Among its versatile selection, this year’s Banjaluka International Animated Film Festival put a special emphasis on works from the UK, showcasing both a contemporary and children’s selection. A special guest of the event was British animator Phil Malloy, whose films yet again prove that ‘cartoons’ are not just for children, but can touch upon serious topics as well.

“I wish everyone liked my films, though that’s simply not possible. I examine ideas that bother some people, yet the point of film-making is to elicit a reaction – be it positive or negative,” Malloy told journalists in Banjaluka, and added that his stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina has left him with even more ideas for new films.

From 23-28 October 2011, audiences in six cities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina were treated to a total of 300 animated works from 30 countries. Of these, 47 films were part of the competition program. The viewers’ all-around favorite was Kiyamet (2011), by Ivan Ramadan from Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Kiyamet” is the Turkish word for doom or apocalypse. In the south Slavic languages it is used to describe extremely bad weather.)

The 10-minute-long Kiyamet is a story about the mind as an actual place, where heaven can be born from hell, and vice versa. Viewers, mostly young people, chose to vote for this work because the "from Eden to hell and back" tale had not only vivid 3D effects but also a superb music score. Kiyamet is Ramadan's third film and was produced entirely independently over the past two years. A student of architecture, Ramadan even created his own Gothic tower for this project.

The Banjaluka 2011 Grand Prix and its 3,000 EUR prize went to Danny Boy (2010), the work of Polish filmmaker Marek Skrobecki. The jury, headed by Vera Naubauer from the UK, explained that, through an original use of dolls, Skrobecki told a story without a single word, transposing universal values through metaphor while covering the minutest of details, both in animation and dramaturgy.

According to jury member Steva Živkov, Danny Boy is “a rather current, well-articulated and perfectly- executed story with a clear idea.” Inspired by the song of the same name, the film’s protagonist is a lonely young poet who roams the streets of an unknown city. Unlike him, everyone in the city is headless. Upon meeting a girl, the poet will find himself doubting his acceptance into society that lacks heads and all they hold, entail, and offer.

The festival’s creativity and artistic expression award went to the film tWINs (2011), by Slovak director Peter Budinsky, who explored the issue of the alter ego through a ruthless, yet humorous, story of two bodies with one soul. The Gift, by Russia’s Mikhail Dvornik, won the award for best children’s animation, while the jury also issued several special awards.

One of the awarded films was Overcast (2011), by Bulgaria’s Velislav Kazakov, which, as the jury explained, absurdly and accurately proved that a man could be killed several times, and still hear the doctors say “We did it!” in the end.

The festival also presented Aardman Animations, the Bristol-based studio founded by Peter Lord and David Sproxton nearly four decades ago. Another segment of the program included a retrospective of the works of Zlatko Bourek, a veteran of the Zagreb school of animated film, whose Mačka (The Cat, 1971) is considered one of the top 100 works in animation history.

Banjaluka’s animated film tradition began as early as the 1960s, reaching its height in 1971, when the city hosted the “Banjaluka 71” May Animated Film Festival – the first of its kind in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It was not until 2005 that interest in the form was rekindled, thanks to young film workers from the Fenix Art Visual Arts Association. The group organised a retrospective of the acclaimed Zagreb school of animation, with 44 select titles. The Banjaluka International Film Festival was launched in 2008, in effect continuing the city’s longstanding tradition in animated visual arts.