Jana Slezakova, one of the five-member team of festival directors, told FNE that the pitching session was meant to be a way to introduce Slovak animators to the Slovak institutions, especially Slovak TV. The director of the second channel of Slovak public TV Marta Gajdosikova said that in the past two years, 13 animation projects applied for funding, but only three received funding. The public broadcaster has had a long struggle with financing, in part due to its low TV household license fees, which RTVS hopes will increase in the near future. That has led to a drop off in Slovakia’s long tradition of animation. Gajdosikova told FNE that the situation could improve in the next two years; RSTV has a letter of intent for an international animation coproduction with France and the Czech Republic on a project which is now in development.

Slovak Audiovisual Fund director Martin Smatlak said the fund gives almost 6 percent of its annual production budget to animation projects, with an average grant of some 12,000 EUR in 2013. Smatlak told FNE that he was attending Fest Anca’s industry programme to listen to animators and to discuss ways to improve funding for them. That could include encouraging the development of feature-length animation, something missing in Slovak film production.

Among the projects presented were two that are produced by some of the more active companies in Slovakia. Filmpark is developing a 13 part series children’s animation series Tresky plesky which looks to be a likely candidate for funding from RSTV. Peter Badac, a Slovak producer who works with the Slovak production company Bfilm, is producing Majka Olhova’s short animated film Fifi Fatale. The participation of film production companies involved in international coproductions serves as a signal that Slovak animation is regaining a position of strength through the efforts of a younger generation of filmmakers who are demanding attention and funding.