Portuguese director and animator, Joana Toste, the author in the focus of this year’s special programme – A Portrait of an Animator, is one of the most interesting names of the contemporary European independent scene. Working under her own production label, Gomtch-Gomtch, since 2004 until now, this author has managed to create several interesting and in many aspects quite exquisite works of animation. Her drawing follows a free form in its leisurely and almost rounded impression – however, her visual expression serves the purpose of the animation process and infallibly contributes to the effect of her director’s vision. What makes her films so peculiar? First of all, her permeating sense of humour, her playful energy and her readiness to take her spectators by surprise, proving in her own way Švankmajer’s vision of animation as a means of subversion.

In the film Will Be (Serão), we watch a granny laying down Tarot cards after a family lunch. Having seen an ominous sign, she collapses in a scream, lying motionless on the floor. This sets off a train of fatal events: the heat of the family suffers a heart attack, while the cigarette that he drops will set on fire the drowsing grandpa. In the kitchen, mother will fatally wound herself with a knife, the children will get an electric shock, the elder daughter will fall out of the window. The caricature drawing and piling up the incidents which creates the effect of shortening the narration time, keep us on the verge of laughter, despite the catastrophic developings. A black-out. Suddenly, granny rises, takes the remote control and turns on the TV, as if nothing had happened – a scene with which Joana precisely rounds up the structure of a gag of this black-humour comedy. In the film Chicken Stew (Guisado de galinha) we see another family gathered together, while the trouble begins when a neighbour appears at the door to borrow an onion for the stew. The two housewives will have an argument, the husbands will get involved, and some rude words will be exchanged ... in the end, a fired shot will scare away the birds in the tree. In the final scene, the husband’s armchair is empty, and the woman is shedding tears over… the onion she happens to be cutting. This kind of predictable plot takes on a new dimension from the moment we realise that the lines uttered by Joana’s characters are not spoken, but rather sung in the Fado style! At the very end of this animated operetta, the Fado singer sings an epilogue, but also the closing piece, in which she mentions the director who “prays to her patron saint that the audience will like the film at least as much as they like wine”. As for this unusual development – is it not, after all, a proof of the basic premise that the mechanism of laughter relies on the “imperfections” of the spectator’s mind, i.e. on the divergence from the expected, the mismatch between the envisaged and experienced? Even in the film Sailor dogs (Cães, marinheiros) there is a “family” in existence: a Dog and his Wife have a Sailor. Following the motifs of the short story by Herberto Helder, Joana creates a story of a sailor who had happened to “fell from grace with the sea”. The bizarre assignment of roles in this film has a certain comic power, although the sailor, tied to a stake somewhere deep in the mainland, eventually partakes with his nostalgia-tormented soul.

Family, freedom, tradition, life and death, are the eternal themes used by Joana to reflect on our existential apprehension in a way that will, if not eliminate, then at least alleviate it to the level of the bearable. Is this not, after all, the miraculous power of animation? And is it not the skill of an animator that makes her every new film an event that is awaited with impatience? I am certain that her latest film, Quem é este chapéu?, which will have its world premiere at ANIMANIMA 2011 in Čačak, will be another surprise for us.

Milen Alempijević

Il Luster Productions is the most important and productive producing company for animation in the Netherlands. Il Luster Productions is specialised in independent artistic animation, the development of international animation co-productions and films under commission. Momentarily there are over 20 projects (series, short films and features) in production and pre-production of various directors and in co-operations with divers (international) studios.

Since her foundation nearly 15 years ago il Luster have produced over twenty independent films, divers commissioned projects, two television series and 27 animated poetry films accompanied by an educational project for high schools. Many of these films have received (international) awards and prizes. il Luster distribute their films on a national and international scale. The films screen at festivals, movie-theatres, and museums around the world. The digital distribution is being achieved through various portals, their own animation podcast and soon also by apps for mobile devices.

il Luster Productions is simultaneously initiator of the first Dutch animation webshop www.animationwebshop.nl, and therefore il Luster has become involved with the production and distribution of Dutch animation DVD’s. il Luster have released their own compilation DVD’s: Independent Animation from the Netherlands volume 1, 2 and 3, and Best Animation from Holland volume 1.

il Luster Productions is founded by Arnoud Rijken and Michiel Snijders and the team is expanded with Chris Mouw (production and distribution) and Ramon Verberne (producer tv series). Rijken and Snijders are active as guest lectors for various academies and they participate in divers advise counsels for animation and short films.

An overview of the productions of il Luster can be found on www.illuster.nl.

