Our 3D animated feature film, Journey to Yourland, that is telling the story of ten-year-old Riki, his cheeky new friend Emma and Tidling the monkey as they embark on an adventurous journey to Yourland, was awarded as the Best Feature Animation Film at Chicago Children’s Film Festival.

Our ambitious feature film has been presented except USA also at festivals in Croatia, Switzerland, Germany and France and has been worked on by more than fifteen artists and animators from all over Europe, from Ireland to the Czech Republic. Journey to Yourland thus stands out for its sophisticated art style with detailed backgrounds evoking the epic video game feel so appealing to young viewers already looking for something more than “kiddie” animation. The film’s visual concept draws on stop-motion visuals, which inspired the stylization of characters and environments and the creation of textures. However, the visual concept is transferred to a digital environment and the film is animated like a classic CGI 3D film. The uniqueness of the technology lies in the use of the Unity game engine in the finalisation of the film and rendering.

The film was co-produced by plutoon (Slovakia), BFILM.cz (Czech Republic), The Pack (Belgium) and RTVS, supported by the Audiovisual Fund, the State Cinematography Fund, the Belgian screen.brussels fund, the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, the Flemish Film Fund VAF, the MEDIA programme and the Bratislava Region. The international sales agent is Beta Film.

List of all awarded films you can find here. 

Our animated documentary by Joanna Kozuch Once There Was a Sea…  will after a successful international premiere in Clermont-Ferrand in France, where it won the Student Jury Prize, was presented at many prestigious international film festivals around the world where it was also awarded by many awards. 

It received St. Vojtech Prize for the best Visegrad Film at Biennial of Animation Bratislava BAB 2022. It was also awarded as the best short film at 8th International Short Film Festival SHORT FORM in Belgrade and at 48th IFF EKOFILM in Brno. As the best anidoc was selected by jury at 17th ANIMEST – Animation Film Festival in Bucharest. Special Mentions received at Kaohsiung Film Festival 2022 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and at CinéOpen – Festival de Cinéma d’Animation de Pontarlier 2022 in France. The film also impressed at the “TOFUZI” festival in Tbilisi, where it won the award for the best animated film for adults. At the same time, the American Academy of Motion Picture and Television Arts and Sciences announced that the film met the qualification criteria and can also compete for the Oscar in the category of best animated film, where it will qualify thanks to the award from the Anifilm festival in Liberec.

Once There Was a Sea…  is a story about the Aral Sea. Most of the changes in climate and landscape in the area of the Aral Sea are the outcomes of one of the worst man-made eco-catastrophes in human history. The Aral Sea is dying. The idea of the film Once There Was a Sea… came to mind of director Joanna Kozuch during her train trips through the region of Middle Asia in 2008 and 2014. The film is inspired by the place on the borders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and the stories and destinies of the people that she has met when I was exploring the disaster of Aral Sea.

Trailer is available here.

Our animated documentary by Joanna Kozuch Once There Was a Sea…  will after a successful international premiere in Clermont-Ferrand in France, where it won the Student Jury Prize, will be presented at another prestigious French festival – the biggest animation film festival in Annecy.

Once There Was a Sea…  is a story about the Aral Sea. Most of the changes in climate and landscape in the area of the Aral Sea are the outcomes of one of the worst man-made eco-catastrophes in human history. The Aral Sea is dying. The idea of the film Once There Was a Sea… came to mind of director Joanna Kozuch during her train trips through the region of Middle Asia in 2008 and 2014. The film is inspired by the place on the borders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and the stories and destinies of the people that she has met when I was exploring the disaster of Aral Sea.

Trailer is available here.

The Slovak-Czech co-production The Nightsiren by Tereza Nvotová was awarded by the jury of the Contemporary Cinema section (Cineasti del presente) at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. The film won the Golden Leopard Award for Best Film.

Tereza Nvotová’s mystery drama The Nightsiren is the story of a young woman, Charlotte, who returns to her native mountain village in search of answers to unanswered questions about her troubled childhood. But when she tries to uncover the truth, the villagers accuse her of witchcraft and murder.

“I’m terribly pleased, I didn’t expect a story from a small village in the Slovak mountains to resonate so strongly with an international audience. Obviously, the problems our heroines have to solve are not so alien to him,” said director and screenwriter Tereza Nvotová after the ceremony.

The Nightsiren is the second feature film by the director, who premiered her debut Filthy at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2017. At the 2017 Czech Film Critics Awards, Filthy won the Best Film Award.

The prestigious Sarajevo Film Festival (August 12-19, 2022) will present three films from our production in its programme: Journey to Yourland, Martin and the Magical Forest and the short film Money and Happiness.

The prestigious Locarno Film Festival (August 3 – 13, 2022) will present two our films in their world premiere. Films The Nightsiren and Money and Happiness.

The Nightsiren by Tereza Nvotová will be screened in the Concorso Cineasti del presente, a section of first and second feature-length films. Years after having fled under mysterious circumstances, Charlotte, a thirty year old woman, returns to her native village in the Slovak mountains. Her presence raises the suspicions of the local villagers who thought her dead for years. They fear her arrival has awakened the witch that they believe resides on the mountain.

