The competition programs were excellent. The Grand Prix of the short film competition was an especially strong film.
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED
And
FMX – FILM AND MEDIA EXCHANGE
5 – 7 May in Stuttgart, 8 May at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, 9 May to 9 June on demand
This year, 2026, the animation world and Germany in particular are celebrating the 100th Anniversary of The Adventures of Prince Achmed. The film created by German animator Lotte Reiniger is the oldest surviving feature film in existence. It premiered on the 2nd of May 1926 in Berlin.
The first animated film, El Apostol, was created by the Italian/Argentine director Quirino Cristian in 1917. The political satire used cut-out animation to make fun of the President of Argentina, Hipolito Ypigoyen, and his vision of the ideal Argentina. Unfortunately, the only known copy of the film was destroyed in a fire that raged through producer Frederico Valle’s studio and vaults in 1926. All that remains are a few film posters and newspaper reviews of the film.
Known in German as Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed, The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a cut-out silhouette film based on motifs from 1001 Nights. The 66-minute film includes a flying horse, a magic lamp, and a good and a bad witch, along with much, much more.
Lotte Reiniger wrote the storyboard, cut out the silhouette characters and backgrounds, and moved them during filming, all in three years. At the special festival screening, the film was accompanied by a quartet from the SWR Symphony Orchestra (South West Regional Symphony Orchestra.
Although Reiniger is well known for The Adventures of Prince Achmed, many people don’t realize that she made over 40 other animated films between 1910 and the 1970’s. As part of the celebration, a 2012 documentary about Lotte Reiniger, her life and work, was screened. Susanne Marschall, Rada Bieherstein, and Kurt Schneider’s Lotte Reiniger – Dance of the Shadows follows her life, including footage of her working on her last film, The Rose and the Ring, in Canada in 1978. The documentary also includes interviews with two experts on silhouette films, Michel Ocelot and Hannes Rall. Both Michel and Hannes were in Stuttgart to help celebrate the special anniversary.
Michel Ocelot is well known for his work in silhouette animation. His beautiful 70-minute film, Princes And Princesses, was shown at the festival. Michel is a true gentleman, and this comes through in his films as well as in the occasional Masterclasses that he gives. During the festival, we had a chance to hear him speak at his Masterclass about his work, his amazing career, and his sources of inspiration, from his childhood in Africa to his work with paper cutouts in Paris and beyond.
Hannes Rall is an Associate Professor at the School of Art, Design, and Media at Nangang Technological University, Singapore. He also coordinates the Digital Animation Area. He curated an exhibition in the Festival Center Picture Gallery of students’ work inspired by The Adventures of Prince Achmed and Reiniger’s films. Students from Film Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Germany and Nangang Technological University created the works. They ranged from contemporary CGI to traditional cut-out silhouettes, as a new generation offered their take on a traditional art form. In conjunction with the exhibition, Hannes curated two programs titled Silhouettes in Lotte’s Footsteps, which showcase the films by the students.
The world’s largest exhibition dedicated to Lotte Reiniger is housed in Stadtmuseum Tubinger (City Museum) near Stuttgart. Her extensive estate is housed there, along with a permanent exhibition, The World in Light and Dark. In celebration of the 100TH anniversary, there is also a special expanded exhibition.
Of course, the entire festival was not about Lotte Reiniger. The competition programs were excellent. The Grand Prix of the short film competition was an especially strong film. With Tapes and Toast in a Car by German/Iranian animator Kiana Naghhshineh spans a wide range of emotions from the depths of despair to acceptance.
Young Shari has a life-threatening illness. The doctors finally tell her that there is nothing more that they can do for her. She now has to come to terms with the fact that she is terminally ill. During an attempt to escape from having to face her family with the news, the sky around her lifts, and she ends up in outer space. There she meets Laika, the Russian cosmonaut dog who also faced death when she was shot into space. In a spiritual journey, Laika takes Shari through the four steps of accepting her fate: denial, anger, fear, and letting go.
