Midhat "Ajan" Ajanović (born 20 October 1959) is a

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

n- Swedish film theorist,

animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animat ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

. He is a lecturer on animation and in 2009 defended his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

thesis on animation, the second one on the subject in Sweden. Since 1983 he has written several novels, most often with Yugoslav/Bosnian themes and published in Bosnian, Croatian or Swedish. In 2010 Ajanović was a laureate at the

Animafest Zagreb World Festival of Animated Film Zagreb (), best known as Animafest Zagreb, is a film festival entirely dedicated to Animation, animated film held annually in Zagreb, Croatia. Initiated by the International Animated Film Association (ASIFA), the e ...

animation festival, for his achievements in the study of film animation.

Biography

Background

Ajanović was born and brought up in the Bosnian capital of

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

. He studied literature in Sarajevo and animation in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

. In the 1980s he worked as an

editorial cartoonist An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or current ...

for the newspaper ''

Oslobođenje The ''Oslobođenje'' ( sh-Cyrl, Ослобођење; ; 'Liberation') is the Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian national daily newspaper, published in Sarajevo. It is the oldest daily newspaper still in circulation in the Bosnia and Herzegovina. Fou ...

'',"Ajan"
Optimalpress.com. Retrieved 15 January 2014. while at the same time producing a couple of animation shorts at the local production company ''Bosna'' and both drawing short comic strips and articles for various magazines. From 1985–1990 the weekly ''Nasi dani'' printed his weekly comic ''Ajan''. A comics album with the locally well-known pranksters ''Mujo'' and ''Suljo'' was also published. In June 1992 Ajanović presented his animation short ''Voajer'' on

. This was the first film produced in Bosnia and Hercegovina to be presented at an international film festival, following its independence in April of the same year."Animations".
Ajan.se. Retrieved 15 January 2014.

New country

After the outbreak of the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

(April 1992), living conditions declined considerably. In 1994 Ajanović and his family managed to flee the country, settling in Sweden where the family has since been living. In Sweden he has to some degree continued to draw, but more seldom in animated form. He has regularly drawn cartoons and written texts on animation for several local newspapers,Rånlund, Sven (2005-06-13)
"En animerad värld av tekniska snillen och kreativa galningar".
GP.se. Retrieved 15 January 2014. and many of his biographical texts on international animators has since been collected into two books. Ajanović was, for a couple of years, appointed as a lecturer in

film studies Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various film theory, theoretical, history of film, historical, and film criticism, critical approaches to film, cinema as an art form and a medium. It is sometimes subsumed within media stud ...

at the

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg () is a List of universities in Sweden, university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current List of universities in Sweden#Public universities, S ...

, while also lecturing at the college school in animation at

Eksjö Eksjö is a locality and the seat of Eksjö Municipality in Jönköping County, Sweden, with 9,701 inhabitants in 2010. History The city of Eksjö most likely appeared sometime in the Middle Ages when it was the centre for the thing, a regio ...

. In 2009 he successfully defended his doctorate thesis, ''Den rörliga skämtteckningen'' ("The Moving Cartoon"). This was the second time a doctorate thesis about animation was successfully defended at a Swedish university. Since 2009 he has worked as a lecturer in informatics and animation at University College West.

Book production

Midhat Ajanović has written eight books on film theory, mainly devoted to animated film. Besides this, he has authored several novels, often centered around the history and milieu of his former homeland Yugoslavia/Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first one, the satirical ''Kultura srca'' ("Culture of the Heart") was published in 1983 in Sarajevo, and the following novels has beginning 1998 been published alternatively in Croatian, Bosnian and Swedish. ''Portret nacrtan ugljem i kišom'' ('Portrait Drawn in Charcoal and Rain') from 2001 is a dark and atmospherical recollection of memories, where the narrator talks about his history as both cartoonist and hardened criminal. It was translated into Swedish in 2009, and the following year it received the award ''Klas de Vylder-priset''.

