Student of the Studio of Animation and Film of Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (UMPRUM), Hanna Palamarchuk, is competing at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France. Her animated spot for the international exhibition Through the Eyes of Franz Kafka: Between Image and Language at the Gallery of West Bohemi in Pilsen has been nominated in the commissioned films category. The spot aligns with the theme of the exhibition, which, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Kafka’s death, explores the writer’s relationship with visual art and the visual culture of his time.
“The project was a great challenge for me. Capturing the viewer’s attention within twenty seconds while clearly and concisely conveying key information about the exhibition was not easy,” explains Hanna Palamarchuk. For the spot, she used the technique of digital collage, where Kafka’s portrait continuously transforms through the layering of fragments from exhibited artworks. Each change, accompanied by a progressively evolving musical rhythm, creates a fascinating visual metamorphosis. This transformation is further enhanced by a striking musical composition and the opening sentence of The Metamorphosis, which is heard in three languages.
The commercial spot was created for an exhibition organized by the Gallery of West Bohemia in Pilsen in collaboration with the Adalbert Stifter Verein and the Jewish Museum in Prague, as part of the Kafka 2024 and Kafka100 projects. The project was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Czech-German Future Fund. The spot was produced in the UMlab – the Creative Laboratory of UMPRUM – under the pedagogical guidance of Michaela Režová.
The nomination is considered a great success. The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (Festival international du film d’animation) is the world’s most prestigious film festival dedicated exclusively to animated films and has been held since 1960.
Hanna Palamarchuk was born in Ukraine. After finishing high school, she moved to the Czech Republic, where she graduated in 2022 with a degree in Graphic Design from the Faculty of Art and Design at UJEP in Ústí nad Labem. Afterwards, she enrolled in the master's programme in Animation and Film studio at the UMPRUM (Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague), where she is currently working on her graduation film. Her very first film From the past (2023) was awarded as the best Ukrainian film at the festival Linoleum 2024 at Kiev. Experimentation, a combination of analog and digital techniques, and collage are characteristic elements of her work.
Director, Art Director, Animation: Hanna Palamarchuk
Producer: UMPRUM, UMlab - Michaela Režová
Client: Západočeská galerie v Plzni / Gallery of West Bohemia in Pilsen
Creative Director: Dan Wlodarczyk
Sound Designer: Julie Lupačová
Music: Julie Lupačová
Voices: Halka Třešnáková, Jaroslav Achab Haidler, Stanislav Majer
Graphic Design: Robert V. Novák
Supervisions: Michaela Režová, Dan Wlodarczyk, Roman Musil
