BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects is co-hosting the Animated Spirits European Film Festival. This week-long animation festival celebrates new animation from Central and Eastern Europe. Animation from this region is a unique style of contemporary animation that highlights diverse voices and is often surreal, poignant, unconventional and dim. Founded in 2015, Animated Spirits presents screenings, workshops and a networking event at School of Visual Arts, Sunday, November 4 – Friday, November 9, 2018. A full schedule and RSVP information can be found at bfacomputerart.eventbrite.com.

Sunday, November 4

5:00 – 9:00pm | Animated Spirits Film Festival Screening and Networking Event
SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street
This special film screening will showcase 20 short films, presenting the latest in contemporary animation by filmmakers from Croatia, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia and more. Join us for a networking event before the screening, 5:00 – 6:00pm, at SVA Theatre. For a full list of films screened, visit the eventbrite page.

Monday, November 5

Noon – 3:00pm | Animation's Experiments in Film Language
133/141 West 21st Street, 3rd floor, Room 301C
Robert Sowa, the head of Animation Film Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts Krakow, Poland, presents this case study lecture on the subject of experimentation in digital 3D animation. He will demonstrate the stages of project development from conceptual work, through storyboarding, trials and tests confronted with the excerpts from final outcomes. In his presentation, he will also discuss the field of CGI experiments with stereoscopy, contemporary music and documentary filmmaking, with examples from his own work.

7:00 – 9:00pm | Animated Spirits Film Festival Screening Event
SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street
This exciting film screening will showcase eight short films, presenting the latest in contemporary animation by filmmakers from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Denmark, and more. For a full list of films screened, visit the eventbrite page.

Tuesday, November 6

3:30 – 5:30pm | Directing and Previsualization of Game Cinematics

133/141 West 21st Street, 3rd floor, Room 301C
David Ringeisen, Director and Lead of the Previsualization Unit of the Budapest-based Digic Pictures, presents this workshop exploring directing and previsualization of game cinematics. Pre-rendered cutscenes and game trailers are a unique field of animation. Since the storytelling has to happen on a limited runtime, strict budget, short deadlines and picky clients, previsualization is a key element not only to the preproduction, but in visualizing a script, optimizing budget and finding solutions to meet technical limitations. Directing in such circumstances requires special skill sets and techniques, and this workshop will explore recent case studies that examine this.

6:00 – 8:00pm | Early History of Slovak Digital Games and Gaming Culture
133/141 West 21st Street, 3rd floor, Room 301C
Maroš Brojo, artistic director of Fest Anča International Animation Festival in Žilina, Slovakia, and a programmer at Fest Anča Game Days, presents this workshop focusing on independent digital games. The Slovak approach to game development during the years of shift from socialism to capitalism brought some very interesting, independently-developed digital games. This workshop will look at how the rising influence of western culture and the declining influence of the Slovak Communist party has affected games and the generation of artists creating them.

Wednesday, November 7

10:00am – noon | Animated Documentary
133/141 West 21st Street, 3rd floor, Room 301C
Eliška Děcká, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Animation Department at Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), Czech Republic, presents this lecture about the history of animated documentary and its omnipresent character today. This workshop will include many film clips and visual and audio examples, showing different types of animated documentaries, including personal stories, autobiographical approach, sociological approach, reconstruction of memories and historical events, and more.

Friday, November 9
6:00 – 8:00pm | Making Movies After School
133/141 West 21st Street, 3rd floor, Room 301C
Réka Bucsi, an internationally recognized, award-winning Hungarian animation filmmaker, will talk about her work in independent animation filmmaking from graduation to professional work. Réka will talk about the creative process, production, funding and what it means to be a filmmaker with a focus on experimental narrative. This workshop will look at how people relate to abstract storytelling structures and how to get this across to a bigger audience.

Special Event

Animated Spirits: New Animation from Europe