17/07/2025 - The 13 visually and sonically stunning music videos of the competition’s first block hurtle through real and imagined places

During the 18th edition of International Animation Festival Fest Anča, held in the small town of Žilina in northern Slovakia, viewers were taken on a vibrant and daring musical journey around the world. The 26 music videos, presented in two blocks to comprise the Music Video Competition, stood out with their unique art styles, dynamic energy and musical diversity, ranging from thrash metal to indie funky pop. Assessed by a jury composed of Tsor Edery, Aurelia Asaa and Martin Smetana, the competition awarded €1,000 to the 7-minute-long Castle by Taiwan-based director Jeci Chen.

The eclectic lineup of the first block never ceased to surprise and included a Mexican punk neighbourhood brought to life in bold, flashy animation by Nespy 5Euro (La Banda Bastón – Degeneración Nacional), Julian Gallese’s Costa Rican pixelated Autopollo – which channels the early computer game-like glow of Y2K nostalgia (awarded a special mention) – and Yoonsun Lee and Jiwon Choi’s Rabbits Have Red Eyes – which evokes the eerie tension of a Korean horror webtoon – and many more. The journey was by no means a metaphor, as the feeling of transportation, both into one’s consciousness as well as to real and imagined places, could be felt immediately when the first music video started.

As every journey needs a vehicle, the first block kicked off with a music video animated by Ala Nunu – currently based in Portugal – for the song Disappear, written by James Asturias (Reason and Impulse). Although it is kept entirely in a brownish palette and initially uses simple hand and technical line drawings, the animation gradually grows in complexity and dynamism. As the tiny, white creatures start to construct and deconstruct the car to the anthemic rock music, the machine is finally built, and the journey can get going.

The mythical Icarus, who fell to Earth as he flew too close to the sun, reappears in the eponymous music video directed by German director Julia Jesionek. The voice of Jules Ahoi is almost as dreamy as the main character’s longing to escape. Pastel yet psychedelic colours guide a slow-paced, crayon-textured animation, as a lone figure breaks from a metaphorical cage and runs toward a new, unknown destination.

The mythical journey continued with Beerbarians, a thrash metal anthem by German band Tankard, brought to life in an Australian production by Costas Lambrou, Jasmine Lin and Joy Zou. Animated members of the band, almost like Prometheus – who gave fire to humanity – introduce people to the power of beer. They lead a wild voyage to a promised land where golden liquor fills the river and volcanoes, and only metal music and beer seem to matter. The whole audience just couldn’t help but bounce along to the beat.

Diving deeper into abstraction, the viewers were taken into the land of the subconscious. Directed by the duo Marrie Larrivée and Lucas Malbrun, Au coeur du son is a literal trip. As in Murnau’s Nosferatu, the protagonist is drawn in by a narrator's mystical voice and Rémi Fox’s experimental music, descending into psychedelic castles and colourful labyrinths. The background colours shift constantly, and hypnotic 2D spirals pull both protagonists and the viewers into an even bigger trance.

The first block ended on a nostalgic note, as Pablo Rafael Roldán took his viewers down memory lane with Horizon. Compared to the earlier pieces, Roldan’s work is calmer and the candid 2D shots, as if taken with an analogue camera, evoke the warmth of a lazy summer evening long gone. In response to the question of what remains after we’re gone, the indie rock band Usted Señalemelo sings: “no temas por ti” (“do not fear for yourself”). And although the journey ended, it left viewers not only with the hunger for more but also the hope for the possibility of being on the road again.

Through the meanderings of varied narratives and animation styles, each of the 13 music videos presented in the first block left their own imprint. With its bold mix of genres, styles and stories, the first block of the Music Video Competition offered not just a showcase of global animation talent but a visceral ride through soundscapes that are as hypnotic as they are visually stunning.