With a history dating back over 30 years, the Sarajevo Film Festival is one of Southeast Europe’s leading film events and an Oscar-qualifying festival, meaning that winners in certain categories may meet one of the eligibility requirements for consideration by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A key meeting point for filmmakers from across the region, its competition programme features fiction films, documentaries, shorts, and student films, while its industry programme also supports emerging filmmakers seeking to build international careers. In recent years, the festival has screened more than 200 films annually, establishing itself as a major international platform for cinema from Southeast, Central and Eastern Europe.  

Produced with the support of the National Film Institute by MOME Anim, Bonefuzz follows Vajk, a hard-of-hearing teenager who can control his connection to the outside world by adjusting the volume of his hearing aid. In an attempt to draw him out of his shell, his older brother takes him, along with his friends, to a concert by a mysterious band in an abandoned industrial building on the edge of a forest. The tension tension of being cut off from the world around him, combined with the unfamiliar intensity of the experience, turns the night into a rite of passage as he begins to find his own voice.  

The film combines detailed 3D environments with 2D hand-drawn animation. The score was also composed by Márk László, whose work has been closely tied to music since childhood, often exploring the relationship between sound and animation.  

Speaking about his choice of story, Márk László said, “The short film was inspired by Attila Veres’s short story Fog City, in which a hard-of-hearing boy experiences the performance of a mysterious rock band at the centre of the story.  I can’t imagine life without listening to or making music. With this film, I wanted to show what a powerful impact sound can have on the mind.” 

Bonefuzz's international festival run marks another milestone in a long-standing success story. Over the past decade, a MOME Anim diploma film has been selected for the competition programme of a major international film festival every year. 

The film was produced by Zsuzsanna Vincze, with Réka Anna Szakály as line producer, Anna Tőkés and Bálint Gelley (CUB Animation) as production managers, Béla Balázs Award-winning editor Judit Czakó as editor, and Tamás Beke and Péter Benjámin Lukács as sound designers.