Screening of French film "Babel" by Hendrick Dussolier in Skopje-based art cinema "Frosina" opens Thursday the first Macedonian international animation festival "Animax Skopje Fest".

Earlier, a retrospective of Macedonian film on occasion of 40 years of the country's animation will be held in the Macedonian Cinematheque.

Besides "Babel", 13 other films from the Ukraine, Italy, Poland, Spain, Finland, Russia, Bosnia&Herzegovina, Great Britain, Czech Republic and Germany will be projected.

The festival resumes Friday with a special projection of Ann Marie Fleming's "I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors" at the Holocaust Memorial Center of the Jews from Macedonia. The film screening in "Frosina" begins with Oscar winner "The Lost Thing" by Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan, followed by 12 other animations.

On Saturday, a children's programme will be held, along with an animation workshop for kids titled "From Drawing to Film". Scandinavian animated movies will be screened in the Macedonian Cinematheque. The award presentation ceremony and a screening of the rewarded movies will be held in "Frosina" later in the evening.

The festival jury is comprised of artist, writer and independent Canadian filmmaker, Ann Marie Fleming, professor of illustration and animation at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, Rastko Ciric, and renowned Macedonian cartoonist and satirist Darko Markovic.