Animated films at festivals around the world; Fachuk nominated for New Critics & New Audiences Award
The New Critics & New Audiences Award is presented by the online platform Talking Shorts and the European Network for Film Discourse. Films have been nominated by a collective of eight distinct and diverse European short film festivals, while one of the nominees is the animated short Fachuk by Maida Srabović. The winner will be decided by the audience via online vote. Fachuk is currently screening at festivals around the world, while two other animated shorts, Marko Meštrović’s How and Jelena Oroz’ No Room are also touring important festival destinations at the moment.
The New Critics & New Audiences Award, supported by the Creative Europe MEDIA programme, aims to connect emerging film critics and curators with new audiences of European short films. The eight European films in contention were nominated by participants of the 2025 European Workshops for Film Criticism and European Workshops for New Curators, which took place at festivals across Europe.
Fachuk was nominated by the participants of the European Workshop for Film Criticism #7, held at FeKK – the Ljubljana Short Film Festival, where it received two other awards – the FeKK BAL for Best Film and the Critics’ Jury Award.
The nominated titles are now available for viewing on the Talking Shorts platform, where the viewers are able to vote for their favourite short after registering at the platform. If you’d like, you can vote for the Croatian short film Fachuk here.
Since its world premiere at Animafest Zagreb, the animated short of screenwriter, director, and producer Maida Srabović has toured close to 40 festivals, including having its international premiere at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Its latest appearances include screening in competition at the London International Animation Festival and PIAFF – the Paris International Animation Film Festival where it won the Best First Film award.
Mixing digital cut-out collage and 2D animation techniques, Fachuk is Maida Srabović’s first film on which she was involved as screenwriter, director and producer. In addition to Srabović, the short was produced by Janja Pilić and Vedran Štefan (Tetrabot), and co-produced by Viva Videnović (URGH!, Slovenia), Damir Grbanović (Octopics, Slovenia) and RTV Slovenia. Bonobostudio from Croatia is handling international distribution.
In other news, the animated short How by Marko Meštrović is currently leading a rich festival life, with almost thirty festival screenings under its belt, after premiering at Animafest Zagreb where it received the Grand Competition Short Special Award. Its latest accolades include a Special Mention at the already mentioned Paris International Animation Film Festival. It was also part of the short film competition at the PÖFF Shorts International Short Film and Animation Festival in Tallin, Slovenian festivals Animateka and FeKK, Canadian Ottawa International Animation Festival, London International Animation Festival, and many others. How also won a Special Mention at the ASIFA International Animation Day.
How was produced by Igor Grubić (Creative Union), while Bonobostudio is also in charge of distribution.
Although it premiered in 2024, the animated short No Room by Jelena Oroz continues to travel the world. The short, which has screened at a total of almost 70 festivals, was Highly Commended in the Animation Category at the Canberra Short Film Festival at the end of last year, later travelling to the US, where it won the Jury Prize at the Standing Rock International Shorts Festival this January, followed by screenings at the Sea Slug Animation Festival in Seattle and the New York International Children’s Film Festival, one of the largest of its kind in the world.
Combining 2D and stop-motion animation, the short is produced by Vanja Andrijević for Bonobostudio.