StopTrik in Poland, 2012-2024

For 12 years StopTrik International Film Festival has functioned as one festival organized in two different countries - Slovenia and Poland. From 2025 the Festival will be taking place only in Slovenia.

The Festival was established in Maribor in 2011 and this was always the place where the full Festival’s programme was exhibited and accompanied with the diversity of events. The Polish replicas of each StopTrik’s edition consisted in (1) presentation of Official Selection - competition and panorama screenings, (2) Trik Show - discussion with the filmmakers, animators, and their producers about how the films presented in the programme were technically made and about upcoming projects, work-in-progress, etc., (3) special presentations and additional events. The Łódź Audience (adult and children) and Łódź Student Jury have been granting their awards and special mentions autonomously from those in Maribor.

2012-2014

In 2012-2014 StopTrik IFF was hosted by the MCDiS (Małopolskie Centrum Dźwięku i Słowa / The Center of Sound and Word of Lesser Poland) in Niepołomice. These were just the early years of the Festival and it was not yet certain how, where, and with what means would we continue organizing the Festival.Supported by the team of Pekarna Magdalenske mreže, the Festival maintained its DIY spirit but had also attracted attention of Polish animation cinema goers who were looking for quality content somewhere off-the-beaten path. The Festival in Niepołomice was visited by Tadeusz Wilkosz, Piotr Kardas, Emeline Andre, Natalia Spychała, Kamila Grzybowska-Sosnowska, Mirosław Sosnowski, Tess Martin. The event was supported and organized by FNU (Fundacja Nowych Ujęć / New Prospects Foundation) and Monika Krzyżanowska-Magdziarz. 

2014-2015

In 2014-2015 StopTrik IFF was hosted by the Gallery Bielska BWA (Galeria Bielska BWA) in Bielsko-Biała. The Festival extends its gratitude to Agata Smalcerz, Justyna Łabądź, Zdzisław Kudła, and Anna Waszczuk who saw the significance of StopTrik in Poland and just as us, who understood that the festival is an intellectual affair. Together we organized an international conference “Twisted Dreams of History. Subversiveness and Deformation in Animated Film from V4 Countries” what led to the publishing of the collective monograph “Obsession, Perversion, Rebellion. Twisted Dreams of Central-East European Animation” (2015, Olga Bobrowska, Michał Bobrowski eds.; reach out to us if you want to receive a free copy of this publication). This project preceded another conference (“Twisted Dreams of History. V4 Perspective on Propaganda, Ideology and Animation”, organized in collaboration with Etiuda&Anima International Film Festival in 2017, Kraków) and publication “Propaganda, Ideology, Animation. Twisted Dreams of History” (2019, Olga Bobrowska, Michał Bobrowski, Bogusław Zmudziński, eds., to be downloaded here). 

2016 - 2024

Since 2016 the organization and coordination of StopTrik IFF in Poland has been placed in the hands and heart of Piotr Kardas, the director of O!PLA Festival of Polish Animation and a long-time StopTrik IFF friend. Piotr was essential in bringing StopTrik to Łódź, and specifically to Kino Bodo, an atmospheric art-house cinema that regrettably had to close their doors in 2022. Supported by the Bodo team, the photographer and visual artist Mariia Snisarenko, and in close collaboration with StopTrik team, Piotr exercised a lot of programming and creative freedom in shaping the format of StopTrik in Poland. Trik Show became an especially important highlight of the programme, the participants of this talk not only included the Official Selection filmmakers but also Lodz-based producers, animation promoters, young and aspiring adepts of stop motion animation. The Festival tightly collaborated with several places of alternative culture: Owoce i Warzywa, Pop’n’Art, Kipisz, 6 Dzielnica, TU. We have also enjoyed support of the Anthropological Association “Archipelagos of Culture”.

In 2022 the main location moved to the Film School Cinema and this transition was possible due to the creative involvement of Natalia Spychala, another long-term friend of the Festival. The audiences grew significantly and the Association FilmEter (Stowarzyszenie Filmowe FilmEter) stepped in as a producer. In terms of curating and developing the artistic profile of the Festival, the producers Oliwia Nadarzycka and Patryk Drzewiecki coordinated efforts with GBPA (Research Group Polish Animation by the University of Lodz), special thanks should be given to Ewa Ciszewska PhD and Szymon Szul for their creative and curatorial input. Receiving funding from the Municipality of Lodz and KPO (Krajowy program odbudowy), the association Film Eter brought StopTrik to the NCKF cinema (Narodowe Centrum Kultury Filmowej / National Center of Film Culture) in 2024. 

At that time we knew it was going to be the last edition of StopTrik in Poland. Two creative teams in Slovenia and Poland respect each other highly, but each one on their own pursues  independence and autonomy. StopTrik spirit values programming freedom above all, and so both sides decided to part in a spirit of collaboration and support. The ending of StopTrik in Łódź is a prelude to a new animation festival that the FilmEter will create in the city, and we cannot be more happy about it. Good luck FilmEter!