Her family also has to come to terms with Shari’s situation. In the end, all she wants is to spend her last days with her family, preferably in a car with mix tapes and toast.
Naghshineh says that the idea for the film came to her when she learned that a member of her family was terminally ill. The film is drawn in the bold aesthetics of old Soviet propaganda stamps of Laika and the cosmonauts. While expressing complex emotions and a heavy topic, the film is still playful with an accessible script. The audience agreed and gave With Tapes and Toast in a Car the Audience Award.
Mykyta Lyskov’s 22-minute film Kyiv Cake is also a favorite of mine. It is a scathing, yet incredibly funny, sad portrait of Ukrainian existence from pre-2022. Surreal, absurdist, dark humor is used to tell the tale of a child born into a poor family. The parents do everything that they can to survive, but just when they think that things can’t get worse, February 2022 arrives, and things can get worse, and they do. The Russian invasion brings new horrors that the family could never possibly have dreamed of.
The film has a strong social message that speaks to audiences no matter where they live. It was created entirely remotely in a collaboration between the director Lyskov in his native Dnipro and Joonisfilm in Estonia, where the production company is located. Known for surreal, absurdist humor and irony, Estonia was the perfect place to produce Kyiv Cake.
The German Animation Shorts screening was a special treat for me. My old friend Andy Kaiser was showing his latest film, The Lighthouse Keeper, on the program. The 11-minute stop motion film is set somewhere in the North Sea. Lighthouse keeper Clive is running out of supplies in his lighthouse kitchen. He watches in despair through his binoculars from the lighthouse tower as his supply ship sinks in a violent thunderstorm. Then his lighthouse buoy, which acts as a floating light in tandem with the lighthouse to guide ships safely into the harbor, springs a leak. He is beginning to fear the worst. Then a whale suddenly appears. The Lighthouse Keeper is a movie about loneliness, danger, and unexpected help and friendship, proving that anything is possible if you just don’t give up hope.
I am not going to write anything more about the film here because Andy did a fantastic “Making Of” presentation at FMX a few days before I saw the film. Keep reading, and at the end of this article, I will let Andy tell you in his own words the amazing story about the making of this film.
It was a lovely surprise to see Lebanese director Fadi Syeani’s film All This Death in the German Film program. Fadi and I first met a few years ago at ANIMARKT in Lodz, Poland, where I am a pitching coach. I was impressed with his project then and have watched its progress.
All This Death follows an elderly Beirut resident who is fixated on reading the local obituaries pages in the daily newspaper. Attending the funerals of the unknown victims is his morning ritual. Slowly, the elderly man undergoes a surreal journey of grieving not only for the dead, but also for his home and beloved city, which is slowly being destroyed by bombs.
In 2013, I was invited to an animation festival in Beirut. I fell in love with the beautiful city, the people, and the food. When I was met at the airport, I was told that if there were to be any bombing, they would know 24 hours in advance and my hosts would get me out of the country. That was a strange feeling, but there was no trouble, and I had a wonderful time.
It is horrifying to me to see the destruction the city has undergone in the past and is still going through. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to be a citizen of Lebanon and watch your beautiful country being destroyed little by little. I think that All This Death comes as close to capturing the feeling of helplessness and sorrow that the people of Beirut, especially the elderly, as is possible in an animated film.
Given the situation, I think that it is a miracle that a small team of Lebanese animators actually produced All That Death right in the Middle East.
It is always delightful to spend time with the Czech/British animator Vera Neubauer. It had been a while since we had seen each other, so I was happy to find that she was on the International Jury this year. Vera is an experimental animator whose films include numerous different genres from animation to live action films. She is also a feminist activist and educator.
Born in the former Czechoslovakia but living most of her life in the U.K., Vera has been linked to the second wave of British animators along with such other well-known names as Joanna Quinn, Ruth Lingford, The Quay Brothers, and Vera’s husband Phil Mulloy.
