The international animation film festival Animateka in Ljubljana, Slovenia (December 7 - 13, 2009) presents a special Focus on Finland programme with a retrospective of almost 70 Finnish films. Most of the titles are short animations, but to give a more versatile picture, the festival also screens some documentaries and fiction films, many of them made with techniques close to animation. The retrospective covers five decades, starting from the 60s and ending at the 2000s.
The Focus on Finland section includes numerous animations from the 2000s, e.g. Curse of the Remote Island (Kaukosaaren kirous) by CHRZU, Changeling (Vaihdokas) by Leena Jääskeläinen and the 2001 Cannes Prix du Jury short film award winner Pizza Passionata by Kari Juusonen.
Good examples of films hovering between animation and other film genres are Hanasaari A by Hannes Vartiainen and Pekka Veikkolainen, a documentary film using new techniques; the experimental short film Optical Sound (Optinen ääni) by Mika Taanila; the experimental short film/animation PrePost by Milla Moilanen; the documentary animation Learned by Heart (Sydämeen kätketty) by Marjut Rimminen and Päivi Takala; and the animated documentary film Home Away from Home (Sylistä syliin) by Marika Väisänen.
The oldest films in the retrospective include such titles as Kinetic Pictures (Kineettisiä kuvia, 1962) by Eino Ruutsalo and Impression (Impressio, 1967) by Seppo Suo-Anttila.
Conveniently just before the opening of Animateka festival, on Friday December 4, the Finnish feature-length animation Niko and the Way to the Stars (Niko - lentäjän poika) by Michael Hegner and Kari Juusonen has its Slovenian theatrical premiere. Last weekend, Niko surpassed the line of a total of 2 Million admissions, after having had theatrical premieres in Austria, Croatia, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and of course Finland. The next premiere country after Slovenia will be Spain (December 25).
The Focus on Finland retrospective at Animateka continues the active co-operation between the Finnish Film Foundation and different events in the Balkan area countries. Earlier this year, special series of Finnish films have been screened in Palić, Serbia and at the Motovun festical in Croatia. The Finnish-Balkan co-operation will be continued in 2010.
Animateka is also a continuation for large retrospectives of Finnish animation films, the last one being the special series of almost 100 Finnish animation films at Hiroshima international animation film festival in August 2008.
www.animatekafestival.org
