Did you know that the only Slovak festival with official Oscar® status occurs in Žilina? The 18th Fest Anča from June 24 to 29 will present world animation, powerful stories, great concerts, and an attractive programme for children. The town will welcome international guests, well-known films, and powerful experiences that you simply won’t find anywhere else. Fest Anča events will be held at Žilina Town Theatre, New Synagogue, Žilina-Záriečie Station Cultural Centre, and Žilina Artforum.

Žilina – the Heart of Animation

Fest Anča has proudly been an Oscar®-qualifying festival since 2023: winners of the Anča Award for Best Short Animated Film and Best Slovak Animated Film are automatically eligible for consideration in the Academy Awards® short film competition. And this year, Žilina once again welcomes members of the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, including Danish animator Sara Koppel and Portuguese animator João Gonzalez.

Žilina is not only home to the Oscar®-qualifying Fest Anča – it’s also the birthplace of some of the most influential figures in Slovak animated film, whose work resonates both locally and internationally. Among them is Katarína Kerekesová (the animator and producer behind the award-winning children’s series Mimi and Líza and The Websters), and Martin Smatana (whose acclaimed films The Kite and Hello Summer have won awards at top festivals around the world), who this year is returning to Fest Anča as a festival jury member for the popular music video competition.

Successful Slovak Feature Films

The year’s Our Bodies festival theme will be reflected in the Czech-Slovak-French feature film Living Large, about how to embrace being yourself. The film is about twelve-year-old Benjamin, who starts dieting, but after being rejected by a girl and falling into depression, he learns to understand that the key to happiness and growing up is self-love and empathy. The film premiered in 2024 at the world’s most prestigious animation festival in Annecy, and also won the Slovak Sun in a Net Award.

Another Slovak co-production that will be presented at Fest Anča in an exceptional Slovak preview is the feature puppet film Tales from the Magic Garden, which had its world premiere at the Berlinale in 2025. It will come to Žilina straight after its screening at the Annecy festival in France. This Czech-Slovak-Slovenian-French film is about three children who spend the night at their grandfather’s house for the first time since their grandmother died. The film took an incredible ten years to make!

Best Slovak Animation

The most interesting contemporary Slovak productions will be presented in the competition section of Slovak short animated films. This will feature mainly student films, including ones about humanoid insects and a concrete island, as well as Matúš Vizár’s new film Free the Chickens about four activists. His previous film, The Pandas, scored at many international festivals and won third place in the Cinéfondation section at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Pandas will be part of our special Dialogue Between Body and Environment section, prepared by curator Eva Šošková in connection with this year’s festival theme. The curatorial concept behind the selection of student films by Slovak creators centres on the body as a vessel of subjective consciousness. The selection includes films by well-known names in Slovak animation, such as Peter Budinský, Michaela Čopíková and Kriss Sagan.

The main short film competition will feature the Czech-Slovak-Ukrainian documentary I Died in Irpin, which reconstructs the events of February 24, 2022. The non-competitive section Short Films from Around the World will showcase the lighter Slovak co-production Hurikán about a wild Prague neighbourhood, police officers, and thirst. Both films were screened at the Annecy Festival in 2024.

Industry Day

The Slovak animation community – producers, schools, and creators – will also gather in Žilina during Industry Day on Friday, June 27 at Rosenfeld Palace to present their work and discuss current animation film industry topics.

The 18th edition of the Fest Anča International Animation Festival 2025 is financially supported by the Audiovisual Fund, the LITA Fund, and the SPP Foundation.

Organiser
ANČA Civic Society 

Co-organisers
Town of Žilina
Žilina-Záriečie Station
New Synagogue
Žilina Town Theatre

Main partners
The festival is financially supported by the Audiovisual Fund
Animation Festival Network
Creative Europe Media
DELL
ViewSonic

The event is held under the patronage of the Mayor of Žilina, Peter Fiabáne, and the President of the Žilina Self-Governing Region, Erika Jurinová.