Anifilm Festival is always the first stop in the Czech Republic (and internationally as well) to check for original, indie animation of all kinds and genres. Its 2025 edition (6-11 May 2025, Liberec) promises a diverse and rich programme centered on a theme that has always fascinated animation artists; sci-fi gives a way to go beyond the real and opens the eyes to imagination.

The 6-day programme balances between competition, tribute events and the industry programme. Here are some essential highlights.

Competition

10 feature animation films in two competition programmes (5 animation features for adults and 5 animation features for young audiences) are included in the Anifilm programme. The Oscar-winning 'Flow' by Gints Zilbalodis, and the Oscar-nominated 'Memoir of a Snail' (dir. Adam Elliot) are the prominent entries here; but also films like 'The Most Precious of Cargoes' by Michel Hazanavicius and the 90-minute 'Flavours of Iraq' by Feurat Alani and Léonard Cohen (telling the story of tweets published by Feurat Alani between 2011 and 2017, detailing the country's history in a personal way).

Brothers Quay are here with their new stop-motion feature 'Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass'. Czech interest is secured by Kristina Dufková’s puppet film Living Large;the Japanese 'Ghost Cat Anzu' (Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita) and the puppet film 'Savages' by Claude Barras are some other gems in the selection. (full list).

Flavors of Iraq by Feurat Alani and Léonard Cohen

34 animation shorts compete in the festival's short competition category. Names like Florence Miailhe ('Butterfly'), Sasha Svirsky ('Dull Spots of Greenish Colors'), Edmunds Jansons ('Freeride in C'), and Olga & Priit Pärn ('Luna Rossa') grace the selection. Its Czech component includes films like 'Free the Chickens' by Matúš Vizár, 'Hurikán' by
Jan Saska and the Czech co-produced, Ukrainian-themed film 'I Died in Irpin' by Anastasiia Falileieva.

I died in Irpin

The International Competition of Student Films features 31 films, including five Czech films (You Are My Light, Stone of Fate, Weed, Beet, and Stray), a new Czech record in our international competition. 27 music videos are also included; some of the highlights are Michaela Matějková with 'Ida the Young', and 'DVA: Woo by Czech Jaromír Plachý.

17 animation films have been selected in the abstract and non-narrative animation category.  Mykyta Lyskov's 'Bridge',  a series of prints by artist Andriy Sokoleno (Dnipro) features here, as well as Nicholas Brault's 'Entropic Memory' and other works

The Bridge

Check the full list of selected films here

Juries

A number of juries, from animation directors to festival programmers in Europe, the US, and Argentina, are here to evaluate the 4 competition festival programmes.

• International Competition of Feature Films: Anne Gaschütz (Germany), Mohamed Ghazala (Egypt), Diego Polieri (Argentina)
• International Competition of Shorts and Student Films: Diana Cam Van Nguyen (Czechia), Xavier Kawa-Topor (France), Tomek Popakul (Poland)
• International Competition of Abstract and Non-Narrative Animations, Music Videos & VR Films: Thomas Renoldner (Austria), Kriss Sagan (Slovakia), Joshn Shaffner (US)
• International Competition of Computer Games: Chris Lewis Lee (UK), Zoé Nguyen Tranh (France/US),  Jindřich Skeldal (Czechia) More info

Sci-Fi programme

Anifilm will present pivotal films by René Laloux, including the restored feature film 'Fantastic Planet'. Other cult feature classics of the genre on the menu will include the essential 'Ghost in the Shell' and the visually stunning 'Chronopolis' by Piotr Kamler. Short films by the same author will be screened; a selection of independent American sci-fi films, and sci-fi animation from the former Eastern bloc will be part of the programme -and Czech sci-fi will still be part of the screening programme as well. 

Sci-fi will appear in the children’s programme Animo, and in the midnight screenings of Anifilm Festival, securing an overall festival presence. 

Scavenger's Reign 2023 sci-fi animated HBO TV series

Several prominent guests, such as Xavier Kawa-Topor, the renowned French historian and author of L'Odyssée de "La Planète Sauvage" (The Odyssey of the 'Fantastic Planet') will be there and talk during the festival.

Industry Programme

Anifilm offers a multi-faceted Industry programme ranging from the traditional project pitching activities to much-needed talks about parenthood in animation, masterclasses with creators and its Creatoola Animarket.

In its Czech Horizon Grant (supported by the PPF Foundation), the third pitching session for Czech animation shorts, 7 Czech animation shorts in the making willl be presented.

Projects:

• Paints – director: Martin Živocký, producers: Martin Jůza, Anika Homolová
• My Grandpa's Childhood – director: Tomáš Červený, producer: Tomáš Červený
• Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe! – director: Andrea Szelesová, producer: Kristina Husová
• The Molepire – director: Marek Čermák, producer: Hana Blaha Šilarová, Karolína Dvorská Fránková
• Crossings – director: František Mlčák, producer: Petr Babinec
• Last Shift – director: Martin Búřil, producer: Anneta Furdecká
• Party – director: Anna Mastníková, producer: Anna Mastníková

Party, Anna Mastníková

Anifilm Festival always supports Games activities. Apart from its competitive programme, The Game Pitch Arena Liberec (now its second edition) will organize a pitching session for gaming projects, and bring invaluable early support to their creators (more info). A number of workshops for game creators, focused on concept art, storytelling, and its adaptation to different media, are also organized during the festival.

Lifetime Achievement Award

This year’s Anifilm Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Vratislav Hlavatý.  Hlavatý has worked as a graphic artist on films by Jiří Brdečka, Gene Deitch, Václav Bedřich, Jiří Tyller, and Michaela Pavlátová, but also as a poster designer with a distinctive style. Anifilm will present the films he contributed as a retrospective; some of the titles include 'My Darling Clementine' (1959), 'The Giants' (1969), 'Carnival of Animals' (2006), and the series 'From the Diary of a Third-Grade Pupil, or Edudant and Francimore' (1993).

Hlavatý’s work will also be exhibited in the Regional Gallery Liberec.

Festival Poster

Anifilm's visual identity is  created by artist, director, animator, illustrator and comic book author Marek Berger, whose work includes the well-known student film 'The Shadow over Prague'. Last year, he won the Anifilm Award for the Best Czech Commissioned Work for Rychlé šípy slaví 85 let.

Anifilm Poster 2025

The 2025 Anifilm International Festival of Animated Films will take place in Liberec from 6th to 11th May 2025.

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