Happy first 50 years to my favorite festival!

The exhibition Animafest Zagreb 1972 – 2022 provides an insight into the history of the festival, which as a cultural and social phenomenon still plays an important role in creating new artistic trends

The Animafest Zagreb World Festival of Animated Film was founded fifty years ago and is one of the oldest festivals dedicated to animation. In the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, the exhibition Animafest 1972 – 2022 dedicated to 50 years of the festival was opened.

The exhibition Animafest Zagreb 1972 – 2022 summarizes the half-century history of the festival. In addition to the central exhibition on the history of the festival, there are four thematic exhibitions that are traditionally held in the accompanying festival program: Behind the Scenes 4; Nedeljko Dragić: The tamer of the line, presentation of the winner of this year's Animafest Lifetime Achievement Award; an exhibition of a recording book by Paul Driessen, a Dutch animation master, and an exhibition of photographs by Finnish author Tim Vilkainen Behind the Eyes the World, in which he portrays bards of world animation.

Four thematic exhibitions

The exhibition Animafest Zagreb 1972 – 2022 includes a selection of award-winning animated films and presents their authors, as well as festival titles, awards, publications, posters, drawings, documentaries and photographs. In chronological order, a prominent place in the exhibition is dedicated to the visual identity of the festival, which was designed and developed with each new edition by animators and graphic designers. The first logo was made by Borivoj Dovniković Bordo, the first poster was designed by Zlatko Bourek, and Zvonimir Lončarić by the festival mascot Mandlek – a popular man with a half-cylinder.

A separate exhibition of the Krototelj line is dedicated to Nedeljko Dragić, this year's winner of the Animafest Lifetime Achievement Award as one of the most prominent authors of the Zagreb School of Cartoon Film. His key achievements in the field of animation are exhibited, such as the films made in Zagreb Film within the Cartoon Studio, which he came to in the early 1960s. Even then, he was recognized as an extremely talented cartoonist, from the beginning preoccupied with the themes of everyday life, alienation and human loneliness. In addition to the most important films, there are books on filming, drawings, goals, awards and other archives that testify that he was an exceptional illustrator, comic book author, cartoonist and graphic designer.

The group exhibition Behind the Scenes 4 presents the works of authors whose films have entered the competition of short and student films. The idea of the exhibition is to show the diversity and variety of techniques and authorial approaches behind the selected titles, ie the stages that preceded the end of the film. This year, 54 authors from this year's short film and student competition responded to the invitation.

The exhibition Animafest Zagreb 1972-2022 provides an insight into the history of the festival, which as a cultural and social phenomenon still plays an important role in creating new artistic trends.