Her experiences of life as a refugee have influenced her films, as do her personal feelings about birth, death, and abuse. Other influences in her work are femininity, myths, and existence. Vera has received two BAFTA nominations, along with numerous other awards at International Animation Festivals for her work. In 2025, Vera was awarded the Emile Lotte Reiniger Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Art of Animation.
Among Vera’s best-known films are The Lady of the Lake (1996), Animation for Live Action (1978), and The Decision (1981). At the festival, along with jury duty, Vera gave a workshop where she demonstrated how form, technique, and sound shape the storytelling of a film. She also shared her methods, motivations, and how she found her artistic voice.
Sadly, Vera’s life partner of 49 years, Phil Mulloy, passed away last year. A brilliant animator whose radical drawing style, black humor, and relentless social satire have influenced generations of filmmakers. Phil has been called “The Enfant Terrible of British Animation”. That is a title that I think he relished.
The first time that I took notice of Phil was in 2006 when I saw the first of his Christies series. One of my personal favorite memories of Phil is in 2025 at the Animator Festival in Poznan, Poland. He had created a different gruesome trailer for each of the eight days of the festival in his distinctive black and white style. The theme of the festival that year was “Brothers and Sisters Prepare, the End Is Coming”. Every day when we went into the screening room, there was a different reminder of our fate, courtesy of Phil.
Stuttgart Festival paid a special tribute to Phil with a program of his films curated by Vera. There was a touching, heartfelt introduction to the program delivered by German animator Andress Hykade, who is also known for making some social commentary animations. Memories and comments were added by Vera. It was a lovely, touching tribute to Phil Mulloy.
Estonian animator Ulo Pikkov has made several of my favorite films that I admire and can watch over and over. He often tells real-life stories but in unique ways - using a ball of twine (Body Memory), watch parts (Tik-Tak (2014) or a real antique doll house in Empty Space (2016). I cannot watch his Body Memory without crying. The film, which is inspired by the Soviet deportation of Estonian citizens in the 1940’s to labor camps or worse, takes as its main idea that our bodies remember not just individual experiences but also the sorrow and pain of those who have gone before us.
I was very honored to be asked to give a Master Class about the Unsung Women Heroes of Animation. Most people know about Lotte Reiniger, but how many people know that it wasn’t until 1938 that the first woman studio animator was hired by the Fleischer Brothers Studio? Lillian Friedman Astor finally received a screen credit for her work on Pudgy and The Lost Kitten, a Betty Boop film in 1938.
We all know about Disney’s Paint and Ink girls, the only opportunity for women at the Disney Studio for many years. It wasn’t until 1935 that Bianca Majolie became the first woman to be hired by Disney’s story department. These are just two of the groundbreaking women who pursued careers as directors, animators, and finally producers beyond their former role as paint and ink “girls”.
For 20 years, Animation Production Days (APD) has been the only German co-production and financing market that is focused exclusively on animation. This year, 51 outstanding, newly developed animation projects from 23 countries were presented in over 1,000 business meetings. APD is part of the festival along with the Film and Media Exchange (FMX).
Unfortunately, I was so busy that I never made it to the Game Zone or the VR projects, which were located in the Staats Gallery, a short walk from the festival site. The festival handed out a box that contained 1 die, a pencil, and a large map. You could use them to find your way from the theatre to the gallery by finding different clues and items at each location marked on the map. It was a very fun way for people who were not familiar with the city to wind their way to the Staats Gallery and enjoy some adventures in the large park on the way.
I did get to the Open Air Games Gallery in the green area by the theatre. It is designed for young visitors to the festival and their families to try their hands at simple animation techniques. Two ladies did free face portraits so you could go home with a nice memory from the festival. I quite like the portrait that one of them did of me.
The first few days of the festival were rainy, but by the end of the week, the sun came out so we could enjoy the open-air beer garden. From the tables in the beer garden, you could watch a wide range of animation being shown on the massive open-air movie screen. Through some amazing technological miracle, the images on the screen are as bright in full sunlight as at night. During the day, a variety of animated films were shown, ranging from a program of Estonian Animation to Adult Swim programs for the older audience later in the evening. Each night, a recent feature film such as Pelican Blue or Zoomania 2 was screened in its entirety. Families could bring a blanket and picnic while watching the film. This is a free give-back thank you to the city of Stuttgart, which supports the festival.
