Animation artist Kata Gugić’s student film Cockpera, an Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb production, has been selected to screen in the Student Film competition at Monstra – the Lisbon Animation Festival.

Cockpera is an animated opera inspired by Aesop’s fable The Fighting Cocks and the Eagle, to date screened at numerous film festivals worldwide, including the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Slovenian Animateka, Animafest Zagreb and festivals in Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Hiroshima, Ottawa and Uppsala, and counting among its accolades the 2020 ASIFA Croatia Award for Best Student Film.   

Besides Cockpera, Monstra screens two other Croatian titles: A Cat Is Always Female by Martina Meštrović and Tanja Vujasinović and Chintis Lundgren’s Toomas Beneath the Valley of the Wild Wolves, which is a minority Croatian co-production (Croatian producer is Draško Ivezić, of Jadranska animacija – Adriatic Animation). The latter will be featured in the Best Of Short Films programme held in October and devoted to the best of world shorts. On the other hand, A Cat Is Always Female already appeared as part of the pre-festival screenings, which took place in April of this year.

Monstra, the Lisbon Animation Festival will run 21st July – 1st August, at both cinemas and outdoor venues around the Portuguese capital, while this year’s country in focus is Belgium. More information about Monstra may be found on the festival’s official website. 

Croatian animation artists will also present their works at the Filmfest Dresden International Short Film Festival, taking place 13th to 18th July. All three Croatian titles will appear in different thematic units of the Open Air programme.  

Natko Stipanićev's Arka is part of the thematic unit Power of Nature, Marko Dješka’s All Those Sensations in My Belly is part of the programme unit Body Shapes, while Snail the Painter by Manuela Vladić-Maštruko is screening in the unit Family Shorts – Life Stories.

Visitors of Filmfest Dresden’s Open Air programme will enjoy a rich cinematic programme divided into 33 units, running until Wednesday, 14th July. 

Filmfest Dresden International Short Film Festival was launched in 1989, just before the German reunification. Focusing on all types of short films, it has over the years evolved into one of the most significant short form festivals in Germany. Find out more about the festival on Filmfest Dresden’s official website. 

Cover photographs: scenes from Cockera; A Cat Is Always Female; Toomas Beneath the Valley of the Wild Wolves; Arka; All Those Sensations in My Belly; Snail the Painter