Animafest Zagreb / Behind the Scenes of Animation

Group exhibition

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF BABELSBERG KONRAD WOLF

The Selection Committee of the Student Film Competition of the World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb 2025 awarded the Award for the Best Animation School to the Babelsberg Film University KONRAD WOLF from Germany. The selection committee consisting of Daniel Šuljić, Antonia Begušić and Eugen Bilankov recognized the exceptional contribution of this school to contemporary animation through a diverse, strong and uncompromising opus of student works.

Over the years, the Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF Film University has articulated itself as a space that encourages the expression of creativity in relation to precise performance and strong emotional rhetoric. Their film practice attracts attention with its complete and unique artistic expression. This year's selection of their films that will be screened in the Student Film Competition – Floating, Opto Optics and I Am A Flower – testifies to the school's commitment to technical excellence and quality storytelling.

The selected films reflect the author's original visions, combining thoughtful storytelling and carefully executed animation techniques. The visual impressiveness stems from the skills of the authors and from the carefully realized emotional dramaturgical concept.

The best student films of this school will be presented as a special programme of the World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb in 2025, and we look forward to opening a window into the breadth and richness of their artistic expression to the festival audience.

FROM THE PREFACE OF THE EXHIBITION

"For the tenth year in a row, the World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb, in cooperation with the Šira Gallery and the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, presents an exhibition of works by students of prominent European animation schools during the festival. This year, these are the works of three authors: Pearl Seemann, Jelena Milunović and Ariel Victor Arthant – students of the animation department of the Babelsberg Film University KONRAD WOLF from Germany, who were crowned with the annual award for the Best Animation School by the selection committee of the Animafest Student Film Competition.

The selection of exhibition works at the Šira Gallery comes from a set of films that will be screened in Animafest's Student Film Competition – "Floating" by Jelena Milunović, "Opto Optics" by Pearl Seemann and "I Am a Flower" by Ariel Victor Arthant, which are the best testimony to the school's commitment to technical excellence and quality storytelling.

The selected films reflect the author's original visions by combining thoughtful storytelling and carefully executed animation techniques. The visual impressiveness stems from the skills of the authors and from the carefully realized emotional dramaturgical concept.

The exhibition further confirms the Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF Film University as one of the leading institutions in animator education, where students are encouraged to explore, innovate and push the boundaries of the medium. It is these values that are crucial in contemporary animation streams, which encompass complex techniques, while at the same time they do not hesitate to speak out about relevant topics in an intimate, social and political sense."

Paola Orlić

The exhibition was realized with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia and the City Office for Culture and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb.

The exhibition at the Šira Gallery can be viewed during the Gallery's working hours (Mon-Fri: 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., 6 p.m. – 8 p.m., Saturdays: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.) until June 7, 2025.