hungarian competition for best feature film, is László Csáki’s award-winning Pelikan Blue and Csaba Máli and Zsolt Pálf’s The Quest.
Original article: https://www.skwigly.co.uk/kecskemet-animation-film-festival-kaff-celebrates-40-years-and-111-years-of-hungarian-animation/