The Czech Film Fund announced support for the production of documentaries and development of feature-length fiction projects in its recent schemes announced at the end of July. All together 23 projects will be granted the amount of 21 million Czech crowns (€82,353).

The Fund has allocated 12 million Czech crowns (€470,588) for the documentary film production. The highest amount of 2,000,000 CZK (€78,431) went to the production of endorfilm – Každá minuta života / Every Single Minute. The film, directed by Erika Hníková, depicts a modern-day family that decides to raise their children following the unorthodox educational method „kamevéda“. The second highest amount of 1,500,000 CZK (€58,824) was granted to a documentary directed by Vít Klusák and Barbora Chalupová that deals with the topic of bullyingV síti (production of HYPERMARKET FILM). Finally, 1,300,000 CZK (€50,980) went to a biopic about an exceptional man and songwriter Šifry Jana Kapra / Jan Kapr’s Ciphers (directed by Lucie Králová and produced by DOCUfilm Praha).

Further supported projects:

Můj otec Antonín Kratochvíl / My Father Antonín Kratochvíl (dir. Andrea Sedláčková, produced by Punk film) – 1,200,000 CZK (€47,059)
Pongo story (dir. Tomáš Kratochvíl, produced by Produkce Radim Procházka) – 1,200,000 CZK (€47,059)
Ve jménu Alláha / Brotherhood (dir. Francesco Montagner, produced by nutprodukce) – 1,000,000 CZK (€39,216)
Vlci na hranicích! / Wolves on the Borders (dir. Martin Páv, produced by Frame Films) – 1,000,000 CZK (€39,216)
Epocha mezi srpnem a listopadem (dir. Jan Rousek, produced by GPO Platform) – 800,000 CZK (€31,372)
Legenda Suchý (dir. Olga Sommerová, produced by CINEART TV Prague) – 800,000 CZK (€31,372)
Mucha (dir. Roman Vávra, produced by Punk film) – 600,000 CZK (€23,529)
Nová šichta / The New Shift (dir. Jindřich Andrš, produced by moloko film) – 600,000 CZK (€23,529)  

Within the development of fiction features scheme the amount of 9 million Czech crowns (€352,941) was distributed among twelve projects. Also here, endorfilm scored the highest award of 1,400,000 CZK (€54,902) with its production Můj praděda – pirát that takes on the best tradition of adventure films for children. The second highest project evaluation of 1,200,000 CZK (€30,600) went to a visually and conceptually unique auteur film Binderiana, a production of Marina Films. Produkce Radim Procházka and its film Černé slunce that takes inspiration from the tradition of 1970s Czech sci-fi received the third highest award of 800,000 CZK (€31,372).

Further supported projects:

Jeho slovo, její slovo / His Word, Her Word (produced by love.Frame) – 750,000 CZK (€29,412)
Už tě nemám rád (produced by i/o post) – 720,000 CZK (€28,235)
Krvavá nevěsta (produced by Snake Catcher) – 700,000 CZK (€27,451)
Město bez Boha (produced by 8Heads Productions) – 700,000 CZK (€27,451)
Světlonoc (produced by moloko film) – 700,000 CZK (€27,451)
Rok vdovy / Year of the Widow (produced by ARTCAM FILMS) – 699,000 CZK (€27,412)
Nehybnost (produced by CINEART TV Prague) – 680,000 CZK (€26,667)
Fichtelberg (produced by CINEART TV Prague) – 650,000 CZK (€25,490)
Oběť (produced by nutprodukce) – 1,000 CZK (€39,2)

Directing stop motion animation workshop with the Beast Animation studio, character development and storytelling workshop with Carlos Bleycher, character animation workshop with Tim Allen – these are the workshops of this year’s ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum. Workshops are free, but the number of participants is limited. 

One of the essential aims of ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum is creating a platform for sharing experiences and good practice between professionals from various countries and providing conditions so that well-experienced practitioners could share their knowledge with those that just take their first steps in animation world. That is why the event’s program includes meetings and workshops conducted with eminent practitioners dedicated to students and people that start their work in puppet animation production. 

Directing stop motion animation workshop with the Beast Animation studio

In this directing-for-stop-motion-animation workshop (October 10-12), the Beast Animation team will take the participants on an exciting journey through all aspects of the directing process. Ben Tesseur and Steven De Beul will give an insight into how they work and on the basis of an assignment the participants will learn what they should pay attention to in every part of a 'realistic' production process.

Ben and Steven graduated from the same film school and worked as directors of animation, animators and 1stAD on several international productions before establishing their own stop motion studio Beast Animation. Since 2004, they are directing, animating and producing short and long animated films, series and commercials for cinema, TV and web.

