08/12/2005

Kick-off today in Budapest for the 3rd AniFest, a festival dedicated to young European animation filmmakers. On the programme till Sunday, a competition of 35 shorts from 20 countries in Europe proposes a vast panorama of styles. Also on the menu is an homage to Dutch director Gerrit van Dijk, a Nordic section highlighting productions from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Estonia, as well as a Focus on Belgian animation (the best from the Anima festival in Brussels) and a complete tour of the latest from the four Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary). The event also includes numerous previews of feature animation such as Terkel in Trouble by Stefan Fjeldmark, Thorbjørn Christoffersen and Kresten Vestbjerg Andersen, and Danish film by Nordisk Film whose distributor Budapest Film will release the film next Spring on Hungarian screens. Also being projected is the Swedish-Hungarian co-production Lorange, Muffin and Dartanjang from Svensk Filmindustri, Happy Life Animation AB and Studio Baestarts, Pinocchio 3000 by Daniel Robichaud (co-production Canada – Spain - Belgium), and also Frank & Wendy by Priit Pärn as well as Strings [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a Danish film which Cirko Film will distribute in Hungary.

As for releases this Thursday, note the arrival of Fragile by Spaniard Jaume Balagueró, a horror film screened out of competition at the last Mostra in Venice (read compte-rendu) and which launches Best International in the Hungarian theatres. Among the other new Europeans are the Anglo-Canadian co-production It’s All Gone Pete Tong by Michael Dowse (distribution SPI) and the Hungarian comedy directed by (production Megafilm, distribution HungariCom). Finally, box office wise, the omnipresent Harry Potter leaves some crumbs in the top 10 to seven other American productions and two Hungarian productions: the comedy Egy szoknya, egy nadrág by Bence Gyöngyössy which holds 4th place from 2nd – 4th December after eight weeks and The Real Santa (Az igazi Mikulás) by Péter Gárdos (see making of) which entered at number 9.

(Translated from French)