Record number of Hungarian films and co-prods at Annecy
Screening dates arrived - FOUR SOULS OF COYOTE competes for the Annecy Crystal, while in Contrechamp competition, WHITE PLASTIC SKY, TOLDI and Czech-Slovak-Hungarian co-production TONY, SHELLY AND THE MAGIC LIGHT will be on show.
Anna Flóra Buda’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner 27 will be presented in the Short Competition, while FOX TOSSING by Zénó Kristóf Mira will compete with Graduation Films.
In the Freaks & Proud special, SUPERBIA by Luca Tóth will also be presented, while Annecy Classics will premiere the 4K restored version of the French-Hungarian coproduction TIME MASTERS (1982, Les Maitres du temps) by legendary René Laloux.
The career of Áron Gauder, director of Four Souls of Coyote, started in Annecy in 2005, where he won top honour of the festival, Annecy Crystal, for The District!, a caricaturist animated film about the infamous eighth district of Budapest.
By presenting the magical world of Native American folklore, Four Souls of Coyote explores the issues of the climate crisis, when a company and the natives come face to face over the laying of oil pipelines. The community protesting for its home recalls the creation story and through the adventures of the mythical Coyote, brings the wisdom of the Indigenous people close to the audience, showing that it is easier to shape the future in the right direction by listening to the experiences of the past.
Four Souls of Coyote was produced by Réka Temple, Cinemon Entertainment.
Four Souls of Coyote TRAILER
Monday 12 June 20:45 → 22:29 Le Mikado Novel Cinéma Novel
Tuesday 13 June 13:30 → 15:14 Bonlieu Grande salle –Official screening
Tuesday 13 June 19:30 → 21:14 Cinéma Pathé Pathé 2
Wednesday 14 June 21:30 → 23:14 Cinéma Pathé Pathé 3
Thursday 15 June 20:45 → 22:29 Auditorium de Seynod Auditorium
Friday 16 June 11:30 → 13:14 Cinéma Pathé Pathé 1
Friday 16 June 20:45 → 22:29 La Turbine
Toldi is the last work of legendary animation film director Marcell Jankovics who died in 2021. The Palme d'Or winner and Oscar nominee artist directed the first full-length production in Hungarian animation history, Johnny Corncob, in 1973 and was involved with more than 100 films as director, figure designer, animator and specialist. His second feature film, Son of the White Mare was selected amongst the 50 most important animation films of all times at the animation Olympics organized to coincide with the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984. One of the most famous animation films in the world, the 2-minute-long Sisyphus was nominated for an Oscar in 1976, while another masterpiece, The Struggle won a Palme d’Or in Cannes in 1977.
Over the course of a career that spanned six decades Marcell Jankovics received multiple awards all around the globe. In 2009, he was presented the World Cultural Council’s Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts.
His final work, Toldi, is the animation adaptation of the epic poem by famous Hungarian poet János Arany, written in 1846. It tells the story of Miklós Toldi, an impulsive stripling who commits a careless murder and is forced to go into hiding. He sets out for Buda to dazzle the king with his courage and daring, and he earns both the ruler’s mercy and a knighthood. The full-length animated feature follows Toldi on a journey full of adventures and intrigue between brothers, until young Toldi finally faces the great test, when he wins the recognition, he has so long craved before the king.
Toldi was co-directed by Lajos Csákovics, produced by Ferenc Mikulás of legendary Kecskemétfilm studio.
Toldi TRAILER
Monday 12 June 11:45 → 13:28 Cinéma Pathé Pathé 3
Thursday 15 June 19:30 → 21:13 Cinéma Pathé Pathé 2 –Official screening
Friday 16 June 11:45 → 13:28 Cinéma Pathé Pathé 3
Saturday 17 June 19:00 → 20:43 Cinéma Pathé Pathé 3
White Plastic Sky premiered at the Berlinale earlier this year, is a new rotoscoped take on climate crisis by Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó. The futuristic hand-drawn animation is set in Budapest in 2123, in a world destroyed by human activity and overpopulation. To save the planet and the human race, a system has been put in place under which on turning 50, people are transported to a mysterious place called the plantation, where they are gradually transformed into trees. When the protagonist discovers his wife has voluntarily gone to the plantation ahead of her time, he sets off on a quest to get her back.
The film debuted at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival’s Encounters program.
White Plastic Sky TRAILER
Monday 12 June 17:00 → 18:52 Cinéma Pathé Pathé 2
Tuesday 13 June 19:00 → 20:52 Cinéma Pathé Pathé 3
Thursday 15 June 16:30 → 18:22 Cinéma Pathé Pathé 3
Saturday 17 June 16:30 → 18:22 Cinéma Pathé Pathé 3
Visit NFI World Sales at MIFA B.24 from 13-16 June