The Golden Age of Hungarian Animation – A Collection on Daazo.com

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.

The new generation of Hungarian filmmakers also gets a place in the collection. Starting with Ducki Tomek’s Grand Prix Award Winning piece from 2007: Life Line. It offers a stunning visual representation of a human life with all the pitfalls and joy and love and tragedy it goes with it. From 2009 two films are presented to the public. The Grand Prix winner Fin by Katalin Glaser that consists of a bunch of small scenes following one another balancing on the thin line of fantasy and the real world. Furthermore, Ariadne’s Thread made by Attila Bertóti, which was the winner of the Best Short Film Award at the previous festival in 2009. It is a postmodern retake of the classic Greek myth. The film presents three different narrative versions of the basic story focusing on a different hero each time and using various genre conventions.The latest piece in the collection, track32 by István Illés is the winner of this year’s Grand Prix Award at the 10th Kecskemét Animation Film Festival. track32 is an experimental piece made by a special mixed technique that represents a multidisciplinary approach towards animation.

The Online Collection of Hungarian Animated Short Films is available at http://daazo.com/kaff2011.