More than 60 films from 25 countries have been selected for the International Short Animation Competition for Children, which will compete for several prizes in September.

Variations of different animation techniques, diverse themes and exotic countries will delight the eye not only of our youngest viewers, but also of those who are interested in contemporary worldwide animated production.

Festival films bring viewers audiovisual pleasure and education. This is no different in this year’s competition. They will follow the original inhabitants of the distant Hawaiian Islands in the film Kapaemahu , which represents the recent Grand Prize winner of the Animayo festival. Directors Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, and Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, who comes from a local tribe, tells in her native language an engaging mythical story about magic stones on Waikiki beach. Children will add new information to the history of space conquest thanks to the film To the Stars by director Gemmy McGivern, which was captivated by the fate of the first Irish cosmonaut Dr. Norah Pattern. The collection of foreign rumors and legends will include the one about the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv from the animation The Towel Oksany Karpus.

One of the attractive components of animated films has always been original humor. This truth is even more confirmed in those for children. An example is the Russian The Bear by director Svyatoslav Ushakov about a bear who works like a stuffed bear in a train station restaurant and longs for a career at a circus. The smiling animal children’s party was organized by the French director Loïc Bruyère in his animation The Kindergarten Show , which he will present during his next participation in the Zlín Film Festival. A slightly different, but very original version of the fairy tale About Seven Goats is presented to the world by Marina Karpova in The 7 Kids.

This year’s competition show of worldwide animations for children is dominated by women’s work, and one of the proofs is all three Iranian films made by directors. Recently, very productive Reyhane Kavosh, just like last year, signed up with several films, and the dramaturgy of the Zlín Film Festival finally chose Coward Ghost about an unusually timid spirit. Maryam Kashkoolinia brings the somewhat bitter story of a lion cub from The Eleventh Step Zoo, and on the contrary, she put her story about the mysterious guard Reyhane Mirhashemi in the film Jebeer in the environment of a protected reserve .

The playwrights of the competition animation section are always very happy to see that some creators are returning to the Zlín Festival. Among the loyal this year is Verena Fels, who, after participating in her films Rockin´ Rhino , Mobile and Frozen Fun , will fight for the Golden Shoe with her novelty Tobi and the Turbobus . Award-winning Russian director and screenwriter Evgenia Golubeva has submitted a humorous animation of The Witch & the Baby, which tells what happens when a royal couple acquires a local witch as a nanny. After the movies I Want to Live in the Zoo and I am not a MouseThis is her third participation in the prestigious Zlín competition. In addition to other faithful Russian directors, the name of Argentine director Nicólas Conte reappears, who made his debut in Zlín with his I Want It and this year contributed to the competition with another puppet animation Cracks in the Pavement .

The annual Czech representation was again secured by Czech Television with the Kosmix evenings and Who would be afraid of the devils? and Tomas Bata University in Zlín with student films Shoot , About a Tree and A Ticket . The latter got to this year’s Generation competition in Berlin, and its director Aliona Baranova received financial support from the FILMTALENT ZLÍN Endowment Fund, to which money from the auction of the Film Clapper Salon goes every year. The creators of the popular series Live from the Moss, Filip Pošivač and Barbora Valecká, will also make a stop on the long journey to world festivals in Zlín . Their novelty Overboard! will introduce small and large spectators among the smaller and larger animals on Noah’s ark.

It is also worth mentioning two names of Czech directors working abroad. After studying in the Czech Republic and Belgium, Martina Svojíková created the animation So High Up for the famous French-Belgian production company Les Films du Nord . At the University of Bournemouth in the UK, Rachel Portman is doing well, inserting memories of Czech Christmas and carp tradition into her student film Carpe Diem .

More than 60 animated films from all over the world will compete at the Zlín Film Festival from September 4 to 10, 2020. See the full list of films HERE.