In this workshop, 8 people will have a chance to participate. The candidates should speak English and know the basics of stop motion animation, as well as Dragon Frame and Adobe. The workshop is especially dedicated to young creators and students of animation (the last year). All those interested in taking part in this workshop should fill in and send the application form (link: bit.ly/2uPQ1U4), CV and portfolio, link to any film made by the candidate and answers to two questions: Why are you applying for the animation directing workshop? What are your expectations from this workshop? The names of candidates selected to take part in the workshop will be announced on September 21^st.

Character development and storytelling workshop with Carlos Bleycher

Many creators ask themselves such questions like: Are my characters strong enough? Why am I having trouble fleshing out their personalities? Are my characters driving the story or is the story itself doing it? The participants of the workshop conducted by Carlos Bleycher (October 8-10) will try to find answers to those questions. They are going to see with theoretical and practical examples how they can develop characters that fit organically into their stories and give the key points to structure their episodes, from the springboard to the actual script. 

Carlos is a scriptwriter, content consultant and story editor specialized in animation and children’s oriented content. Highlights among his work as Head of Story & Script are the stop motion animated series: “Puerto Papel (Paper Port)” (52x11’, broadcasted in over 9 countries), “Horacio y los Plasticines (Horatio & The Plasticines)” (52x7’ broadcasted on Netflix) and “Los Papelnautas (The Papernauts)” (3x5’ broadcasted in Discovery Kids). He has also worked writing original content for animated series broadcasted by major networks such as Disney xD, Cartoon Network LA and Discovery Kids. Creator of the series “Cagemates”, winner of the MIFA Creative Focus Pitch in the International Animation Festival of Annecy 2013.

His teaching experience includes “Narrative for Children & Youngsters” and “Writing for T.V” at Universidad UNIACC in Santiago de Chile (2010 to 2013), “Animation Scriptwriting Workshop” at ICAIC in La Habana, Cuba 2015 in collaboration with Gabriel Osorio (Director of “Bear Story”), “Character Development for animated series” at Claves Alharaca 2018 in Bogota, Colombia; and Content Consultant for Bridging the Gap Animation Lab ’18 in Tenerife, Spain.

Up to 10 people would be able to take part in this workshop. It is dedicated to English speaking artists interested in improving their writing skills and will be focused on the projects of series (not shorts or features). To apply for the workshop, an application form should be filled in (link: bit.ly/2uV5oe2). Candidate must also send some information about the series’ project, including technical specification (name, genre, technique, ideally a logline too), storyline (what the show is about), main characters descriptions and one episode synopsis/outline. All those information must not be longer than one page – applications with longer descriptions will be rejected.

Character animation workshop with Tim Allen

The three-day workshop with Tim Allen (October 8-10) will be at least 21 hours of hard work supervised by the stop motion animation master, who will select an individual series of exercises on puppet animation for every participant according to his/her skills and needs. There will be only 6 participants in the workshop who will be selected among all candidates that will take part in recruitment by sending a film that presents their puppet animations.

Tim is a stop motion animator with over eighteen years of experience. He has worked on the sets of such film as “Corpse Bride” by Tim Burton, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” by Wes Anderson,  “Peter and the Wolf” by Susie Templeton (which won the Academy Award in 2008), and the latest Wes Anderson feature “The Isle of Dogs”.

In order to enter for the workshop, one should fill in the application form (link: bit.ly/2NRfKCG) and attach a link to video material that presents the effects of his/her work as an animator. Deadline for the applications is September 3^rd. The names of selected six participants will be announced on September 21^st.

All three workshops will last three days. Direct links to the application forms are published on ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum website: www.animarkt.pl (English version: www.en.animarkt.pl). 

The workshops are a part of ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum, which includes also  ANIMARKT TALKS – case study presentations, and ANIMARKT PITCHING for the projects of stop motion shorts in development It will take place in Lodz (Poland) from 8^th to 13^th October, 2018.

The organizer of ANIMARKT is MOMAKIN – a multi-tasking unit working for popularizing and propagating animation and supporting creators in Poland
and in international arenas. The partners of ANIMARKT include: Audiovisual Technology Center (CeTA) from Wroclaw which is also the founder of the awards for pitching winners, ASAF (Czech Republic), Mozinet (Hungary), Fest Anča International Animation Festival (Slovakia), SPPA – Polish Animation Producers Association, SFP – Polish Filmmakers Association. ANIMARKT is partially funded by the International Visegrad Fund, Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute. Among its media partners are: Zippy Frames, Skwigly Online Magazine, Film New Europe, FilmPRO, Film TV Kamera, Cinema.pl Magazine, Stop Motion Geek.