Published works

Bibliography (first editions)

*1983 – ''Kultura srca'' ('Culture of the Heart'), (publisher:) Cedus, Sarajevo (satire, published in

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

) *1987 – ''Strip i film'' ('Comic Strips and Film'), Sineast, Sarajevo (

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

essays, Serbo-Croatian) *1993 – ''Mujo i Suljo'' ('Mujo and Suljo'), Bemust,

Zenica Zenica ( ; ) is a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and an administrative and economic center of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Zenica-Doboj Canton. It is located in the Bosna (river), Bosna river valley, about north of Sarajevo. The ...

(comics album, Bosnian) *1996 – ''Ajan karikature/Ajan's Cartoons'', Bemust, Zenica (cartoons, Bosnian/English) *1998 – ''Jalijaš'', Borac, Travnik (novel, Bosnian), *1999 – ''Gađan'' ('The Pitcher'), International Peace Center, Sarajevo (satire, Bosnian), *1999 – ''Useljenik'' ('The Immigrant'), Bosniskt kulturcenter, Örebro/Sweden (novel, Bosnian), *2001 – ''Situationer'' ('Situations'), Optimal Press, Göteborg (cartoons, Swedish), *2001 – ''Portret nacrtan ugljem i kišom'' ('Portrait in Charcoal and Rain'), Ljiljan, Sarajevo (novel, Bosnian) *2003 – ''Katapult'', Hrasce, Zagreb (Croatian) *2003 – ''Moji filmovi'' ('My Films'), Harfograf, Tuzla (essays, Bosnian) *2004 – ''Animation and Realism = animacija i realizam'', Hrvatski filmski savez, Zagreb (essays, English/Croatian), *2006 – ''De visuella tonsättarna – animationens mästare i urval'' ('The Visual Composers – a choice of masters of animation'), Optimal Press, Göteborg (essays, Swedish), *2008 – ''Karikatura i pokret'' ('Caricature and Movement'), Hrvatski filmski savez, Zagreb (essays, Croatian) *2009 – ''Den rörliga skämtteckningen'' ('The Moving Cartoon'), Optimal Press, Göteborg (doctorate thesis, Swedish), *2010 – ''Život u crtanom filmu/Life in a Cartoon'', Hrvatski filmski savez, Zagreb (monography, Croatian/English) *2010 – ''Salijevanje strave'' ('Digesting Fear'), Una förlag, Göteborg (novel, Bosnian), *2012 – ''De visuella tonsättarna 2'', Optimal Press, Göteborg (essays, Swedish),

Filmography

*1984 – ''Heroj'' ('Hero'), (produced by:) Forum, Sarajevo (animation) *1985 – ''Post scriptum'', Bosna film, Sarajevo (animation) *1987 – ''Poruka'' ('The Message'), Bosna film, Sarajevo (animation) *1988 – ''Rekorder'', Bosna film, Sarajevo (animation) *1989 – ''Goya – Munch – Lautrec'', Bosna film, Sarajevo (animation) *1990 – ''Ikar'' ('Icarus'), Bosna film, Sarajevo (partly animated) *1992 – ''Voajer'' (also known as ''Voyeur''), Atlanta, Sarajevo (partly animated) *2001 – ''The Journalist'', Karivold film,

Fredrikstad Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a List of cities in Norway, city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Østfold Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipal ...

, Norway (documentary) *2010 – ''Point of Mouth'', SaGa, Sarajevo (partly animated) *2011 – ''Mi'' (also ''Us''), SaGa, Sarajevo + Zagreb film, Zagreb (animation/spelfilm)

Awards and honours

* 2010 – ''Klas de Vylder-priset'' ("the Klas de Vylder Award") * 2010 – ''Special Contribution to Animation Studies Award'' (

)"Animafest Wednesday!".
Animafest.hr, 1 June 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ajanovic, Midhat Bosnia and Herzegovina writers Bosnia and Herzegovina cartoonists Swedish male writers 20th-century Swedish illustrators 21st-century Swedish illustrators Swedish editorial cartoonists Swedish people of Bosnia and Herzegovina descent Yugoslav animators Bosnia and Herzegovina animators Swedish animators Bosnia and Herzegovina animated film directors Bosnia and Herzegovina animated film producers Film theorists Living people 1959 births