12 August, Thursday 10:00 am, József Katona Library
In 2009, the Organizing Committee of the Kecskemét Animation Film Festival decided to screen the award-winning films of the festival not only in Kecskemét, but also in the settlements near Kecskemét. The screenings and the discussions following them were very successful. In 2011, our positive experiences encouraged us to show not only the award-winning films, but also the full Hungarian competition program in these 12 small towns. Based on the audience’s votes, the representative of the small region gave an award to the director of the film at the closing ceremony of KAFF.
Although cinemas have become virtually extinct in the settlements in the countryside, or perhaps precisely because of this reason, there is a high demand for the works of Hungarian filmmakers in these communities.
After contacting several institutions 5 years ago, the Alliance of Libraries and Information Institutes became one of our partners, and they began to organize screenings in the fashion of film clubs with the help of the so-called NAVA Points in settlements with less than 5,000 residents.
The Ministry of Human Capacities, the National Audiovisual Archive, the Hungarian National Film Fund (now the National Film Institute), the Film Archive (formerly known as Hungarian National Digital Archive and Film Institute), and the Hungarian Academy of Arts joined the program, and in doing so they have made a substantial contribution to the inclusion of Hungarian animation in the larger cultural sphere. At the conference we will see how the program has developed since its launch.
Ferenc Mikulás
festival director
