Besides the daytime animated film projections, Fest Anča attracts visitors with late-night screenings, concerts and parties. This year, we have changed their location from Stanica’s garden and S2 Hall to a new venue: Smer Klub 77.

Four concerts / live performances will be the highlights of this year’s music programme. Slovak musician Dalibor Kocián, also known under the stage name of Stroon, will present his new project Early Millennial. The 1st EP of this project – Canarissimo – released in April, draws inspiration from the music of his early youth and it radically diverges from the aesthetics that characterises his other projects. Dalibor has been a long-time friend and collaborator of Fest Anča and he has performed at the festival in different roles and with diverse projects. The festival theme – Identity – makes Fest Anča 2019 the perfect place and time for Dalibor to live-premiere his new artistic alter ego. During the festival weekend, he will also perform with his DJ set under the name of Stroon.

Fero Király’s live-coding set Fishcore touches the theme of artistic identity, too. Fero is best known as a keyboard instrument player, interpreting contemporary composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich, both as a solo player and a member of the internationally renowned Cluster ensemble. At Fest Anča he will perform with his experimental solo project. At the terrace of Smer Klub 77, the viewers will have a unique opportunity to “see his screens”. Fero will be composing digital music in real time and the source code will be made visible by projecting the computer screen in the audience space.

The variety of this year’s music programme will be enriched with the performance by Samčo, brat dážďoviek, nestor of Slovak bizarre folk, and the noise-drone concert by Odpał. “I love playing with things that make sounds and noises. When I grew up, they took my toys, so I have to get by with whatever can replace them”, says musician Samuel Szabó, also known as Samčo, Radiohead Award 2015 laureate in the category of experimental music. In addition to the concert, he will give a talk about his digital-identity-themed project Artificial Non-intelligence, which uses the tools of artificial intelligence to process non-intelligent content (like quotes of some Slovak politicians or thousands of Facebook comments). Odpał is a specific experimental live project exploiting the spatial and contextual possibilities of every performance.

The late-night programme of 12. Fest Anča will also present a set by DJ and promoter Tea Tralna. Tea is a strictly eclectic musical soul. She loves experiments, and her sets combine the seemingly uncombinable. She is a part of the BWO collective, and she has helped organize a number of performances of remarkable producers from abroad, such as Hi5ghost, Palmistry or Gundam.

Film curiosities screened in the sections Anča in Wonderland, Anča in Mordor and Extremely Short Section of Extremely Short Films belong to the most popular parts of Fest Anča’s evening programme. Most of these projections will take place in Smer Klub 77, either indoors or at the club’s terrace. “For Anča in Wonderland we’ve picked films whose authors let their creativity run really wild. The selection covers many diverse themes and approaches. The viewers will see a generation testimony, an adaptation of national mythology, teenage humour, unsolicited life advice, as well as films where genres are crossed, united, but also buried”, says Lukáš Sigmund, one of the festival programmers. “The Anča in Mordor section is famous for its confrontational character. It includes films essentially doomed to fail at pre-selection process of every conventional film festival. Therefore, Fest Anča is one of the few opportunities to see them on the big screen.”

We also recommend the thematic section Shrek is love, Shrek is life, which will be screened on Sarurday night on the terrace of Smer Klub. This unorthodox selection of Shrek-inspired animation, generated by the internet community, will display the unlimited creative potential of the Shrek cult.

Fest Anča 2019 late-night programme will also include a special edition of Pecha Kucha dedicated exclusively to animation. Animated film directors and producers from Slovakia and abroad will present their projects in development in 20 slides and accompany them with some interesting behind-the-scenes stories. Pecha Kucha Ancha will take place on Friday night in the New Synagogue and it will be conducted in English.

Fest Anča 2019 will be held from 27 to 30 June in Žilina, Slovakia.

Buy your pre-sale ticket here.

2019 Fest Anča International Animation Festival is financially supported by the Slovak Audiovisual Fund and LITA Fund.