The festival also arranged special tours for the guests. One day, there was a Studio tour, and another day, guests were taken on a guided tour of the Mercedes-Benz Museum. There was also a guided tour of the city with food tastings of local products. The best was saved for last, though. On the last day of the festival, we were invited on a boat trip for brunch on the Neckar River. I was very excited because I love boats, and I was looking forward to seeing a part of Stuttgart that I had never visited before.
Unfortunately, when we arrived at the boat dock, we learned that the Captain, who was going to pilot our boat down the river, had been in a car accident on the way to the boat and had been taken to the hospital with minor injuries. It was a disappointment, but in the end, we had a great time visiting with each other, enjoying a fabulous brunch, and pretending that we were drifting down the river on a sunny day.
That evening was the awards ceremony, and you can read a list of all the winning films at the end of this article. This year, Project Manager Silke Kabisch announced that after years of being the smiling face at the hospitality desk, she is retiring. Silke is usually the first person I see when I arrive at the festival, and she always greets me as if we had just seen each other the week before. She will be missed, but has promised to be back next year as a volunteer.
A big thank you and a job well done go out to Annegret Richter, Festival Artistic Director, Heike Mozer, Business Manager, and all of the festival staff and volunteers. A special thank you goes to Andrea Bauer, Festival Head Programmer and long-time friend, for more reasons than I can name. I am already looking forward to next year.
FMX – FILM AND MEDIA EXCHANGE
5 – 7 May On Site, 8th of May on the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg Campus,
And 9 May – 9 June On Demand
THE ROAD AHEAD
FMX, held the same week as the festival but in another building, is a major conference on the latest in animation, visual effects, and digital media. The conference is dedicated to current developments in film and media creation with presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and an exhibition area. This year’s theme was The Road Ahead.
It all started in 1994 when Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg decided to host a fair for its students. Over the years, the fair has grown into an international event, with over 300 speakers from around the globe this year.
This year, AI and Fake News were big topics. John Collomoss from Adobe delved into Fighting Fake News and Pirates. There was also a panel on Ethics in AI. A perennial favorite speaker at FMX, Ed Hooks, whose Acting For Animators Masterclass has been a staple year after year at the conference, announced that this was his last year at FMX. That is sad news. His class, which is always packed full of students and professionals alike, will be sorely missed.
Skydance, Accenture Song VFX, ILM, and MACK One all gave recruiting presentations. There were workshops as well. I must admit that I actually know very little about technology. I deal in a world of good stories and pure animation, but each year I do learn interesting things at FMX.
Andy Kaiser is an old friend of ours, going back about 20 years. Nik did the music for his 2008 short film Friendly Fire. He had already sent us some of his film that he was currently working on, The Lighthouse Keeper, to ask our advice about some parts of it, so I was looking forward to seeing the final film on the big screen.
When Andy told us that he was doing a talk at FMX titled Stop Motion Guerrilla Style, we couldn’t miss that. Here is what Andy had to say about the production in his own words, which is much better than me trying to explain it to you.
“When Star Wars came to my local cinema in 1977, I was 7, and it spawned my interest in visual effects and fantasy-driven storytelling! I grew up in the golden age of optical and in-camera effects- the 1980s. By the time I studied film in Ludwigsburg, Germany, the analog way of movie making was dying out. All the things that fascinated me were replaced by new tools, or more specifically, by one - the computer.
Although today digital is the go-to way to make stop motion, I wanted to go back to the old way of doing things for “The Lighthouse Keeper,” in a way, paying tribute to all the idols that I continue to look up to.
I was fortunate to still be able to learn and shoot on 35mm film during my film school days and in the first years of my working life thereafter. Lucky for me, analog equipment got cheaper because of the digital revolution, so I could afford to buy my first Mitchell camera.
