The 18th edition of the Fest Anča International Animation Festival brings a fresh selection of the most intriguing, diverse, and offbeat animations from the past two years. The festival will showcase films you won’t find in cinemas, online, or on Netflix—only in Žilina, from June 24 to 29, 2025.

A record-breaking 1,800 short animated films from 83 countries were submitted to Fest Anča this year. That’s 203 hours – over eight and a half days – of nonstop viewing, featuring works from countries including Mexico, Sweden, and Malaysia. However, the pre-selection committee, consisting of Jakub Spevák, Ema Nemčovičová, and Peter Gašparík, spent several months carefully reviewing each and every one. In the end, 218 films were chosen for the festival’s official selection.

Films that win the Anča Award for Best Animated Short and Best Slovak Animated Short are automatically eligible for consideration in the Oscar® Best Animated Short Film Competition.

Well-Known International Animators

Only 36 films made it into the main competition – 13 of them student works. The lineup features big names in contemporary animation, including Yoriko Mizushiri, Sasha Svirsky, Koji Yamamura, and Amanda Therese Bonaiuto, as well as emerging talents. The selection offers an alternative view, provokes reflection, and redefines the shape of contemporary animation.

On the first weekend of summer, a diverse range of stories and animation techniques will take your breath away: from a porcelain doll wandering a snowy landscape to stop-motion animation uncovering layers of street graffiti, and even unconventional methods like 3D scanning and pinscreen animation.

The main competition will showcase films that respond to current social issues, as well as those that present a completely different reality. You will see a mystical stone looking for its destiny in life, as well as the Czech-Slovak-Ukrainian documentary I Died in Irpin, which reconstructs the events of February 24, 2022.

Slovakia’s Best and More

Student works from the Slovak Academy of Performing Arts, FAMU in Prague, and the Dutch Design Academy Eindhoven dominate the Slovak film competition’s eight films. Among them is Matúš Vizár, who returns with his new film Free the Chickens, which follows four activists. His previous film, The Pandas (2013), scored at international festivals and was placed third in the Cinéfondation section at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

Rap. Indie rock. K-pop. Trash metal. These are just some of the genres you’ll hear in the animated music video competition. Curious how 15 animation styles from 15 animators around the world fit into one clip, or how a Nosferatu-inspired video will turn out? The answers await in one of the festival’s most popular sections, which will live up to its reputation once again this year.

And Fest Anča is the perfect place for young viewers too! The children’s competition features six short films full of fun and friendship, each with a message that resonates with adults too. One such film tells the story of a small poisonous mushroom that dreams of becoming a chef, but must overcome the prejudice of its surroundings.

Wonderland or Mordor

The festival’s non-competitive sections also feature many intriguing and bold films. These include works that narrowly missed out on the competition, along with shorts from around the world, animated documentaries, films for children, and non-narrative animations. One standout in the latter category is Glass House, which incorporates artificial intelligence – but only to the extent that the director’s creative input remains clearly visible.

The most sophisticated and entertaining films can be found in the Anča in Wonderland section, which takes audiences down a rabbit hole of absurdity, wit, and bizarre creativity. Anča in Mordor, on the other hand, swaps laughter for fear, discomfort, and spreading mould. Want to see the most films in just one section? Then be sure to check out the Extremely Short Section of Extremely Short Films, featuring films under two minutes long.

Let’s Consider Our Bodies

The main theme of the festival’s 18th edition is Our Bodies. Fest Anča promises to deconstruct them, reshape them into new forms, and breathe new life into them – all with the aim of sensitizing us to our own bodies and those of others. The festival raises questions about whether we can exist outside of our bodies, or if we are too attached to them. Are our bodies, perhaps, the ultimate instruments of resistance?

While the Our Bodies theme is central to the festival’s exploration, it wasn’t the determining factor in selecting films for the official Fest Anča lineup. Instead, the theme will be reflected in special curated sections on corporeality, as well as in the selection of feature films, retrospectives, and other parts of the programme to be announced in coming months.

Here’s the full selection of short films in the competition and non-competition sections:

COMPETITION SECTIONS

(*s = student film)

FILMS COMPETING FOR THE ANČA AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATED SHORT AND BEST STUDENT ANIMATED SHORT

MUSIC VIDEOS COMPETING FOR THE ANČA AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATED MUSIC VIDEO

FILMS COMPETING FOR THE ANČA AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATED SHORT FOR CHILDREN

FILMS COMPETING FOR THE ANČA AWARD FOR BEST SLOVAK ANIMATED SHORT

NON-COMPETITION SECTIONS

SHORT FILMS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

SHORT FILMS FOR CHILDREN

SHORT ANIMATED DOCUMENTARY

CONTEMPORARY ABSTRACT AND NON-NARRATIVE ANIMATION

ANČA IN WONDERLAND

ANČA IN MORDOR

EXTREMELY SHORT SECTION OF EXTREMELY SHORT FILMS

The Fest Anča International Animation Festival 2025 is financially supported by the Audiovisual Fund, LITA Fund and SPP Foundation.