Animated in Poland

27.05, 12.00 – 14.00 PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS – MOS 2

27.05, 15.30 – 18.30 ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS – MOS 4

access with passes: Industry, Industry Pro, Industry Light, Media, Student

RECORDED PITCHING WILL BE AVAILABLE TO WATCH IN THE KFF INDUSTRY GUEST ZONE FROM 29th MAY

Presentation of Polish short animated films at the last stage of production. The representatives of the selected projects will talk about their films, before they are included in the programmes of film festivals in Poland and abroad. Each year international animated film industry professionals, such as festival programmers, distributors, sales agents and commissioning editors, participate in the pitching and one-on-one meetings afterwards.

Moderated by: Zofia Jaroszuk

SELECTED PROJECTS:

• Fatigue, dir. Krystian Grzywacz, prod. Letko;

A mockumentary about two brothers – Kapeć, a courier with narcolepsy, and hyperactive Śrut – raising money for their ill mother. Through chaotic deliveries and absurd detours, the film captures their struggle with tenderness and humor, leading to a quiet, emotional shift that casts new light on their journey.

• Pattern, dir. Andrzej Jobczyk, prod. Lele Crossmedia Production;

In a psychiatric hospital, there is a young man in severe mental condition. He doesn’t respond to doctors’ questions. During tests, when he is shown an inkblot resembling an angel, the device he’s connected to begins to draw sharp zigzags. About 25 years later, we see the man in the same hospital. He has aged, but his condition hasn’t changed. Electrodes are attached to his head. This time, the machine registers intense brain activity when he sees a photograph of the night sky.

• Kosmogonia, dir. Karolina Chabier, prod. Animoon;

At first, darkness reigned and nothing existed except for a few sparks coming from a small lamp suspended from the bow of the boat. In the endless night, the Great One appears – a goddess in the shape of a bison. From the depths of the water, the Great One fishes out the Little One, a goat-like goddess. A friendship is formed between them, and with it life appears all around.

• Telegrams to the Tree, dir. Julia Benedyktowicz, prod. Animoon;

Feeling lost, Sofia starts recording documentary voice messages to herself. She discovers childhood memories in which her neurotic grandmother frightened her with tales of cherry seeds sprouting into a tree in her stomach. Strangely enough, this only caused excitement in the little girl. Now she feels something growing inside her: a sensitive and ever-changing wild plant. Its thorny branches constrict her lungs and its roots tighten around her throat. She cannot take a deep breath and her voice stutters.

• Heart, dir. Oskar Aleksander Wasiluk, prod. Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków;

The main character sets out on a journey in search of a fictional ingredient for his soup. Along the way, he meets a woman, and they fall in love. But after returning to her apartment, she is killed by a humanoid rabbit. Unshaken, the protagonist removes her heart and drops it into the pot.

• Porridge Monster, dir. Izabela Plucińska, prod. Las Sztuki Foundation;

Porridge Monster is a fantasy-filled animated short about a child’s imaginative response to parental conflict. From a girl’s perspective, the parents’ argument transforms into a destructive oatmeal monster. Through her imagination, the girl creates a world where tiny porridge characters tell about their confrontation with the porridge monster and eventually find refuge and a safe space inside her tummy. A tender and visually imaginative story about how children process tension and seek emotional balance in a world shaped by adult emotions.

• Aşk, dir. Magdalena Iris Özen, prod. Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków;

In 2024, 394 women were murdered in Türkiye. It is suspected that hundreds of additional unexplained deaths and accidents involving Turkish women were also related to gender-based violence. The life of the main character is disrupted by a late-night phone call from her friend living in Türkiye. From the moment of that call, returning to ordinary everyday life becomes impossible.

• Homebound, dir. Weronika Nowacka, prod. Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Arts in Poznań;

“Homebound” is an animated film to a song by Malwina Paszek. A visual poem set in a world of magical countryside, it tells the story of a mother who cannot come to terms with the disappearanceof her daughter. In a world woven from symbols, the mother takes the form of a falcon, endlessly soaring over the fields in search of her child. Meanwhile, the daughter’s spirit wanders, trying to find her way back home. The film contemplates the notions of home and grief.

• Inside the Cat, dir. Tomasz Siwiński, prod. Letko

At night, a large cat observes the sleeping protagonist. During the day, the man walks into the forest with a gun. A massive creature begins to stalk him. We witness a strange hunt where it’s unclear who is the hunter and who is the prey. At the moment of confrontation, the cat opens its huge mouth. The man experiences shock – inside he sees an entire world. We fall into the mouth, travelling the same path, caught in a mad cycle.

WORKSHOP:

The presentations will be preceded by consultations and a workshop on pitching techniques held by Maarten van Gageldonk – the Head of Program for Kaboom Animation Festival, the largest animation festival in the Netherlands. He also teaches in the Master of Animation at the Master Institute of Visual Cultures (MIVC) in Den Bosch. In recent years he co-edited the book Animation and Memory (2020), published by Palgrave Macmillan.

AWARDS:

The sponsors of the awards and Animated in Poland partners are the Sound Mind Studio, Fixafilm and Crew United. Projects will be awarded with:

• SOUND MIND STUDIO BEST PITCH Award — a coupon for 10 days of sound post-production in Sound Mind studio run by Michał Fojcik

• FIXAFILM BEST PITCH Award — a coupon for image post‑production services worth PLN 10 000 founded by Fixafilm

• CREW UNITED SPECIAL MENTION — a 3‑years’ Premium membership to Crew United platform for the director and producer of the awarded project

Sound Mind is a sound post production studio, founded in 2015 by Michał Fojcik MPSE, sound designer with over 20 years of experience. He is a member of Motion Picture Sound Editors society and both Polish and European Film Academies. Responsible for sound of 150+ feature, animated and documentary films, including ‘White Courage’, ‘Pianoforte’, ‘Mothers of penguins’. Awarded with MPSE Golden Reel for Best Music Editing for Documentary and Polish Film Academy Award

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Fixafilm is a Dolby Vision certified postproduction facility based in Warsaw (Poland). Using cutting-edge technology with a skilled team of over 50 professionals, the company offers a full range of services from mobile DIT systems, editing, VFX and colour correction to mastering, and archiving. The company has post-produced Too Old For Fairytales 2 (2024), LaRoy (2023), Saint (2023), Barbarians 2 (2022) Woman on the Roof (2022), Hopper/Welles (2020), Systrar 1968 (2018), Menashe (2017), Yarden (2016) and restored over 220 productions, including classic films of masters like Peter Weir, Sergei Parajanov, Andrzej Wajda, Andrzej Zulawski, and Dario Argento.

Crew United is a networking platform and database for the European film industry. It enables users to present their audiovisual portfolio; direct search for co-workers and establishing contacts as well as extensive market research. The portal has been operating for 29 years, is available in 9 languages and has over 56,000 registered users.