For The Lighthouse Keeper, I wanted to go down a new route and shoot it in the classic visual effects format, Vista Vision, that ILM used in the 70s and 80s!
It took me years and a lot of patience to get all the Vista Vision gear together. I ended up with a Stein Vista Vision that was owned by Robert Blalack, a Fries-Vista Vision that belonged to Digital Domain, and finally a Vista Vision-Projector that was used in the Matte Department at ILM. And I also got hold of an Oxberry optical printer with VV-movements to do the composites.
In a way, I was using the tools or “weapons” of the past analogue “war” long gone, against the now digital might of the present day visual effects world in a David against Goliath fight in Stop Motion done Guerrilla Style!
My small budget required that this guerrilla work ethic continue down to the way I made my sets with repurposed found objects or materials for everything, down to costumes, props, and even puppets.
In my talk, I will tell the story of how I tried to stick to my analogue approach through Covid and the increasing lack of film labs and infrastructure, keeping my dream alive to make a project with the tools that inspired me to be a filmmaker in the first place.”
Andy’s entire adventure making The Lighthouse Keeper is fascinating in this age of digital animation. It was an interesting experience to watch young students in the audience reacting as Andy talked about equipment and methods that they had never heard of.
Thank you to the FMX Press Offices for providing me with an FMX badge each year. I will continue to use it to learn more at each FMX.
ITSF 2027 will take place from April 27 to May 2
FMX will open its doors on 27 April to April 30th 2027
ITSF WINNING FILMS:
ITFS International Competition
Grand Prix - Animation Award of the State of Baden-Württemberg and the City of Stuttgart in the amount of 10,000 euros.
WITH TAPES AND TOASTS IN THE CAR (IM AUTO TAPES UND BUTTERBROT)
Germany, France 2025
Director: Kiana Naghshineh
Production: Laïdak Films, ManicMonday
Producers: Antoine Liétout, Henrik von Müller, Ivan Zuber, Kiana Naghshineh
World Sales: Miyu Distribution
Special Mentions:
AMARELO BANANA
Portugal, Hungary 2025
Director: Alexandre Sousa
Production: AIM Creative Studios
Co-production: CUB Animation
Producers: Jonas César, Tiago Ribeiro
World Sales: AGÊNCIA – Portuguese Short Film Agency
ZWERMEN
Netherlands, Belgium 2025
Directors: Janneke Swinkels, Tim Frijsinger
Production: Murmur Animation
Producers: Janneke Swinkels, Tim Frijsinger
World Sales: Miyu Distribution
Audience Award for the Best Animated Film voted by the Audience in the amount of 6,000 euros, sponsored by SWR.
WITH TAPES AND TOASTS IN THE CAR (IM AUTO TAPES UND BUTTERBROT)
Germany, France 2025
Director: Kiana Naghshineh
Production: Laïdak Films, ManicMonday
Producers: Antoine Liétout, Henrik von Müller, Ivan Zuber, Kiana Naghshineh
World Sales: Miyu Distribution
ITFS Student Competition
Best Animated Student Film in the amount of 4,000 euros, sponsored by LFK Baden-Württemberg and MFG Baden-Württemberg, MFG Film Funding.
OUR WALLS (NAŠE ZDI)
Czech Republic 2025
Director: Živa Divjak
Production: FAMU – Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts
Producer: David Horák
World Sales: FAMU – Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts
Special Mention:
GENTLY (KŘEHCE)
Czech Republic 2026
Director: Jamaica Kindlová
Production: BATCH Film s.r.o., FAMU – Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts
Producer: Tereza Havlová
World Sales: Cinefila s.r.o.
Lotte Reiniger Promotion Award - for the Best Animated Graduation Film in the amount of 10,000 euros, sponsored by MFG Film Funding Baden-Württemberg.
ANTONIO
Italy 2025
Directors: Daniela Zottola, Elisa Fanais
Production: Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia Piemonte, Department of Animation (National Film School)
Producer: Chiara Magri
World Sales: Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia Piemonte, Department of Animation (National Film School)
Special Mention:
SENSUAL
Germany 2026
Director: Tanja Nuijten
Production: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH
Producer: Avina Graefe
World Sales: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH
ITFS AniMovie Competition
Award for the Best Animated Feature Film in the amount of 2,000 euros, sponsored by ITFS Booster Club.
