Animator is a festival addressed both to people from the film industry, sophisticated cinema buffs, as well as to a wide audience, including the youngest. Therefore, since the beginning of our event, we have been trying to create a diverse program in which everyone will find something for themselves. Of course, the most important element of the program are the short and feature film competitions. But the festival also gives you an opportunity to get to know the most important artists and their works.

This year, we managed to acquire a particularly interesting set of masters representing various schools and genres of animation: from Hollywood, through performance combined with projections, to formal experiment. These champions include: Eric Goldberg, veteran of the Disney Studios, director of, among others, the studio's great success "Pocahontas"; Raoul Servais, one of the doyens and greatest innovators of world animation; Suzan Pitt, the author of, among others, the cult "Asparagus"; and Kathy Rose - who has been dancing live with her animated characters for years. But there are also big names in the "First Steps of Celebrity" screening, prepared for us by renowned producer Ron Diamond, who will also advise on how to make a film with a chance for an Oscar ("Think about Oscar" meeting).

The premiere of "The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran" is certainly a great event, with the participation of such artists as Roger Allers, Joan Gratz, Tomm Moore, Bill Plympton and Michał Socha. We'll also feature the longest-running experimental film festival in the world - the Ann Arbor Film Festival - and a set of etudes from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), a college whose animation department is considered the best in America.

This year marks ninety years since the famous screening of "absolute cinema" in Berlin - the world's first "festival" of experimental films. We decided to recreate this event, and at the same time present the lesser-known faces of German animation: a selection of films from the East German DEFA studio and contemporary experiments called "musical structures".

Music and animation will traditionally be the leading trend of the Animator. The composer honored this year with a retrospective and a live concert is Marek Wilczyński, the author of music for several hundred films. Other music and film events will include a collective action by Polish and Italian artists "Instant Film", a visual and musical project by Grzegorz Pleszyński with Jerzy Mazzoll and Sławomir Szudrowicz, an audiovisual performance by Identity Problem Group (Jakub Lech and Bogumił Misala) and a screening of films by Bill Plympton from the "Guard Dog" series with live music performed by Marcin Masecki.

And of course, as every year, we invite children and parents to the Animator for Children and numerous workshops. And for more advanced cinema lovers, we are organizing a scientific conference for the second time, this time under the slogan "Animated Unknown".

I cordially invite you to Animator 2015. Creators get old, films get old, but Animator doesn't get old.

Marcin Giżycki, Artistic Director of the Festival

Awarded Films

GRAND PRIX / GOLDEN PEGASUS: “Fugue for Cello, Trumpet and Landscape / Fuga na wiolonczelę, trąbkę i pejzaż” Jerzy Kucia, Poland 2014

• Jury’s Statement: For being one of the best examples of semi-abstract animation ever created.

II AWARD / SILVER PEGASUS: “Pilots on the Way Home” Priit Pärn, Olga Pärn, Canada/Estonia 2014

• Jury’s Statement: For seasoned humor and innovative graphics, thanks to which the film accurately depicts human life.

III AWARD / BRONZE PEGASUS: “China Violet” David Ehrlich, China/USA 2014

• Jury’s Statement: A film that is a culmination of a years-long search for shapes combined with sound and color, and creates a harmonious whole of these elements.

CRYSTAL PEGASUS FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT: Raoul Servais

SPECIAL AWARD FOR THE BEST MUSIC FILM / MUSIC: “The Sleepwalker / Sonámbulo” Theodore Ushev, Canada 2015

• Jury’s Statement: A film that transforms García Lorca’s gloomy mind into a vivid and colorful dance.

SPECIAL AWARD FOR BEST FEATURE FILM: “Eden’s Edge” Gerhard Treml, Leo Calice, Austria/USA 2014

• Jury’s Statement: “Eden’s Edge” expresses the spirit of the Animator festival in the promotion of the form that is animation. Treml and Calice created an extremely rich work using minimal means. The nine scenes of “Eden’s Edge”, in their economical compositions shown from a further visual perspective, evoke contemporary methods of observation and combine them, creating a particularly extensive cultural portrait.

POLISH FILMMAKERS ASSOCIATION AWARD FOR BEST POLISH SHORT FILM: “Dom / Home” Agnieszka Borowa, Poland 2014

• Jury’s Statement: A film that compares the past and the complicated and painful present in an innovative way.

SPECIAL AWARD FOR THE BEST STUDENT FILM (RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS IN POZNAN AWARD): “Hard to be a Sparrow / Trudno vorobyu” Darya Vyatkina, Russian Federation 2014

• Jury’s Statement: Verveful, minimalist animation and design that tell a story of survival and freedom.

SPECIAL AWARD FOR ARTISTIC MERIT – IM MEMORIAM OF WOJCIECH JUSZCZAK: “World of Tomorrow” Don Hertzfeldt, USA 2015

AUDIENCE AWARD: “World of Tomorrow” Don Hertzfeldt, USA 2015

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