SE-MA-FOR; The Magic Pencil
SE-MA-FOR Film Studio from Lodz, Poland, was founded in 1947 and became the oldest and biggest producer of animated film in Poland. It specializes in puppet animation, cutout techniques, cartoons, combined techniques and live action film.
The Studio's output consists of 1400 films, mainly for children and young people. They have won over 300 rewards among which there are numerous grand and main prizes from such famous film festivals as Oberhausen, Manheim, San Francisco, Annecy, Tampere and Paris. The crowning achievement was OSCAR given in 1983 to the animated film "Tango" directed by Zbigniew Rybczynski.
SE-MA-FOR used to work with such renowned directors as Roman Polanski, who made here his first short film "Mammals" after graduating from polish National Film School in Lodz, Zbigniew Rybczynski, Janusz Majewski, Daniel Szczechura, Andrzej Baranski, Piotr Dumala, Tadeusz Wilkosz and many others.
In the year 1999 the state semafor Film Studio was put into liquidation. After the court ordered the Studio to be wound up, in November 1999 a group of employees, full of good intentions to continue the Semafor Studio tradition of producing animated films, officially set up a producers company using the name "SE-MA-FOR" Film Production. Zbigniew Zmudzki became the president of the company.
New SE-MA-FOR Studio specializes in classic puppet animation, Over the last few years Se-Ma-For produced several short animated films like "Ichtys" directed by Marek Skrobecki. The film was shown and rewarded on numerous festivals in Poland and abroad. One of the studio ambitions is to find young, talented filmmakers and help them to put their first steps in difficult and demanding field of animation. Therefore Se-Ma-For is closely cooperating with Polish National Film School in Lodz, which students and recent graduates made their films in the studio. The latest productions are "Caracas" directed and animated by Anna Blaszcyk and "Switez" directed by Kammil Polak. The studio is also keen to cooperate with foreign co-producers. Currently they are involved in one of the biggest animation production in Poland "Peter and the Wolf" based on Prokofiev story and co-produced with British studio BreakThru Films from London. The studio is prepared to take up all kinds of production from traditional cartoons and puppet animation, through experimental and combined techniques to live action films. It offers a wide rage of additional technical options like semi-flat puppet animation on glass, clay animation, combining puppets and cartoon with actors, animation of spatial forms, and computer animation.
"Magic Pencil" is one of SE-MA-FOR'S productions. This TV series had been shown on the Iranian National Television several times during the last two decades and for new generation of Iranian artists, it's a nostalgic memory of their childhood.
Fantastic Flower Shop/ Director: Pawel Partyka /Time: 15'-1987
Caracas/ Director: Anna Blaszczyk /Time: 10'-2006
Ichthys/ Director: Marek Skrobecki/Time: 16'41''-2005
Dim/ Director: Marek Skrobecki /Time: 10'45''-1992
Schody (The Stairs)/ Director: Stefan Schabenbeck/Time: 7'31''-1968
Plamuz/ Director: Zbigniew Rybczynski /Time: 9'35''-1973
Sciany (The Walls)/ Director: Piotr Dumala /Time: 8'-1987
Worek (The Bag)/ Director: Tedeusz Wilkosz/Time: 8'34''-1967
Kwartecik (The Little Quartet)/ Director: Eugenirsz Sturlis/Time: 7'22''-1965