Animafest Zagreb Has Unveiled the 102 Short Films In Its 2023 Competition Lineup

Animafest Zagreb, the world’s second-longest-running animation festival, has announced the short film competition selections for its upcoming 2023 edition, which will run June 5-10.

This year, approximately 1,800 films were submitted to this year’s Animafest from 93 countries. Almost 900 were submitted to the event’s Grand Competition category, with 42 selected to screen at the festival. Another 830 student shorts were submitted to the Student Film competition, with 41 selected to participate. The Croatian Film competition will feature 19 animated shorts this year.

There are plenty of familiar titles heading to Zagreb in June. Two of the 2023 Oscar-nominated shorts – Ice Merchants from João Gonzalez and The Flying Sailor from Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis – will screen in competition. Two more Oscar shortlisted shorts will also compete in Robert-Jonathan Koeyers’ It’s Nice in Here and Elizabeth Hobbs’ The Debutante.

Lots of filmmakers we’ve spotlighted at Cartoon Brew have films that will compete at this year’s Animafest. Among them are Lucija Mrzljak’s Eeva, Florentina Gonzalez’s The World’s After, Atsushi Wada’s Ikimono-san: Turtle, Joseph Pierce’s Scale, and Stephen Irwin’s World to Roam.

Animafest’s feature films, films for children, vr animation, and world panorama competition sections will be announced soon.

2023 Animafest Zagreb Short Film Competition Lineups

Grand Competition Short Film

• A Kind of Testament, Stephen Vuillemin (Remembers / France)
• A Tiny Man, Aude David, Mikael Gaudin (La Belle Affaire Productions / France)
• Almost Forgotten, Dimitri Mihajlovic, Miguel Lima (BAP – Animation Studio / Portugal)
• Blush – An Extraordinary Voyage, Iiti Yli-Harja (Side Stories / Finland)
• Box Cutters, Naomi Van Niekerk (Ikki Films, Valk Productions, Dryfsand / France, Netherlands, South Africa)
• Chamber of Shadows, Seyoung Ok (independent production / South Korea)
• Compound Eyes of Tropical, Zhang Xu Zhan (Zhan Zhan Xi Qi / Taiwan)
• Dog Apartment, Priit Tender (Oü Nukufilm / Estonia)
• Eeva, Lucija Mrzljak, Morten Tšinakov (Eesti Joonisfilm, Adriatic Animation / Estonia, Croatia)
• Family Portrait, Lea Vidaković (Adriatic Animation, Vivement Lundi!, Biberche Productions / Croatia, France, Serbia)
• Fragile Love, Xie Li (Mitotase / China)
• Greylands, Charlotte Waltert, Alvaro Schoeck (Virage Film / Switzerland)
• Ice Merchants, João Gonzalez (COLA Animation, Wildstream, Royal College of Art / Portugal, France, U.K.)
• Ikimono-san: Turtle, Atsushi Wada (New Deer / Japan)
• It’s Nice in Here, Robert-Jonathan Koeyers (Valk Productions / Netherlands)
• Juxtaposed LAND, ALIMO (Pigeon Productions, King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture – Ithra Production / Poland, Saudi Arabia)
• La Pursé, Gabriel Nóbrega (Vetor Zero / Brazil)
• Love Me True, Inés Sedan (Lardux Films / France)
• Mao’s Mango Cult, Kayu Leung (TEDed Talk / France, U.S., Hong Kong)
• A Hundred Nights, Sofiia Melnyk (GOGOLFEST / Ukraine, Germany)
• 28, Zahra Salarnia (independent production / Iran, New Zealand)
• Oneluv, Varya Yakovleva (Studio SHAR)
• Our Pain, Shunsaku Hayashi (Shunsaku Hayashi Works / Japan)
• PARALLEL, Sam Orti (Conflictivos Productions / Spain)
• Phonorama, Alex Rey (independent production / Spain)
• PLSTC, Laen Sanches (independent production / France)
• Rosemary A.D. (After Dad), Ethan Barrett (Space Dog Film / U.S.)
• SCALE, Joseph Pierce (Melocoton Films, Bridge Way Films, Ozù Productions, Endorfilm / France, United Kingdom, Belgium, Czech Republic)
• Spring, Pernille Kjaer (Martina Scarpelli Studio / Denmark)
• Teacups, Alec Green, Finbar Watson (and maps and plans / Australia, Ireland)
• The Cactus, Ricardo Kump (Kump Produções / Brasil)
• The Debutante, Elizabeth Hobbs (Animate Projects / U.K.)
• The Flying Sailor, Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis (National Film Board of Canada / Canada)
• The Following Season, Natko Stipaničev (Kino Klub Split / Croatia)
• The Garden of Heart, Olivér Hegyi (CUB Animation, Artichoke / Hungary, Slovakia)
• The Marrons Glacés, Delphine Hermans, Michel Vandam (Camera-etc / Belgium)
• The Master of the Swamps, Sasha Svirsky (XZ Production / Germany)
• The Waiting, Volker Schlecht (mobyDOK medienproduktion / Germany)
• The World’s After, Florentina Gonzalez (Autour de Minuit / France)
• Where I Live, Susanne Jirkuff (independent production / Austria)
• WORLD TO ROAM, Stephen Irwin (small time inc. / United Kingdom)
• Y, Matea Kovač (Ustanova Zagreb film / Croatia)