A STORY ABOUT FIRE (RAN BI WA)
China 2025
Director: Li Wenyu
Production: Shanghai Animation Film Studio
Producers: Su Donghai, Chen Bo, Wang Aiyi
World Sales: Parallax International Sales
Special Mentions:
LITTLE AMÉLIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN (AMÉLIE ET LA MÉTAPHYSIQUE DES TUBES)
France 2025
Directors: Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han
Production: Maybe Movies, KKI Films
Producer: Mireille Sarrazin
World Sales: Goodfellas
ALLAH IS NOT OBLIGED (ALLAH N’EST PAS OBLIGÉ)
Canada, France, Luxembourg, Belgium 2025
Director: Zaven Najjar
Production: Creative Touch Studios
Producers: Anne-Laure Guéguan, Géraldine Sprimont, Adrien Chef, Annemie Degryse, Daniela
Mujica, Paul Thiltges, Sébastien Onomo
World Sales: MK2 Films
ITFS Trickstar Nature Award
Best Animated Short Film on Nature and the Environment in the amount of 7,500 euros, sponsored by Verband Region Stuttgart.
BANANA SOUP (LABOUYI BANNANN)
Switzerland 2025
Director: Geena Gasser
Production: Schattenkabinett GmbH
Producer: Gerd Gockell
World Sales: Schattenkabinett GmbH
ITFS Tricks for Kids Competition
Best Animated Short Film for Children in the amount of 4,000 euros, sponsored by L-Bank, Staatsbank für Baden-Württemberg.
THE NAUGHTY SEAT
United Kingdom 2025
Director: David Johnson
Producer: David Johnson
World Sales: Famous Flying Films
Special Mention:
BALDIES – WHAT ABOUT MY HAIR? (PLEŠOUNI – KDE JSOU MOJE VLASY?)
Czech Republic 2026
Director: Eliska Soffer Podzimek
Screenplay: Steen Agro
Producer: Jindrich Trcka
World Sales: Cinefila s.r.o.
German Animation Screenplay Award
Best German Screenplay for an Animated Feature Film in the amount of 2,500 euros, sponsored by Animation Media Creators Region Stuttgart (AMCRS).
EMMI & EINSCHWEIN – EINHORN KANN JEDER! (EMMI & UNIPIG – ANYONE CAN BE A UNICORN!)
Author: Anna Böhm
Production: Carte blanche Media
Producer: Stephan Wagner
Special Mention
PETRONELLA APFELMUS – DER FILM (PETRONELLA APPLEWITCH)
Authors: Claudio Winter, Seraina Nyikos
Production: Akkord Film Produktion
Producer: Dirk Beinhold, Valentin Greulich
German Screenplay with the Biggest International Market Potential in the amount of 2,500 euros, sponsored by Sola Media GmbH.
DREAMERS – THE HUNT FOR SHADOWCLAW
Authors: Jörg Ihle, Dominik Hochwald, Christopher Jenkins, Robert Moreland, Alison James
Production: parapictures filmproductions
Producers: Ulrich Schwarz, Ivy Stein
Special Mention
TRÜFFEL
Author: Sonja Knyssok
Trickstar Business Award
Best Innovative and Groundbreaking Business Model for a Project or a Company in the Field of Animation in the amount of 7,500 euros, sponsored by Verband Region Stuttgart.
Atomedge
CEO: Guy van der Walt
Animated Games Award Germany
Best German Animated Computer Game in the amount of 5,000 euros, sponsored by Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg, MFG Games BW Förderung.
CONSTANCE
Developer: Robert May
Production: Blue Backpack GmbH
Publisher: ByteRockers’ Games GmbH & Co. KG
Special Mention:
THE DARKEST FILES
Developer: Jörg Friedrich
