Rise & Shine

Rise & Shine Competition

Rise & Shine is a project development and pitching lab for first and second-time professional filmmakers with their short films (up to 20 minutes), organized by Animafest Zagreb and Animateka in collaboration with CEE Animation in three modules: focus on script, project follow-up, focus on pitch. The mentors of the fourth edition were director and scriptwriter Pedro Rivero (ES), producer Jelena Popović (NFB, CA), and producer Anna Vašova (13ka, CZ).

The projects will be competing for the CEE Animation Forum 2026 direct access award, for the Rise & Shine 2025 Audience Award and the Film Centre of Montenegro Award of EUR 1500, the Cinefila distribution award as well as the possibility to attend the Short Film Market Clermont-Ferrand 2026.

The Rise & Shine 2025 projects are:

Daylight
Ayala Shoshana Guy, Fabian Driehorst
Fabian&Fred
Germany, Denmark

Family Recipe
Lou-Anne Gérard, Titouan Tillier
Frigo Films
France

I Was Born Under This Tree
Mihaela Mîndru
Romania

Lovers In a Dangerous Time
Daniel Sterlin-Altman, Alexandre de Paillerets
Une boîte de plus
France, Germany

Redefining Island
Julie Černá, Michaela Režová
Pure Shore
Czechia

Runaway Heart
Mery Gobec, Nataša Vugrinec
Studio Virc
Slovenia

Seal the Deal
Lea Vučko, Damir Grbanović
Octopics
Slovenia

Sighthounds
Marko Por
Slovenia

Stormsurge
Anna Tőkés, Balint Gelley
CUB Animation
Hungary

The Chestnut Fair
Valeria Weerasinghe, Eleonora Muzzi
Sayonara Film
Italy

The Place of Home
Henri Veermäe, Erik Heinsalu
Grafik Oü
Estonia