Vivaldi Four Seasons Autumn Sand Animation Ferenc Cakó

Ferenc Cakó

graphic artist, painter, writer, director of animation films

He was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1950.

Ferenc Cakó
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ferenc Cakó (born 1950) is a Hungarian artist whose specialty is performing sand animation.
He graduated from the College for Creative Arts in 1973 and did amateur animation at that point. His first success was in 1982 and in 1989 he was named artist of the Hungarian People's Republic. After that he did workshops in Finland, France, Spain, Belgium, and Portugal.
Amongst his more recent performances, Ferenc Cakó performed in IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India at Techfest 2004. His show in the Open Air Theatre was a huge hit with thousands of students, professors and visitors attending it.
Cakó's films have won prizes including the award for best short film at the Berlin International Film Festival and the jury prize for short film at the Cannes Film Festival.



His father was Fassel L'ousa Ferenc, painter, (1915-2009).

Ferenc Cakó attended the Secondary School of Applied and Fine Arts, the Graphic Section. / His teachers there were Gacs Gábor, Zala Tibor, Pásztor Gábor, Miskolczi László/

Then he was admitted to the College of Fine Arts in Budapest, to the Applied Graphic Section. /His masters there were Konecsni György, Barcsay Jenő, Patay László, Iván Szilárd, Zelenák Crescencia, Tamási Zoltán). He got his diploma there in 1973.

During his college years and after that he got the main awards at the National Amateur Film Festivals in 1973 and 1974. These amateur films were 'Petőfi' painting animation and 'Ókulária' object animation.

After getting these awards, he started to work for Pannonia Film Studio, in the section of the Puppet Studio, led by Foky Ottó.

Between 1973 and 1991 he worked in that studio as animator, designer and director.
He got his professional knowledge in twenty years of continuous work in the field of traditional 3D animation.

In the beginning he worked on series films as a co-artist, then in 1978 he started his own line, mostly with clay-animation films, which were very trendy at that time. These films included Ad Astra, Auto Torture, Safe Drillers /Kasszagyúrók/, AB Ovo.
Also using clay animation, he started to make series of such films for Hungarian Television, including Never mind, Tobias /Sebaj, Tóbiás/, 26 episodes,1982-85, and ZENO, 21 episodes, 1985-88.

During those years, besides making series, he made films for festivals as well.
Out of his own original ideas, he himself wrote the scripts for the festival films.

Besides making films, he has been making several exhibitions from his graphics, paintings and film installations, too.



In 1988 he made a big breakthrough with his sand and sculpture animation film titled Ab Ovo. This film got the award Gold Palm in Cannes in that year and got other awards in different other film festivals as well /Annecy, Sanghai, Uppsala/.


He has been illustrating books for children and youth for many years. He has illustrated - among others -many books by Csukás István and Nógrádi Gábor.

In 1989 he made the coal-powder and clay animation film AD REM, which got the main awards in San Francisco and Oberhausen.

In 1989 he got the award Meritorious Artist of Hungary.



Between 1991 and 1994 he made the films TOF-TOF Elephant. It was a clay series, 52 episodes. Its writer was Csukás István, as in the case of Never mind, Tobias. Studio: Mikro Studíó.



In 1994 he made the sand animation film ASHES, in the memory of his mother. Studio: Mikro Stúdió. This film got the award GOLDEN BEAR in Berlin, and also the main awards of Huesca and Kecskemét, Hungary.



Between 1994 and 1996 he worked as college lecturer at the Hungarian College of Applied Arts.



In 1995 his film titled Song of Sand was sent to Cannes Film Festival as a competing film at the event 100. Anniversary of Film.


In that year he started his own studio with the name C.A.K.Ó. Stúdió. In that studio he made several of his own films and gave chance to young talanted artists to work there as well.



The following animation films were made in that studio: Labyrinth, Vision, Stones, Psychoparade, Caravan, The Fox and the Raven, Hey, S.O.S.!, Letters, Face, Touch./Almost all of them got some prizes at festivals/ Also at that studio there were some college exam films and other 3D animations made as well as commercials directed by other directors.



In 1997 in Annecy, France, - this is world's biggest international animation film festival, held every year -, he was asked to show some of his figurative and image materials and at the same time some retrospective film shows of his works were held in the film palace.


Between 1998 and 2000. He held special animation courses in France, Finland, Spain, Belgium and Portugal.

In 1999 he got the award Outstanding Artist of Hungary.

In 2001 in Vigadó Galéria, Budapest, he had an exhibition of fine arts and films materials of his works of thirty years.





In 1996 he had the idea and worked out a type of LIVE SAND ANIMATION SHOW, in which with special music on, his live drawing with sand /!/ is projected in large size on screen for the audience. These are dream-like images which form from each other. The images are graphically well invented, drawn with sand and having matching music along with it and they are prepared thoroughly.www.sandanimation.com. Recently these shows have brought him very big success both at home and abroad. He often appears at opening and closing ceremonies of high-profile state events and festivals as well as being on the show together with different outstanding musicians and symphonic orchestras.

He makes films, appears in juries, illustrates and makes exhibitions.



Since 2010 he works as docent and holds lectures in Sopron, Hungary, at the Institute of Applied Arts of the University of West-Hungary.
http://www.ferenccako.com

http://www.ferenccako.com