Rise & Shine Animation Pitching Lab 2025

rise-and-shine2025
Category
PITCHING & INDUSTRY
Deadline | Event Dates (period)
10 March 2025
City
Online & Onsite
Email
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Edition
4
Final submission deadline
2025-03-10
Submission/Registration Fee
No

Event Description:
The fourth edition of Rise & Shine, animation development & pitching Lab for young talents and their first or second professional short films, organized as a collaboration between Animafest Zagreb, Animateka IAFF and CEE Animation.

2025 Call for Entries

Rise & Shine 2025 is predominantly searching for projects in development by first and second-time filmmakers and students from the Central and Eastern European region, focusing on the following countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, and Italy. However, the Lab is also open to EU participants with an interest in collaboration with the CEE region.
The three-part storytelling, development and pitching lab is going to take place in June 2025 at the World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb in Croatia, in October 2025 online and culminate in December 2025 at Animateka International Animated Film Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Selected teams will receive a programme of lectures, workshops, and individual and group sessions with seasoned film professionals in the field of animation: experienced scriptwriter and pitching mentor Anna Vášová (13ka, CZ), director and screenwriter Michael Dudok de Wit (NL), screenwriter, director and producer Pedro Rivero (ES) and creative producer Jelena Popović (NFB, CA).

  • The format is animated short films (max. length 20 min.).
  • Both members of the project team (director/scriptwriter and producer) must be citizens of the EU or other eligible countries, listed below: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden

Application Materials

— Logline (max. 200 characters including spaces)
— Synopsis (max. 2,000 characters including spaces)
— Director’s statement (max. 1,000 characters including spaces)
— Producer’s statement (max. 1,000 characters including spaces)
— Samples of visual style (max. file size is 10MB)
— Link to the trailer/teaser and/or storyboard (optional)
— Information about the budget
— Director’s photo, bio and filmography
— Scriptwriter’s photo, bio and filmography
— Producer’s photo, bio, filmography and company profile

Key dates
 10 March 2025: Submission deadline
— April 2025: Notification of selection
— June 2025: Scriptwriting & Development Lab at World festival of AnimatedFilm -Animafest Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia (Festival dates 2 – 7 June 2025)
— October 2025: Online training
— December 2025: Pitching Lab and Competition at Animateka International Animated Film Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia (Festival dates 1 – 7 December 2025)

2024 Coverage

Selected Projects:

1. Ant, d. & p. Jonatan Schwenk, Germany
2. Countergrowth, d. Mackenzie Fincham, p. Peter Lindhout, Spotted Bird, Netherlands
3. Foolish Fish Fable, d. Yiyang Sun and Lei Chia Hui, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia
4. Hungry Heart, d. Nikolina Žabčić, p. Andrijana Vidaček, Zagreb Film, Croatia
5. Margareth, d. Vivien Hárshegyi, p. Bella Szederkényi, CUB Animation, Hungary
6. Mrs. Monster, d. Sofiya Kruglikova, p. Maja Zupanc, Invida, Slovenia
7. Of Words and Waves, d. Valène De Valck, p. Bastien Martin, Camera-etc, Belgium
8. Telegrams to the Tree, d. Julia Benedyktowicz, p. Dominika Krysiewicz, Animoon, Poland
9. The Dog, d. Mariia Ozirna, p. Oleg Nosov, Bosonfilm, Ukraine
10. The Molepire, d. Marek Čermák, p. Karolína Fránková, Films & Chips, Czech Republic
11. The Shoebox, d. Cristina Pîrvu, p. Helga Fodorean, Susana António, Safe Frame/COLA Animation, Romania/Portugal (qualified)

Workshops will take place as part of Animafest Zagreb from 5 – 8 June 2024, where participants will receive a programme of lectures, and individual and group sessions with experienced film professionals in the field of animation. A special focus will be on the story of the project, which they will work on with renowned mentors Pedro Rivero and Michaël Dudok de Wit. The second part will take place at Animateka from 4 – 8 December 2024, where selected teams will receive lessons focused on pitching preparations and improving their presentation skills with established mentor Anna Vášová. Jelena Popović will be joining the second part of the workshop to offer mentorship as a creative producer. On-site in Ljubljana, the selected teams will also participate in the pitching presentation. The winning project(s) of this pitching competition will be invited and get direct access to the pitching competition at the CEE Animation Forum 2025.

2023 Coverage

Selected Projects:

  • Coddiwomple, Petko Modev, Vessela Dancheva-Bogdanova, Bulgaria
  • Reiss Dich Mal Zusammen, Marion Taschler, Saskia von Virág, Switzerland
  • Period Drama, Michaela Mihalyi, Jakub Rálek, Slovakia, Czech Republic
  • Demon of the Marshes, Martin Pertlíček, Martin Novotny, Kamila Dohnalová, Czech Republic
  • Georgeta, Sybil Marzin-Thélémaque, Clara Marquardt, Francuska
  • Now, Katrin Novaković, Miljenka Čogelja, Croatia
  • Creaturas, Carolina Bonzinho, Laura Gonçalves, Portugal
  • Plastic Aches, Andrea Guizar, Roza Misztela, Mexico, Poland
  • Cosmonauts, Leo Černic, Tina Smrekar, Slovenia
  • Shio, Ana Markozashvili, Natia Nikolashvili, Georgia
  • A Horse in SwanSea, Maria Brudașcă, Constantine Benea, Romania (qualified as the winner of Pitch, please! 2022, Animest Bucharest IAFF)
 
 

Event Dates

  • From 02 June 2025 to 07 December 2025

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