Best of StopTrik Festival in Maribor
The programme of the winners and laureates of the 15th StopTrik is a mélange of exquisite stop motion craft executed in various techniques (let us take you on a journey from puppets to pin-screen animation), social awareness of the dark past and not so bright present, subtle sensitivity in capturing individual dilemmas, and a dive into the psychedelic. Apparently – that’s StopTrik at is best.
A tribute to the festival’s roots and a showcase of the best animated films presented at StopTrik in 2025. It is an opportunity to revisit the origins of ETER Anima Festival and discover on the big screen the films that helped create a space for stop-motion animation and auteur cinema in Łódź. For regular attendees of the city’s animation festivals, it is also a chance to reconnect with a familiar tradition in a new form, while for new audiences, it offers an introduction to the legacy that ETER continues and develops.
Total runtime: 80 mins
Detlev
dir. Ehrhardt Ferdinand (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg)
2024, Germany, 12’50”
A constantly freezing man in his forties drives to a lonely petrol station every evening and orders a microwaved Toast Hawaii. Detlev indulges in this in a bizarre ritual, because it's the only thing that warms him in his daily life.
STOPTRIK 2025 MARIBOR AUDIENCE GRAND PRIX STOP MOTION ANIMATION (ex aequo).
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
dir. Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski (NFB National Film Board of Canada)
2025, Canada, 17’28”
Sewing Machine / Õmblusmasin
dir. Ülo Pikkov (Silmviburlane)
2024, Estonia, 16’38”
A film about the town of Pechory (Petseri) and its people, told through the life story of my great-grandmother and her newborn baby who had to be hidden in a sewing machine box.
STOPTRIK 2025 MARIBOR AUDIENCE GRAND PRIX BORDERLANDS / MARIBOR STUDENT JURY – BORDERLANDS SPECIAL MENTION..
On Weary Wings Go By / Linnud läinud
dir. Anu-Laura Tuttelberg (Fork Film, ART SHOT, Moon Birds Studios)
2024, Estonia, Lithuania, 11′
A wintry poem about the Nordic nature. The sun moves low and days get shorter. Birds fly South, porcelain animals and insects hide from the freezing wind and snow. Only a small porcelain girl wanders the abandoned landscape with no way out.
STOPTRIK 2025 MARIBOR STUDENTS JURY - STOP MOTION AWARD.
Occhio
dir. Giulia Falciani (Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF)
2024, Germany, 6’06”
A ray of light reveals a face in the darkness. A tear leaks from its right eye, crosses the face and falls into the abyss. The tear takes us to an inner place of suffering, where pain overshadows sanity.
STOPTRIK 2025 MARIBOR STUDENT JURY – STOP MOTION SPECIAL MENTION..
Dark Globe
dir. Donato Sansone (Base Zero)
2024, Italy, France, 3'18''
Human beings have become a war machine, an unstoppable element of destruction of everything around them. Is there still hope for the future or are we in an endless nightmare?
STOPTRIK 2025 MARIBOR STUDENT JURY – BORDERLANDS AWARD..
The Night Boots / Les Bottes de la Nuit
dir. Pierre-Luc Granjon (Am Stram Gram)
2024, France, 12'21''
While his parents are welcoming friends, a child leaves home in the middle of the night and enters the undergrowth, wearing rubber boots. There, a strange beast, curious and solitary, will lead him into the heart of the forest to meet the nocturnal creatures that live there.
STOPTRIK 2025 MARIBOR YOUNG AUDIENCE GRAND PRIX (group age 9-11 years old)..
Stowarzyszenie Filmowe FilmETER
NIP: 7272845100
KRS: 0000860804
stowarzyszenie@filmeter.pl
© ETER Anima Festival 2026