The ESFS award ceremony 2012 was held in Zagreb on April, Saturday, 28. The Croatian design of the ESFS award was a green glass plaque with the etched Glagolitic letters: ”ESFS Contact Award 2012″.

Hall of Fame

Best Author: Ian McDonald (UK)
Best Artist: Nela Dunato (Croatia)
Best Translator: Pavel Weigel (Czech Republic)
Best Promoter: SF Encyclopedia Online Team (UK)
Best Publisher: Ailleurs et demain, Robert Laffout (France)
Best Magazine: Galaxies SF (France)

Spirit of Dedication Award

Best Dramatic Presentation: Divadelni spolek Kaspar (Czech Republic), for its adaptation of Daniel Keyes’ novella Floers for Algernon
Best Website: Science Fact and Science Fiction Concatenation (UK)
Best artist: Zdenko Bašić (Croatia)
Best fanzine: Eridan (Croatia)

Honorary Award: Jean Giraud aka Moebius (France)

Honorary Award European Grand Master: Brian Aldiss (UK)

Encouragement Awards: Aleksandra Ruda (Ukraine), Katarina Brbora (Croatia), Istvan Marki (Hungary), Illy Tyo (Russia), Aleš Oblak (Slovenia), Oliviu Craznic (Romania), Rod Rees (UK), Lucia Droppova (Slovakia), Jan “Johnak” Kotouc (Czech Republic)

Congratulations to all the winners!

For the first time at SFeraKon we have the honor to announce a young architect from Zagreb, Tea Pećnik, and her cute and geeky BeeBit collection, 8-bit collection of plastic jewelry and ornaments for home, based on the animated cartoons. On her colorful stall you’ll definitely find something that would fit in your room or around your neck. The BeeBit offers an unusual collection of flowers, magnets, jewelry, brooches and costers. Enjoy her work on Beebit FB page.

From the historic Adriatic city of Zadar comes the talented Irena Stein Medvidović, the author of the unique fantasy and medieval jewelry. Irene combines her necklaces, bracelets, earrings and pendants with materials such as stainless steel, woven and coated wire, leather, mother of pearl, glass and acrylic beads. See her stunning creations on the blog Aimee’s Jewelery.

Pinkeye (Ina Bulaja) has been our regular exhibitor since 2006 and we love everything she sculpts ​​from fimo (polymer clay)! This year Pinkeye is also the sponsor of our Masquerade, so hereby we thank her once again. For the past SFeraKons she created some themed jewelry, such as Roswell earrings & Bemmet brooches. Her funky weird works of art see on the Pinkeye Twisted Jewelry page.

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA:

• screening and presentation of short 3D animated movie Kyamet, from the multi-awarded film artist, Ivan Ramadan

SLOVENIA:

• presentation of SF Club Stardust Space, Slovenian authors and their works (Andrei Ivanuša, M. Amedeja Painted, Mara R. Chirac, Bojan Ekselenski)

SERBIA:

• presentation of the Festival of Serbian Fantastic Film with screenings, by J. Ristić and D. Jovićević
• Panel Graphic Novels in the SE Europe, by moderator P. Zelić (guests: Macan, Sunjić, M. Vladanović)

CROATIA:

• presentation of the novel Irbis from the multi-awarded and internationally known SF writer, Aleksandar Žiljak
• lecture Cartoon History of Croatian SF, by our Guest of Honour, Darko Macan
• presentation of magazines Sirius B, new SF almanac Titan, series of books Dvostruka zvijezda, Nebula and Vrhovi SF-a, presentation of  SF portal inverzija.net, by Davorin Horak, the editor of fanzines and magazines
• promotion of the novel Formula za kaos from a young talented writer, Franjo Janeš
• promotion of the illustrated tales Sjeverozapadni vjetar from the internationally recognized and award-winning Croatian illustrator and artist, Zdenko Bašić
• Panel Regional Science Fiction – Where Are We Going?, by moderator, Boris Švel. Discussion about the regional science fiction and presentation of short SF collections Smak, Eridan.

Arrr, ye land lubbers can be seein’ th’  tribute o’er here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Daniel Ille, the author of Eurocon 2012′s poster, knew he wanted to create paper and ink miracles since the time he began thinking about the meaning of life, universe and everything. He has not changed his mind yet. He spent more than ten years in one of the largest advertising agencies, designing campaigns for renowned foreign and domestic companies. The best period in his career was working for the Concert Direction Zagreb, where he managed to combine his passion for classical music and graphic design. To Croatian science fiction fans he is well know for the visual identity of Project SF and SFeraKon posters.

