The Krakow Etiuda & Anima Festival has prepared a range of festival activities (14-19 October 2025); apart from the selected competition films and their associated programme, it has amassed a diverse range of activities regarding independent animation and its industry. From sound tutoring to animated images to pitching and book promotions, it gives a full experience of the contemporary animation scene's needs.

Here are some of the highlights of its Industry Creative Lab programme:

Koji Yamamura Animation Workshop

A three-day animation workshop with Oscar-nominated Koji Yamamura  (Mt. Head, Dozens of North animation feature) "Representing Sound - Workshops Animation Circus and Polyrhythm Description" is organized during the festival. The workshop is a three-day event. Two short workshops will be held: "Polyrhythm" and "My Title". In "Polyrhythm", participants will create three characters and calibrate the screen to match three rhythmic sounds. My Title" is a workshop where participants create an animated story using a short randomly selected song title and five sound effects.

Koji Yamamura has also curated a festival programme of 10 Best Japanese animation shorts. His own films will be screened during the festival

Nuno Beato Masterclass

The Portuguese director of 'My Grandfather's Demons' will talk and give insights into the 2D/stop-motion animation feature, the transition from 2D to stop-motion within the film, and production aspects in an animation feature that comes from an upcoming and vibrant Portuguese indie animation industry.

Marcin Podolec Masterclass

founder of the 2D animation studio Yellow Tapir Films. animation creator and comic book artist Marcin Podolec has presented animated film "Document" (2014), "Giant" (2016, debut), "Colaholic" (2018), "Insect" (2021), "Potatoes" (2025)), in many festivals. At the same time, he has created 20 comics albums ("Fairytale at the End of the World," "Fugazi Music Club," "Podgląd," "Ossi"). His talk of how to navigate both different but associated artistic worlds will be part of the Creative Lab programme

 Nik Phelps Masterclass

Annie Award-nominated Nik Phelps has a long history (from Tom Waits to Nina Paley) dealing with both music and music in animated film in particular. In the masterclass, he'll move from neural underpinnings of sound and image to shape perception and mention, moving into the nature of sound and sound design, culminating in a presentation of his own work.

Nik will curate a screening of his favorite animated films as part of the masterclass

Nik Phelps

3 Workshops: 

Animation Workshops for children aged 9-13: "Good Letters"
The workshop will encourage the participants to think figuratively, try to move individual letters, words and build a poetic movement of shapes constructed from the individual letters (led by Radostina Neykova)

Screenwriting Workshops (led by Agnieszka Kruk Inez)
During the two-day workshop each participant will learn the basic principles of professional script development – from choosing an idea to writing the first draft of a short film script.

Sound In Film Workshop
A workshop that starts from the role of sound in general and goes to its specific use as sound design in all stages of the animation production, from dialogue and ADR to sound mixing.  Led by Michał Korzeniowski

Pitching Your Project Workshop by Nancy Denney-Phelps 

In this four-hour workshop (in a 2-day span) animation journalist and pitching coach Nancy Denney-Phelps will teach how to successfully pitch your project; aimed at both short films, TV series or feature films, the workshop is open to people with animated projects in any style and stage of progress, from early script development to completed films looking for a distributor.

Three Books on Animation Presentations

• On the Animation Trail: 20 Years of Animation Festival History by Nancy-Denney Phelps (find our review )
• Anima. Masters of Polish Animation. Jerzy Armada's book presents the achievements of Polish auteur animation from the times of Jan Lenica and Walerian Borowczyk to Marta Pajek.
• Social Worlds of Se-Ma-For Studio of Small Film Forms In Lodz by Agata Hofelmajer-Roś and Ewa Ciszewska.  The monograph concerns Se-Ma-For, the worldwide-known stop-motion studio; the study covers its animation production between 1946 and 1999 in an interdisciplinary format. Event led by Olga Bobrowska.

Two Seminars

• The poster as an interactive medium thanks to the use of Augmented Reality technology by Kaja Renkas. A discussion based on the works of the artist and of her students on the possibility offered by augmented reality AR in contemporary visual communication design.

• Copyright in audiovisual works by Dr. Marek Bukowski. From rights of the film producer to film festival distribution and beyond, to handle all complex cases of copyright attribution.

Exhibitions

Lea Vidakovic

Lea Vidakovic has made her festival-acclaimed 'The Family Portrait' in two versions: the short film (our review here) and a gallery installation composed of synchronized projections and artefacts (dolls and miniature models) arranged in the space. The second version will be presented at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow during Etiuda&Anima.

Lea Vidakovic Exhibition

Simone Massi: Exhibition of Drawings

His graphic style is undeniable. Italian animation director and artist Simone Massi will exhibit some of the drawings of his previous films A selection of his films will also be screened during the festival.

La Memoria Dei Cani / Wspomnienia Psów / The Memories Of Dogs,  2006
Nuvole, Mani / Chmury, Ręce / Clouds, Hands, 2009
Dell'ammazzare Il Maiale / O Zabiciu Świni / About Killing The Pig, 2011
L'attesa Del Maggio / Czekając Na Maj / The Wait Of May, 2014
Vittorio De Seta, 2016
Donne / Kobiety / Woman, 2016
Love Is Potatoes / Miłość To Ziemniaki, 2017
Milano 2030/ Millan 2030, 2018
La Strada Dei Samouni / Droga Samouni, 2018
La Grande Impresa / Wielki Biznes, 2019
L'infinito / Nieskończoność / The Infinite, 2020
Invelle, 2023

"Simone Massi, with his drawings, with his animations, transports us into a world that is his and that is also mysteriously ours, in which he can show us what we otherwise risked losing (Luca Rafaelli).

Simone Massi Exhibition: Black Well

Exhibition of watercolors from 'The Boy Who Erased Kisses''

Directed by Radostina Neykova and Fernando Galrito, the short animation film was done in hand-painted watercolor on paper, and watercolor painting under the camera. The exhibition includes watercolor backgrounds, and watercolor phases of the characters from different shots.

The Boy Who Erased Kisses

Meet the Producer Event (Talent Market)

Organized in collaboration with the Polish Animation Producers Association, students and emerging animation creators will have the opportunity to meet and talk with representatives of Polish animation studios. presentations by Polish animation studios will be followed by a two-hour, one-on-one session. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about the animation market in Poland and about those who work professionally in animation. This will allow them to learn about the expectations of producers and the direction in which they should develop their skills, portfolios, and projects

The full Etiuda & Anima Creative Lab programme

The 32nd Etiuda & Anima Festival takes place 14-19 October in Krakow, Poland. The festival opens with the 'Memoir of a Snail' (dir. Adam Elliot) screening.

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