The Animation Workshop is Denmark’s only animation school and it has existed since our creation in 1989. We are located in the town of Viborg which lies in the heart of Denmark with beautiful rural surroundings. The school is made up of our 7 main activities; the Bachelor of Arts degree with two lines of study in Character Animation and CG Art; the Professional Training courses which consists of 15-week introduction programs to Character Animation and CG Art; the Drawing Academy which trains students in classical drawing; the Artists-in-Residence program where students and professionals from around the world work on film, game, and illustration projects; the Center for Animation and Pedagogy that works to implement animation as a pedagogic tool in the European elementary school system and furthermore hosts workshops for children in Denmark and around the globe; the Animation Hub that aims to generate new animation jobs within the medical, science, and news industries; and finally our Talent Hub which houses several of our alumni students who have started their own animation studios.

All students are trained by visiting international professionals from studios such as Pixar, DreamWorks, Disney, Blue Sky, Nickelodeon, Framestore, Aardman, MPC, MacGuff, and many, many others. We aim to keep the training as close to studio life as possible in order for the students to be ready to work on real productions after graduation. To further this, students often participate in collaborative work with other schools and sometimes do projects for Danish companies as part of their training. Also, Bachelor of Arts students spend their third year making graduation films, and their last semester as interns in animation and game companies around the world in which they are often hired upon graduation.

The Animation Workshop is very internationally focused. The majority of our guest teachers are from abroad as are many of our students and staff members. Furthermore, we have close partnerships and collaborations with international animation schools and companies and often make use of this extensive network to realize film projects and create new educational possibilities across borders. For example, we run an Animation Production Masterclass together with MOME in Hungary, the Filmakademie in Germany, and the Gobelins in France, and our bachelor students work on the animation graduation films which are made at the National Film School of Denmark.

It is the objective of The Animation Workshop to continue to train students to a high level of competence and see them hired by Danish and international animation studios, to function as a knowledge and development centre for the Danish and European animation industry, and generally to instigate informational, educational, and development activities for animation students and professionals.

Tina Rathky Jensen,
Administrator of the Bachelor Education

Nikola Majdak, a pioneer and a major figure of Serbian animation, was born in Valjevo in 1927. After finishing a training course for war cameramen at the Film Unit of the National Liberation Army Headquarters, Nikola went on to finish the high school and the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. He worked as a regular professor and Head of Department for the Film and Television Camera of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade and also headed the Animation Department of the ‘Dunav Film’ Film School. Until recently, Nikola Majdak was the President of the Serbian branch of the ASIFA.

As a director, director of photography, cameraman, editor or animator, he has made more than 300 documentaries (among which the most significant are the ones made in collaboration with Aleksandar Petrović, Ratomir Ivković and Mića Milošević), feature films, short and animated films. He is the author of the first cartoon films in Belgrade, The Soloist and The Chalk-man (1963).

Nikola is the winner of numerous national and international awards, including the Gold Medal of the Yugoslav Film Archive, and also the founder and art director of the European festival of animated film, Balkanima, which has been running since 2004, organised by the Academic Film Centre of the Cultural Centre in Studentski grad, New Belgrade.

Animated films: The Soloist (1963), The Chalk-man (1963), Pardon (1966), In Love with Three Cakes (1967), Source of Life (1969), Tu-tu (1971), Time of Vampires (1971), Encyclopedia of Hangmen (1974), The World of Silence (1978), Spraytime 2002 (1978), The Last Sunbeam (1980), Love at First Sight (1982), Last TV News (1983), Nightwatch (1983), The Island (1984), Tour retour (1985), Big Bang (1987), Cross-country (1988), Self-portrait (1988), Nocturno (1989), Le Grand-guignol (1993), Fishing (1993), Curriculum vitae (1994), Ars magna lucis et umbre (1995), Diptych on AIDS (1995), Pontius Pilatus Secundus (1996).

Writing about Majdak’s film Pontius Pilatus Secundus, in the essay entitled Inspiring life (Animirani film, journal, Belgrade, 2000.), the renowned theorist and film historian Božidar Zečević claims that “Majdak reminded (him) that film is God’s miracle telling us the truth, interpreting and conveying the Gospel, through the original language of the film. What more can be asked from film? What more could Vera and Ljubiša Jocić ask, after trying to transform dead into alive and, by doing so, transfer His idea into the world of film. But this is not where Majdak’s missionary idea will end – to the contrary, this is where he plans to take us all the way back to the tunnel of darkness and the nightmare of the history of the earthly life, all the way towards the exit that I can vaguely feel as another temptation. Because this is the only thing that the film can ever be, having taken Majdak’s lifetime of devotion. ”