Animated Battle. The Rise of the Undead Media

Thursday, 24. 9. 2025 at 22.00 / Vetrinj mansion, courtyard

A dynamic, competitive showcase of experimental cinema, structured as an audiovisual duel between two expert curators. They face off by drawing from a vast archive of short animated films, video works, and experimental footage. Combining the thrills of an MC battle with the spirit of avant-garde results in spontaneous, alternating presentation of any audiovisual artifacts that can possibly surprise, shock, and amaze, but above all, radically expand the viewer’s understanding of what animation film medium (and its borderlands) is capable of bringing out to the screens, especially when the mixture involves twisted aesthetics and political boldness. Euphory and provocation are weapons of choice; nothing is off-limits.

Curators-Contenders:

Nadezhda Svirskaia was born in Naberezhnye Chelny in the USSR. She works as a curator and producer of animation projects. After studying journalism at Kazan State University, she graduated as an art-curator from the "Free Workshops" Contemporary Art School at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. From 2001 to 2022, Nadya organised exhibitions, screenings, and thematic events devoted to artistic animation in Moscow, in collaboration with museums, galleries, and festivals in various cities. In 2019, with friends, she founded the international nomadic micro-festival Shcha 7 Seconds Animated Films, which has been presented at the Big Cartoon Festival, Animafest Zagreb, StopTrik Festival, Zubroffka, Supertoon, Countryside Animafest Cyprus, and the Festival of Animation Berlin (FAB). In 2022, she participated in the Artist-in-Residency program at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She is the producer of Sasha Svirsky’s multi-award-winning film Dull Spots of Greenish Colours. Nadya is involved in political animation activism. Since 2022, she has been living in Berlin. 

Krste Gospodinovski is a Macedonian director and animator. He studied painting at the National Art Academy – Sofia and he’s currently finishing his Ph.D. in cultural studies, spec. animation. He is a fulltime professor and head of the animation department at the University of Audiovisual Arts – Europa Prima in Skopje, and one of the founders of Flip Book Productions and Flipbook Film Festival in Skopje. His previous short animated films (author/co-author) Gottlieb (2018), Snakelet (2020)  and Not-Being (2023) were screened at numerous festivals and won several awards. His latest film Silent Cinema (2025) premiered at Annecy Festival, and has since been selected at over 50 festivals and won 15 awards.