New Year's Eve

by Rok Predin

Silvestrska noč, animated, 3D animation, computer animation, digital DCP, 1,77:1 (16:9), 25, b/w, 12 min
In progress

Snow-covered Ljubljana during the Christmas season of the 1960s, the golden age of Slovenian pop music. A doorman at RTV Ljubljana starts his night shift as preparations are underway for a New Year’s Eve TV show. Delivering an important package to the director, he accidentally disrupts the recording and angers the show’s star, who quits, causing the crew to disperse. During a routine night inspection, the doorman discovers an uninvited guest tangled in the studio’s electrical wiring. The stranger introduces himself as Dedek Mraz (Father Frost). In return for help, he promises to grant a wish: the doorman wants to experience what it’s like to stand on a television stage as a famous singer. The studio magically fills with music and an audience. When the director returns, he discovers an exceptional talent. Dedek Mraz disappears, and the show is saved.

screenwriter
Andrej Predin
director
Rok Predin
producer
Miha Černec
executive producer
Mihaela Trupi
lead animator
Rok Predin
music composer
Sebastijan Duh
sound designer
Barnaby Templer

featuring
Branko Šturbej, Nebojša Pop Tasić, Aljoša Ternovšek, Primož Pirnat, Marko Mandić

production
Staragara
co-production
RTV Slovenija
co-funding
Slovenian Film Centre
distribution
Slovene Animated Film Association
sales
Staragara

Stara Gara
Miha Černec
miha@staragara.com

Rok Predin (1980) is a Slovenian visual artist, animator and director working between Maribor and London. After graduating in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana in 2004, he turned to animation and moved to London in 2009, where he collaborated with Trunk Animation. He has worked for The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Elton John, U2 and others. His author-driven animated short One of a Kind received the Audience Award in Stuttgart. In addition to film, he is also active in theatre.

“The directing approach aims to create a warm, nostalgic portrayal of the festive season and an idealized vision of the 1960s, where television is the center of shared experience and RTV a factory of dreams. The story weaves together humor, surreal situations and magic, blurring the line between imagination and reality, and employs a black-and-white visual style inspired by the analog language of the time. The film is conceived as a tribute to the golden age of public television and a shared memory of a simpler world.”

Stara Gara is a renowned Slovenian film production company with a strong portfolio of projects in development and production. Over the past two decades, it has built a solid production team and an extensive network of collaborators across Slovenia, Eastern Europe and wider Europe. As a delegated producer, it has been involved in nine feature films and numerous minority co-productions that premiered at major international festivals including Venice, Cannes, San Sebastián, Rotterdam and Sarajevo. In recent years, Stara Gara has established partnerships with Tramal Films, SPOK Films and Staragara IT.