As part of Ireland’s annual Culture Night, celebrating its 20th anniversary on 19 September 2025, twelve Slovak short animated films will be presented online under the title Slovak Animated Shorts.
Thanks to a curated selection by the Slovak Film Institute (SFI), audiences will have the opportunity to explore the history of Slovak animation and view rarely accessible works by renowned Slovak filmmakers. On this day, the films will be available for free online on the website of the event’s organizer, the Cork International Film Festival, from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., and will be accessible exclusively within Ireland.
The selection of twelve digitized films offers international audiences a representative overview of the most valuable works from the history of Slovak animation preserved in the SFI collections. The children’s program includes five films: What Happened to Johnny on the Road (dir. Viktor Kubal, 1981), The Disobedient Little Wheel (dir. Vladimír Pikalík, 1983), Tom Thumb at the Magician‘s (dir. Viktor Kubal, 1973), Joey’s Space Adventure (dir. Vladimír Pikalík, 1990), and Baby at the Spaceport (dir. Vladimír Malík, 1990). Seven titles are intended for adult audiences: The Apple of Knowledge (dir. Vlastimil Herold, 1955), Model of Marriage (dir. Jozef Zachar, 1966), Earth (dir. Viktor Kubal, 1966), The Statue (dir. Jaroslava Havettová, 1969), Cinema (dir. Viktor Kubal), The Town on the Danube (dir. Rudolf Urc, 1985), and If I Were a Little Bird… (dir. Ondrej Slivka, 1986).
The Slovak Animated Shorts collection showcases a diverse range of storytelling and animation techniques – from hand-drawn and puppet animation to stop-motion and digital processing. Genre-wise, the films span a variety of categories, including educational, comedic, instructional, advertising, and promotional works, reflecting themes such as conformity, industrialization, interpersonal conflict, the history of the capital city, and ecology. A prominent place in the selection is given to the legacy of Viktor Kubal, a pioneer often referred to as the “father of Slovak animation,” whose works are presented alongside those of other significant authors such as Vladimír Pikalík and Jaroslava Havettová. The curatorial selection covers the years 1955 to 1990, marking the end of an era of state-centralized film production. At the same time, the screening continues the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the institutional foundation of Slovak animation, which was marked earlier this year at the International Film Festival for Children and Youth Zlín Film Festival.
The program was prepared by Marián Hausner, director of the National Film Archive of the SFI, and Barbara Nováková from the National Cinematographic Centre of the SFI. The organizer is the Cork International Film Festival, Ireland’s oldest film event, which will be held for the 70th time this November.
More information at: www.corkfilmfest.org
