Fest Anča has something for the youngest audiences too – an attractive film programme and interactive theatre performance. The kids’ programme is mostly on Saturday and Sunday 3 – 4 June at Artforum in Žilina, with some of it online at festhome.com from 1 to 11 July.

Our youngest viewers and their parents can watch international sections of competitive and non-competitive films, the thematic section The Wandering Kite, and Slovak TV bedtime story overviews with the unforgettable adventures of Puf and Muf, two black-and-white tomcats, a fairy-tale about a friendship between a snail and gnome, and the never-ending shenanigans of bugs, showing us the diversity of life in nature. So the popular animation festival will start off summer and the vacation big time!

Film programme and children’s jury

Kindergarten and primary school aged kids can watch competitive and non-competitive international short films at the live event with friends – seats are limited. They can look forward to tales of a hungry dinosaur, a tall princess, and Veronika Kocourková’s animated film Cate Strophe and the Secret of Snowflakes. Children’s film sections will be available online – just like the rest of Fest Anča’s 2021 programme.

The jury that decides the winner of the International Competition of Films for Children will comprise 20 kids from the kindergarten at Stálicová 2 in Bratislava, which helps to create a positive relationship towards popular traditions through socio-educational activities such as tending saplings, cultivating a vegetable patch, and even letting grass grow wild to support insects. But before vacations start, they will be picking the winner from seven short films that use diverse animation techniques – from embroidery to cut-out animation.

The Wandering Kite is a special thematic screening of short animated films from our partner festival countries – a high-quality selection of contemporary work from Central and Eastern Europe. Slovakia is represented by Martin Smatana’s The Kite. Suitable for children aged 4+, the films have been carefully co-selected by a media psychologist.

TV bedtime stories

The children’s programme also reflects Fest Anča’s Traditions theme. The festival dramaturges have hand-picked a selection of Slovak TV bedtime stories from the 1960s to 1990s across six screening sections that show a diversity and range of animation techniques, as well as the long history of Slovak animated TV production. These screenings are organised with the support of the Radio and Television Slovakia (RTS – state broadcaster) archive and are only available live in Žilina.

Kids and adults can look forward to Brave Bunny based on Jozef Cíger Hronský’s famous book, where the bunny wanders the world and makes new friends. The selection of the most compelling animated series features stories about a curious bear as well as a happy and conciliatory ladybug. Yet the animated series about the outlaw Jurošík – gently parodising Slovak characteristics, traditions, and superstitions – tackles the Traditions theme head-on.

Characters from Fest Anča’s 2021 visuals will also come to life on the silver screen. Kids and grown-ups can watch Viktor Kubal’s animated series Puf and Muf about two tomcats, their friend Paľko, and their various adventures and mishaps at a repair shop or while painting. They’re joined by Maťo the Snail and Klinček the floral Gnome who help each other and protect nature.

Adults can also watch an overview of the above-mentioned TV bedtime stories in two screenings of Good-Night Slovak TV Bedtime Stories, and a special section of adult TV bedtime stories about Grandpa – the animated protagonist who announces the start of TV bedtime stories for kids – who finds himself in humorous and saucy situations.

Theatre

In the first days of the summer vacation, kids and parents can see and participate in EDUdrama theatre’s performance Over Seven Mountains that unites stage and auditorium. Through active participation, audience members are drawn into a story, becoming and thinking like characters, and seeing the world from a new perspective. This performance looks for the origin of Slovak fairy tales – who told them first, whether the kingdom will be saved by one of three brothers or a sister – all will be revealed once the artists and audience themselves have told and lived through Dobšinský’s tales.

SATURDAY – ARTFORUM

11:00 – EDUdrama: Over Seven Mountains

13:00 – International Competition of Films for Children

14:00 – Slovak TV Bedtime Stories: Brave Bunny

15:00 – Slovak TV Bedtime Stories: Puf and Muf

16:00 – CEEAFN: The Wandering Kite

17:00 – Slovak TV Bedtime Stories: Darling

SUNDAY – ARTFORUM

10:00 – World Panorama for Children 1

11:00 – Slovak TV Bedtime Stories: Maťo the Snail and Klinček the Gnome

12:00 – Slovak TV Bedtime Stories: Ladybug

13:00 – International Competition of Films for Children (R)

14:00 – World Panorama for Children 2 (R)

15:00 – Slovak TV Bedtime Stories: Jurošík