Student Film Competition

• A Taste For Music, Jordan Antonowicz-Behnan (Royal College of Art / U.K.)
• A World in Chaos, David Crisp (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest / Hungary)
• Above the Clouds, Vivien Hárshegyi (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest / Hungary)
• And Then…, Leo Graf, Tanja Nuijten, Raphael Stalder (Lucerne School of Art and Design / Switzerland)
• Ant Hotel, Yu-Hsuan Teng (National Taiwan University of Arts / Taiwan)
• Ascent, Matti Vesanen (The National Film & Television School / U.K)
• Burnt Cookies, Jezaja Uten (KASK / Belgium)
• Carlos Montaña, Itati Romero (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba / Argentina)
• Chopping Wood Chips, Alize Sotelo Gutierrez, Rita Ataide Novais (London College of Communication, UAL / United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal)
• Cowboy Kevin, Anna Lund Konnerup (The Animation Workshop / Denmark)
• Dead Silent, Miriam Fox (The National Film & Television School / U.K.)
• Dear Me, Suchana (Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute / India)
• Dede is Dead, Philippe Kastner (FAMU – Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts / Czechia)
• End of Summer, Tara Attarzadeh (University of Tehran/ Iran)
• Follow my Steps, Nils Balleydier (La Poudrière / France)
• Foreign Side, Sara Tomas (Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb / Croatia)
• Funeral at Nine, Mamadou Barry, Rodrigo Veras, Ziyu Wang, Junhao Xiang, Wang Yu, Linfeng Zhou (Gobelins / France)
• Fur, Zhen Li (California Institute of the Arts / U.S.)
• Hands on the Fire, Francesca Loss (La Poudrière / France)
• Hernicia, Sameliina Paurson (Estonian Academy of Arts / Estonia)
• Homemaker, Ciara Kerr (National Film & Television School / U.K.)
• Juice, Mona Keil (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg / Germany)
• La Vita Nuova, Arthur Sevestre (La Poudrière / France)
• Lovesome, Rina Tsukamoto (Tama Art University / Japan)
• Opening Night, Sara Szymańska (The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Lodz / Poland)
• Peacock Inn, Dorotea Radušić (Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb / Croatia)
• Pipes, Kilian Feusi, Jessica Meier, Sujanth Ravichandran (Lucerne School of Art and Design / Switzerland)
• Ressources Humaines, Trinidad Plass, Titouan Tillier, Isaac Wenzek (EMCA / France)
• Roald, Clara Bigache, Laurent Chavalle, Julie Chene, Thibault Chopinet, Armand Gaucheron, Alexis Lheureux, Maxime Prone (ESMA / France)
• Sem, Joke Duwaerts (LUCA School of the Arts / Belgium)
• Sewing Love, Xu Yuan (Tama Art University / Japan)
• Soaked In, Shiyu Tang (East China Normal University / China)
• Symbiosis, Raz Merhav (Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design / Israel)
• The Building at 9 Etzel St., Bar Vaknine, Tamar Sharvit, Matan Levi (Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design / Israel)
• The Silent Scream, Camille Anne, Julie Vandenbergue, Martin Laurent, Elisa Torris, Camille Leroy, Lucas Foutrier (Pôle 3D / France)
• Under A Shooting Contrail, Rika Nakayama (California Institute of the Arts / U.S.)
• Unique Time, Yu-Jin Oh (Korean Academy of Film Arts / South Korea)
• Vulvine Reine d’Extase, Clémence Andre, Nawel Bahamou, Ming Chieh Chang, Théo Guyot, Mariia Yanko (Gobelins / France)
• Water Drop, Selma El Maki (Emile Cohl School / France)
• Wind Whisperer, Fernanda Caicedo (Bauhaus University Weimar / Germany, Ecuado)
• Zuman, Honor Price (The National Film & Television School / U.K.)

Croatian Film Competition

• Aleph, Slobodan Tomić (Ustanova Zagreb film / Croatia)
• Babushka Has A New Boyfriend, Dean Hamer (Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb / Croatia)
• Bird house, Petra Pavetić Kranjčec (Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb / Croatia)
• Cat Food, Antonio Klasić (Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb / Croatia)
• Eeva, Lucija Mrzljak, Morten Tšinakov (Eesti Joonisfilm, Adriatic Animation / Estonia, Croatia)
• Family Portrait, Lea Vidaković (Adriatic Animation, Vivement Lundi!, Biberche Productions / Croatia, France, Serbia)
• Foreign Side, Sara Tomas (Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb / Croatia)
• Her Dress for the Final, Martina Meštrović (Kreativni sindikat / Croatia)
• Holy Men, David Lovrić (Adriatic Animation / Croatia)
• Horizon, Morana Marija Vulić (Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb / Croatia)
• Love Is A Color, Nikolina Žabčić (Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb / Croatia)
• Peacock Inn, Dorotea Radušić (Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb / Croatia)
• Remember How I Used to Ride a White Horse, Ivana Bošnjak Volda, Thomas Johnson Volda (Kreativni sindikat / Croatia)
• Republika, Antonia Begušić (Ustanova Zagreb film / Croatia)
• Second Skin, Dora Klanac (Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb / Croatia)
• The Following Season, Natko Stipaničev (Kino Klub Split / Croatia)
• Thirteen, Helena Schultheis Edgeler, Richard Edgeler (Elestra u.o. / U.K., Croatia)
• Under Cover, Darian Bakliža (Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb / Croatia)
• Y, Matea Kovač (Ustanova Zagreb film / Croatia)