World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb ended its 28th edition with the award ceremony. And we have to say we are very happy with the jury choices – again! Grand Competition – Short Film jury, consisting of Jeanette Bonds, Sanja Borčić, Piotr Dumała, Robert Morgan and Pedro Rivero, decided to give the Grand Prix to La Chute by Boris Labbé. Jeanette Bonds, curator and co-founder of GLAS Festival, gave her Special Mention to the Croatian film How Steel Was Tempered (produced by Kreativni sindikat) by Igor Grubić, praising its ability to illustrate multiple levels of relationships from personal, familial, historical and political standpoint in what is deceptively a simple narrative.

Best Croatian Film of this year’s Animafest is Cyclists by Veljko Popović (Lemonade 3D / Krupni kadar, Bagan Films, 3D2D animatori), while the Special Mention went to Jelena Oroz for Two for Two (Bonobostudio). Award for Best Croatian Film is sponsored by Croatian Film Director’s Guild and the jury members were Meghan Oretsky, Natko Stipaničev and Chi-Sui Wang. Here are both jury explanations. For Cyclists: “The Grand Prix Award for Best Croatian Film is sexy and simple, but also says boatloads about what really motivates the entire human race at the end of the day. It was no small task for the director of this film to take on the story of one of Croatia’s great artists, but the rest of the chances he took when making this piece paid off in a big way” Two for Two: “Our jury was attracted to the atmosphere and strong sound design of this animation. All elements of this piece were delicate yet clearly defined and ultimately came together for a sensitive and elegant experience.”

All three films premiered at Animafest and you can follow their summer tour here. At the moment, we are sending all our positive vibes to Cyclists, which is screening in the competition at Annecy.