The Pardi di domani is a territory for expressive experimentation and innovative formal poetry and consists of three competitions. Ana Nedeljković and Nikola Majdak Jr. will vie for the awards with their animated short Money and Happiness in the Concorso internazionale competition. Thematically and technologically, the film follows i footsteps of their previous works Rabbitland (2013) and Untravel (2018). The hamsters live and work in Hamsterland, a perfect state with a perfect economy. The GDP grows steadily, there is no unemployment, and 100 % of the population declare themselves to be happy. Of course, just as in any attempt to arrange a perfect society by force, the world of the hamsters also has its dark side, which we gradually discover in the course of the film. 

The awards will be announced on August 13 at the closing gala ceremony. 

Our upcoming animated TV series project I Want to Know! has been selected for the prestigious ACE Animation Special Forum in Dublin, Ireland.

The initiative is deigned to provide extensive knowledge of how to diversify by developing and producing long-form, feature film and series animation for international audiences across cinema, broadcast and streaming,

It will run May 30-June 4 in Dublin, Ireland and will include sessions on story development, international production workflows, the creative dynamics of animation production, financing strategies and international distribution. There will also be sessions on physical line production as well as case studies on completed animation projects.

Experts consulting on this year’s edition include Sebastien Onomo (Special Touch Studios), Simon Quinn (Big Fat Studio), Martin Pope (Magic Light Pictures), and Marleen Slot (Viking Film).

Producers applied with animated features and series projects in early development. The selected list are:
Ivan Agenjo, Peekaboo Animation, Spain
Veerle Appelmans, Vivi Film, Belgium
Peter Badač, BFILM, Slovakia
Yohann Cornu, Damned Films, France
Dan Dixon, Snafu Pictures, United Kingdom
Alex Dowding, Submarine Animation, The Netherlands
Alan Holly, And Maps And Plans, Ireland
Siniša Juričić (ACE Croatia), Nukleus Film, Croatia
Chantal Lafleur, Avenida Productions, Canada
Galilé Marion-Gauvin, Productions l’unité centrale, Canada
Stefan Michel, Studio Seufz, Germany
Ragna Midtgard, Mikrofilm AS, Norway
Carla Mooney, Cardel, Ireland
Pål Røed, Paasan, Norway
Lisa Marie Russo , Fly Film, UK
Nidia Santiago, Ikki Films, France
Aneta Zagorska, Krakow Animation Center, Poland

A new 3D animated feature film, Journey to Yourland, will be released on May 26, 2022 in Slovak cinemas. The film is telling the story of ten-year-old Riki, his cheeky new friend Emma and Tidling the monkey as they embark on an adventurous journey to Yourland. The fantasy world comes alive with the distinctive voices of actors such as Juraj Kemka, Jozef Vajda, Helena Krajčiová and Martin Hronský. The same day the Slovak-Czech-Belgian film can be seen in cinemas across the country, the special world premiere of the film can be watch at the opening ceremony of the International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Zlín.

Far beyond the playgrounds of children, there is an amazing world of fantasy – Yourland. Here, monkeys and ravens speak human language and incredible machines walk across the golden deserts, working in perfect harmony with nature. Ten-year-old Riki escapes to Yourland from his real-world home because he picks up a signal sent by a mysterious glowing pebble. This stone, a source of great power that everyone wants to obtain, hides in Riki’s heart. The protagonist must then carefully decide with whom to share this secret – whether with his new friend Emma, the monkey General Tidling, the robot and advisor to President of Yourland, Metalman, or even the captain of the steam ship. So begins Riki’s thrilling journey to save his own life and the world of fantasy. The trailer for the film features the song “In the Stars” by Celeste Buckingham,.

“Working on Journey to Yourland has meant 4,324 days of pure joy for me and I’m very excited that the film will finally be seen by audiences young and old. It’s a thrilling story in which the main character Riki has many adventures and meets new friends and worlds. It’s like a roller coaster ride full of excitement and unexpected twists and turns,” says director Peter Budinský.

Produced by Peter Badac and Barbora Budinska, the ambitious feature film with a budget of 3,8 million euros has been presented at festivals in Croatia, Switzerland, Germany and France and has been worked on by more than fifteen artists and animators from all over Europe, from Ireland to the Czech Republic. Journey to Yourland thus stands out for its sophisticated art style with detailed backgrounds evoking the epic video game feel so appealing to young viewers already looking for something more than “kiddie” animation. The film’s visual concept draws on stop-motion visuals, which inspired the stylization of characters and environments and the creation of textures. However, the visual concept is transferred to a digital environment and the film is animated like a classic CGI 3D film. The uniqueness of the technology lies in the use of the Unity game engine in the finalisation of the film and rendering.

The film was co-produced by plutoon (Slovakia), BFILM.cz (Czech Republic), The Pack (Belgium) and RTVS, supported by the Audiovisual Fund, the State Cinematography Fund, the Belgian screen.brussels fund, the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, the Flemish Film Fund VAF, the MEDIA programme and the Bratislava Region.

Trailer here: https://youtu.be/iI-q8N33ST0