Swiss retrospective at Animafest in Zagreb and Swiss animation films at festival in Annecy

The "Focus on Swiss Animation" in Zagreb will be divided into four programmes: apart from an integral retrospective of films by the internationally acclaimed master filmmaker Georges Schwizgebel - who had designed one of the festival trailers and will present his latest opus "Retouches" in the Grand Competition - thirty films will highlight the various facets of Swiss animation filmmaking from yesterday and today. One programme is devoted to student films, the majority of which were produced at the Lucerne School of Art and Design (HSLU). One such film from the HSLU, "Flowerpots", will participate in the Student Competition, with its director, Rafael Sommerhalder, attending the festival in the Croatian capital to present his film personally.

The World Festival of Animated Films in Zagreb, which was founded in 1972, has presented feature animation films every odd-numbered year alternately with short animation films every even-numbered year since 2005. It ranks among the four major festivals for this genre together with the festivals in Annecy, Ottawa and Hiroshima.

Together with "Miramare" and "Land Of The Heads", the Swiss presence in Annecy includes Georges Schwizgebel's film "Zig Zag" (1996), which will be screened in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the festival, as well as the film "Le génie de la boîte de raviolis" by Claude Barras. An exhibition presenting works by animation filmmakers Gisèle and Nag Ansorge from Vaud will also be held.

The film promotion agency SWISS FILMS has organised a cocktail hour on Wednesday, June 9, 2010, with the Swiss filmmakers invited to the festival in attendance. On this occasion, the "swiss shorts_19", the new promotional DVD comprising 17 animation films of various techniques, will be presented.

Geneva, May 31, 2010