by Raymond Rose // Nov. 25, 2025
PAF Olomouc International Festival of Animation and Contemporary Art returns for its 24th edition from December 4th to 7th, 2025 with four days of screenings, performances, exhibitions, talks, concerts and a children’s program. Founded over two decades ago as a festival devoted to animation, PAF has since broadened its scope, commissioning new work and championing emerging media. While film screenings are still at its heart, the festival now also features a variety of expanded cinema, performance and sound art.
This year’s edition, titled ‘Pinocchio Paradox,’ explores contradictions and the nature of truth. A variant of the liar’s paradox, the Pinocchio Paradox focuses on what happens when the puppet declares “My nose grows now!”—a statement that becomes true by being false, and false by being true. PAF adapts this playful absurdity into a framework for understanding how narratives are constructed and how the perception of truth is warped in an age saturated with mediated realities.
Monika Drazilova: ‘Chronicles III,’ screening at PAF 2024 // Courtesy of PAF Olomouc
Among its highlights, Amalia Ulman & Brett Milspaw will premier a new film project focused on a museum guide named Clara who gets caught in a web of deception as she rewrites the story of her life. London-based artists Bianca Scout & cajm unite for a performance that blends vocal minimalism, experimental electronics and poetic introspection. Musician and artist Jack Dove presents two performances showcasing pyrotechnic sculptures that hover between chaos and control.
The program expands further with music by GbClifford, Keiko Sei, CTM (Cæcilie Trier) and Pavel Milyakov & Jasmine Wood, as well as a symposium that maps the shifting conditions of art in a digital age. PAF also continues its engagement with the Czech art scene through ‘Other Visions CZ,’ a competition mapping developments in contemporary moving-image production in the Czech Republic.
Tomáš Kozohorský: ‘Sobota,’ at PAF 2024 // Courtesy of PAF Olomouc
Set in the historic university town of Olomouc, the festival is an intimate experience that feels even cozier in the winter atmosphere. With venues only minutes apart by foot, visitors can walk easily from screenings to exhibition openings and concerts. Audiences and artists alike cross paths in a communal rhythm, cultivating a spirit of ongoing exchange.
Across its four days, PAF Olomouc invites audiences from the Czech Republic and beyond to an exploration of truth, fiction and the nebulous space between them—a space that invites us to question what we believe and that reminds us that contradictions can illuminate more than they obscure.
PAF Olomouc 2025
Group Show: ‘Pinocchio Paradox’
Festival: Dec. 4–7, 2025
pifpaf.cz
771 80, Univerzitní nám. 225/3, 779 00 Olomouc, Czechia, click here for map
