The contemporary animation industry is heavily dominated by standardized digital workflows and rapid commercial production. While modern software accelerates output, it often leads to uniform visuals that lack distinct artistic identity. Audiences and film enthusiasts frequently miss the tactile authenticity, experimental techniques, and personal expression that defined classical hand-crafted filmmaking.
Slovenian animator, designer, director, and producer Mitja Manček bridges this divide by championing unique, multi-disciplinary animation techniques. From drawing directly on paper and engraving on film stock to integrating 2D digital workflows and puppet animation, Manček crafts award-winning independent cinema recognized at major international festivals. In this Executive Q&A, we speak with Mitja Manček to explore his creative process, technical versatility, and the enduring relevance of independent animation.
Q: You began creating animated films at the age of ten and later mastered specialized techniques like direct engraving on film stock and paper drawing. How does working with tactile, hands-on mediums shape your visual storytelling compared to purely digital animation?
Mitja Manček: Traditional animation lets you show more of yourself, while computer animation can be more robotic. If you let the computer work for you, it can save you a lot of time, but it impacts your work in a way that doesn’t feel so much yours anymore. It is a shortcut that leads you towards inauthenticity.
Q: Your film Composition achieved international acclaim for engraving both image and sound directly onto film stock. What technical challenges arise when treating the physical film strip as both a visual canvas and an acoustic instrument?
Mitja Manček: There were just a few minor challenges. Most sound scratches continued into visual frame but some continued into a place between the frames, so they can only be heard and not seen. Some scratches had to be positioned in the center of frames, some had to be put on the upper third of the frame, some on the lower third of the frame, so that the visual part worked well. The biggest challenge here was to calculate how big should the spaces between scratches be, so that rhythm and tones work well.
Q: Across your body of work, you frequently handle animation, design, direction, sound, and editing entirely on your own. How does maintaining complete end-to-end creative control influence the narrative cohesion of your films?
Mitja Manček: It is easier to get your point across, when you do everything by yourself. Other coworkers often misinterpret the narrative of my stories. One of my editors once thought he was improving my animation, but in reality he had cut out the important scene of the main character, so that the story was way more difficult to understand. Well meaning advices can also have negative impacts quite often, so I prefer to hide everything and not show it to anybody until it is all done.
Q: With formal training from Film School Zlín and extensive experience in 2D animation, puppet work, and pixilation, how do you decide which animation style best suits a specific concept or theme?
Mitja Manček: Many concepts or themes can be done with many animation styles, so I mainly just choose the style that I am willing to work with. I had made several paper drawn animations, before I could try anything else. I tried computer animation to do my last film before studying in Czech Republic, but then I got the film stock and dismissed computer animations and scratched everything on a film instead. So this film could be done on a computer, but it was done into film stock, because this technique felt more attractive to me. I tried several techniques in Film School and then I finally drew my final film school project on a computer. I continued to do digital animation after the school, because it was an easier thing to do. I decided to do a paper drawn animation again later, because I wanted my drawing to be on paper again, so that I could exhibit my work off-screen. In between I got another piece of film stock and scratched another film on it.
Q: Your recent short films have earned critical recognition across international film festivals, including Cannes World Film Festival and Hollywood Gold Awards. What role do global film festivals play in sustaining independent, experimental animators today?
Mitja Manček: Getting into those festivals gives us some happiness and energy boost. In normal countries these achievements can help us get funds. In my own one, unfortunately, that’s not the case.
Q: As commercial animation leans further into automated pipelines and digital conformity, where do you see the future of hand-crafted and experimental independent animation heading?
Mitja Manček: I’m sure hand-crafted and experimental independent animation has its future as long as we will remain humans. I think that spectacular fireworks of digital animation make only robotic people tick, who have forgotten how to feel.
Independent animation remains a vital medium for cinematic experimentation, preserving artistic techniques that challenge commercial conventions. By pushing the boundaries of physical and digital formats, dedicated filmmakers bring raw emotion, tactile richness, and genuine individuality back to the screen.
As visual culture continues to evolve, supporting independent creators who bridge heritage crafts with fresh perspectives ensures the art form remains vibrant and diverse. The work of innovative directors like Mitja Manček proves that artistic dedication and technical mastery will always create timeless cinematic value.
To learn more visit http://www.mancekmitja.si/en/