Still from Izabela Plucińska's "Afternoon"
Four programmes at Melbourne International Animation Festival’s 12th edition present the works of four Polish Animation Studios: Studio Minatur, SFA Studio Kraków, Se Ma For and Platige Image. A number of short animations including Izabela Plucińska’s Afternoon and Paweł Prewencki’s What Happens When Children Don't Eat Their Soup feature in other international programmes
Exposing Piotr Dumała’s richly textured style in the 1985 ten minute long animation A Gentle Spirit and Witold Giersz’s 1963 montage of the hundreds of different ways a bull fight can possibly go wrong The Red and The Black and his 1967 The Horse, Polish Studio Focus: Program #1 – Studio Minatur celebrates the studio’s iconic and awarded works and its contribution to XXth century animation. Other short films include: Alina Maliszewska’s 1960 An Adventure In Stripes about a black and white elephant trying to fit in, Mirosław Kijowicz’s 1971 three minute long The Road about decision-making, Alina Maliszewska’s 1965 The Last Zero, Zofia Oraczewska’s 1976 Banquet, Julian Antonisz’s 1977 Sun: A Non-Camera Film, Halina Bielińska and Włodzimierz Haupe’s 1958 The Changing of the Guard featuring a small army of matchbox soldiers, and Jan Lenica’s 1963 attempt to catch freedom in Labyrinth.
Polish Studio Focus #2: sfa studio, kraków puts the spotlight on an animation studio that in it’s 40 year history has produced more than 300 films. The pieces chosen for this programme are: Ryszard Antoniszczak’s 1975 post-psychedelic parade of the strangest creatures on the craziest of quests Miki Mol, Julian Antonisz’s 1979 A Highly Committed Movie, Ryszard Czekała’s grimly and starkly evocative 1970 The Roll-Call, Aleksander Sroczyński’s 1982 Animated Movie called by the festival’s organisers "One of the most sustained pieces of frenetic shake-ya-head-til-it-hurts madnesses we’ve ever screened", and finally one of the most famous and beloved Polish animated films Jerzy Kucia’s 1979 Reflections.
Se Ma For – the third Polish studio presented at the festival was founded in 1947 and has produced more than 1500 films including Academy Award winners Zbigniew Rybczyński’s 1983 Tango showed at the festival and Peter And The Wolf. The Melbourne showcase includes the studio’s first film - Zenon Wasilewski’s 1947 In the Time of King Krakus, Daniel Szczechura’s 1966 Wykres and his 1968 Hobby, Stefan Schabenbeck’s endless steps from the 1969 short Stairs, Edward Sturlis’ 1965 The Little Quartet, Tadeusz Wilkosz’z 1967 Sack, Anna Błaszczyk’s 2008 Return and also Marta Pajek’s 2011 Sleepincord.
Finally the last of the Studio Focuses is devoted to the most recently founded animation studio – Platige. It works with CG animation and 3D stereoscopy exemplified by Tomasz Bagiński's Fallen Art and Acadmey Award nominated The Cathedral.
From more than 2,000 entries, 400 chosen films from over 30 countries in 40 programmes, Melbourne also shows Izabela Plucińska’s 2011 Afternoon in the International Program 4, Marcin Giżycki’s 2011 AE in International Program 8: Abstract Showcase, Anna Skotarczyk’s 2011 Atman as one of 7 films in Panorama #2: International, Katarzyna Kijek’s and Przemysław Adamski’s Noise as one of eight animations in Technique Focus: Live Action / Animation Hybrid, Vladka Macurova’s 2010 One Minute Movie: Where the Wild Butterflies Grow in Best of the Next #2: International and finally Paweł Prewencki’s 2011 What Happens When Children Don't Eat Their Soup in International Porgram 6.
Sources: culture.pl, MIAF
Editor: Marta Jazowska