Apocalypse yesterday
2024 · animated short film · audiovisual project
Animated post-apocalyptic quest to rescue a surviving book and knowledge from a world of waste.
Animirani post-apokaliptični pohod da se iz svijeta smeća spasi posljednja knjiga i znanje koje nosi.
Notes from the producer
I took this on as a development producer for Matija Zaharija's first serious animated short, and most of what I can show for it is the unromantic part of the job: two full HAVC applications, signed rights and directing contracts, a storyboard, an animatic, a first-scene rendition, and a soundtrack that at least lets you hear where it is going. The budget moved from 83,720.43 to 90,064.52 EUR between March and September 2024 because we took the first review seriously rather than personally.
I will not dress up where it stands. The money did not close, the Animafest 2026 window we aimed at has come and gone without a confirmed selection, and there is no press to point to. The contracts still carry real obligations, two 1,000-euro payments and a completion date at the end of 2026, so this is not finished and I am not pretending it is. What I can say is that a concept became a fundable, pitchable package that survived a rejection and an ESP application, which is the part of producing nobody sees.
- Matija Radeljak
The story
Apocalypse yesterday (Apokalipsa jucer) is a 12-minute hand-drawn animated short in development at Aning Film, written and directed by Matija Zaharija and produced by Matija Radeljak. A Wizard and a small Bird cross a planet buried in waste to recover a single surviving book from a ruined university in Rijeka and carry it to a protected library-oasis. The argument underneath the fable stays constant from the first Croatian synopsis to the latest English one: after collapse, knowledge is not decoration but infrastructure.
Through 2024 the project moved from concept to a fundable package rather than a pitch deck. Screenplay drafts began in February; transfer-of-rights and directing contracts were signed on 5 and 13 March 2024; a full HAVC creative package (director's concept, synopsis, storyboard) went in with a first application to the Croatian Audiovisual Centre on 14 March 2024, against a planned budget of 83,720.43 EUR anchored by an HAVC production line and requests to the city culture offices of Zagreb and Rijeka. An academic letter of support from Sabrina Suman backed the author.
The first review was the turning point, not the setback. HAVC's artistic advisor Jelena Oroz pressed on differentiation and visual freshness in her 31 May 2024 assessment. The team reworked positioning and refiled on 12 September 2024 with a revised budget of 90,064.52 EUR, a sharper producer statement and distribution plan (Dogma 23 activity, a targeted Animafest 2026 premiere window). A follow-up review dated 4 January 2025 confirms the project stayed in active evaluation, and a European Short Pitch (NISI MASA) 2025 application opened it to European co-production and development networks.
What exists is real and unglamorous: signed contracts, a full storyboard, an animatic, a first-scene rendition and soundtrack passes, two complete HAVC applications. What remains open is decisive. There is no confirmed funding award, no confirmed festival selection, and no press, while the contracts carry fixed obligations of two 1,000 EUR payments due 31 August 2025 and a completion condition tied to 31 December 2026. The service this archive proves is development producing: building the legal, financial and institutional scaffolding a young author-director needs to make a first ambitious animated short fundable and pitchable, and keeping it alive through a rejection.
Milestones
- 2024-02 — First screenplay draft (v1)
- 2024-03-05 — Transfer-of-rights contract signed (Aning Film / Matija Zaharija)
- 2024-03-13 — Directing contract signed; HAVC creative package assembled
- 2024-03-14 — First HAVC production-funding application filed (planned budget 83,720.43 EUR)
- 2024-05-31 — HAVC artistic review by advisor Jelena Oroz
- 2024-09-12 — Second HAVC application filed (revised budget 90,064.52 EUR)
- 2025-01-04 — Follow-up HAVC review of the second-round application
Outcomes
- Screenplay and storyboard — Multiple screenplay drafts and a full storyboard package exported 13 March 2024
- Development materials — An animatic, a first-scene rendition and soundtrack passes produced during development
- HAVC applications — Two complete production-funding applications filed with the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (14 March and 12 September 2024)
- International outreach — European Short Pitch (NISI MASA) 2025 application for co-production and development
- Funding and selection — No confirmed funding award or festival selection as of 2026; Animafest 2026 was a stated target only
Credits
- Matija Zaharija — Author and director
- Matija Radeljak — Producer
- Aning Film d.o.o. — Production company
Related work: The Violinist