He received many awards for his creativity since his student days at the Faculty of Graphic Arts in Zagreb, his latest being the INdoor kreativac competition in 2011.

Besides classical music his attention is regularly captured by the WWII history, sailing, the sea, large ships, natural wonders, good food, British TV series and any kind of gadget. Naturally, science fiction, as well.

Explore the most important historical parts of the city accompanied by one of our licensed local guides, hear stories of the past times and present days…
Meeting point: Meeting point for the walking tour is on the main square, Ban Josip Jelačić sqare, in front of the Tourist Information center.

Уважаемые гости!
приглашаем вас на бесплатную экскурсию по городу. Встреча на площади бана Йосипа Елачичаперед туристическим бюро.

Hereby we we would like to emphasize the special topic of SFeraKon/Eurocon 2012: Kontakt Special Track -short presentations of fandoms and SF & F literature from Non-English speaking countries to facilitate a closer contact between European national fandoms . All presentations, along with anything interesting that happens at the con itself will be published in an electronic format by Kontakt and made available free online for all fans of SF&F.

Besides Q & A’s, where our GoH-s Tim Powers, Darko Macan, Charles Stross and Dmitry Glukhovsky will present themselves, you can hear what they have to say at all sorts of different panels. However, we point out the literary workshop of Tim Powers: MAKING THE READER BELIVE IT! (Saturday, 17:00 – 18:15) and Macan’s Comics Workshop for Kids (Sunday, 13:15 to 14:30). One of the most interesenting panels will definitely be Free On Line Fiction with Stross, Glukhovsky and Powers together as panelists. Glukhovsky will also tell us something more on panels: European Hard SF and E- Publishing, while Stross and Powers will probably take the opposite sides on the panel Steampunk in Literature. This year’s FAN GoH, Cheryl Morgan, 4 times Hugo award winner and a very active member of the international science fiction community will also participate in many panels.

Have fun and make new international SF friends!

The Croatian Guest of Honor, Darko Macan, comic writer and artist, as well as an illustrator of books for children is also known as the author of the comic book Borovnica (Blueberry), published in Croatian children’s magazine Modra Lasta. Macan has prepared a special Comic Book Workshop for Kids on Sunday, April 29th, from 13:15 to 14:30.

SFeraKon 2012 as Eurocon brings also additional children’s programs, creative workshops – KontaktKids.
On Saturday and Sunday Valery Strutinskaja, kids animator and SFera’s volunteer, will hold educational SF art-workshops, intended for children from 0-12 years.

• Eco-Eco Workshop consists of making a costume from garbage bag and adhesiv collage (up to 7 years).
• My favorite fairytale Workshop is an interactive art workshop (up to 12 years).
• My favorite Superhero Workshop is a drawing and painting workshop (up to 7 years).
• Balloon Modelling Workshop, creative work/game with balloons (up to 7 years).

In addition to the art workshops the music workshops for children 0-5 years Music Together ® will be also held on Saturday (18:15 to 19:30). Music Together is an internationally recognized music program for children 0-8 years. The workshop will be held by Croatian center for this type of early music education Suzin Music Together.

Playing games is an important part of any Science Fiction Convention, and for the first time it will be possible for children to learn and play board games for kids on SFeraKon/Kontakt. The Association “Igranje” will have a table with games suitable for beginner and younger age during the weekend. (All descriptions and rules of these games can be found on the website igranje.org).

However the SRSFF society has even more to offer; we invite you to attend two more Romanian panels:

• European Intercultural Exchanges about their next intercultural project with the Hungarian SF community and their future plans.
• European Hard SF as a sub-genre within the European science fiction since Jules Verne.

Pavle Zelić, SF and comic writer and critic, comes from our neighboring country, Serbia, will moderate two panels in English: Fantastic Art – it’s Fantastic! and Graphic Novels in the SE Europe. So, if you would like to know something more about SF comics in the former Yugoslavia, this is a very good opportunity.

Marko Fančović, journalist, translator and SF critic will talk about the recently deceased French comic legend, Jean Henri Gaston Giraud, best known by the pseudonym Moebius. Moebius contributed storyboards and concept designs to numerous science fiction and fantasy films, including Alien, Willow, Tron (’82.), The Fifth Element etc.