Kecskemét Animation Film Festival

Kecskemét Animation Film Festival (Hungarian: Kecskeméti Animációs Filmfesztivál) (KAFF) is an animated film festival held biennially during the month of June in Kecskemét, Hungary. Although the bulk of the festival is oriented toward efforts in Hungarian animation, the associated KAFF-sponsored Festival of European Animated Feature Films and TV Specials (Hungarian: Európai Animációs Játékfilm Fesztivál) has opened the festival to international works as well. The festival was first held in 1985 and was opened to international works of animation in 1996.

The history of Hungarian animation has been tied to the city of Kecskemét since 1971 when the Budapest-based state-run monopoly, Pannónia Film Studio, was granted the right to form a subsidiary studio named Kecskeméti Animációs Filmstúdió. For the next two decades Hungarian animation would be produced exclusively in these two cities as well as at a smaller affiliated studio located in Pécs. When state funding evaporated in 1990 and the Pannónia animation monopoly came to an end, the former state-run animation studios found themselves in prime position to become independent commercial entities and in 1991 Kecskeméti Animációs Filmstúdió became Kecskemétfilm Kft under the leadership of Ferenc Mikulás.

The first Kecskemét Animation Film Festival was held in 1985 during the peak of Hungarian animation efforts. The festival was initially intended as a tri-annual event that would highlight the most notable works of Hungarian animators. Between 1985 and 2005 the event followed this timetable with the only exception being that the festival scheduled for 1991 suffered organization problems related to the fall of Communism in the country and the establishment of the Third Republic, and so the 1991 festival was rescheduled for 1993. From 2005 onward, however, the festival has occurred biennially. In addition, while the main KAFF event remains focused on the works of Hungarian animators, the festival expanded in 1996 to simultaneously coordinate an affiliated event, the Festival of European Animated Feature Films and TV Specials (also known as the International Festival of Animated Feature Films and TV Specials). The two festivals are part of the same event and are considered synonymous.

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