Hungary’s Kecskemét Animation Film Festival is one of the most prestigious animation film festivals in Europe, which serves as a celebration of Hungarian national animation and as a showcase of contemporary international animation as well. This year the festival celebrated its 10th anniversary. During its long history KAFF has displayed and awarded the very top of Hungarian animation in feature length and in short format, too. This online collection includes 19 masterpieces from the history of KAFF and Hungarian animation displaying films from the 1970s until nowadays.
The collection showcases works from many Grand Masters, who started their career at the 70s during the golden age of Hungarian animation film production. Marcell Jankovics world-famous animation director is represented by one of his masterpieces Fight in the collection. It was the winner of Palme d’Or for Best Short Film in 1977. Fight shows an unquestionable talent of anatomic drawing skills and animation competency. The way it uses perspectives, rhythm and dramaturgy makes this film a unique experience. Ferenc Cakó, probably the most well-known Hungarian animation film director also gets a place in the collection with his Golden Bear-winning animation Ashes, which was created with his groundbreaking sand animation technique. It was made in the memory of her mother and talks about death and passing in a very touching way.
Apropos of the KAFF jubilee the finest award-winning films of the previous nine festivals are included in this special online edition, too. The oldest piece is Mária Horváth’s Door No. 8, which won the award for Best Short Film at the very first KAFF in 1985. It is about an old man who finds himself in a pretty disturbing situation and place. From the competition in 1993 Béla Weisz is represented with his animation Sprinkling that won the most prestigious award, the Grand Prix of the festival. In this funny animation a pretty little mouse wakes up excited, and goes to open her front door expecting the “Eastern sprinklers”, however she gets more than a bit of a surprise.
