Location: Amphitheatre, Youth Centre Split (Ulica slobode 28)

Date: 28 October 2026

We are celebrating World Animation Day on 28 October with a screening of award-winning films from this year’s edition of the World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb.

The Best of Animafest Zagreb programme will take place at the Amphitheatre of the Youth Centre Split, starting at 8 PM.

The programme features seven award-winning films from different festival competition categories, showcasing the diversity of contemporary animation. The films will be screened with Croatian subtitles, and admission is free. The total running time is 69 minutes.

PROGRAMME:

On the Other Side, dir. Mingyu Wang / JP, 2025, 4 min

Where does the passion for love come from? Using various drawing techniques to shape its characters and tell its story, On the Other Side… explores the full complexity of love, leaving it to viewers to find their own answers. Winner of the Best Film for Children and Young Audiences Award.

And Then He Grabbed It, dir. Sam Kuwa / JP, 2026, 12 min

A boy takes a knife once given to him by his father. Did what followed turn him into a man? Combining different animation techniques with unexpected shifts in perspective, the film explores inherited expectations, choice, responsibility and the moments that define us. Winner of the Dušan Vukotić Award for Best Student Film.

School Performance (Priredba), dir. Ana Horvat / HR, 2026, 5 min

In the mid-1980s, during a school performance, a young Pioneer girl notices a strange man in the audience whose unusual behaviour she cannot understand. Through the aesthetic of children's drawings, School Performance brings a disturbing memory to life, exposing cracks in an apparently idyllic reality and ideological tensions beyond children's comprehension. Winner of the Best Croatian Film Award.

God Is Shy (Dieu est timide), dir. Jocelyn Charles / FR, 2025, 15 min

During a train journey, Ariel and Paul pass the time by sketching their deepest fears, until a mysterious passenger joins them and her relationship with fear turns their game into something much darker. Moving from the mundane to the bizarre, God Is Shy draws us into a disturbing alternative reality. Winner of the Zlatko Grgić Award for Best First Film Made Outside an Educational Institution.

A Pint of Bitter, dir. Conor Kehelly / IE, 2026, 8 min

An attempt to enjoy a quiet pint in a pub turns into a nightmare when the owner and his son display hostility towards a customer. Juxtaposing naïve cartoon characters with a threatening atmosphere, and everyday conversation with a disturbingly stylised first-person perspective, A Pint of Bitter invites us to have one more drink, despite everything. Winner of the Golden Zagreb Award for Creativity and Innovative Artistic Achievement.

Winter in March (Lumi saadab meid), dir. Natalia Mirzoyan / AM, EE, 2025, 16 min

Powerless in the face of an oppressive state regime, a young couple leaves their home, and their escape turns into a phantasmagorical nightmare. Using puppet animation, Winter in March tells a story of our times, in which every pinprick in the characters becomes a trace of the wounds and sorrow inflicted by history. Winner of the Grand Prix for Best Short Film.

Please, dir. Anna Mantzaris / SE, FR, CZ, NO, FI, 2025, 9 min

In a big city, several characters searching for tenderness and human connection find themselves in absurd, humorous and touching situations. Winner of the Mr. M Award for Best Short Film, as voted for by the audience.