Rudolf Urc


Rudolf Urc was a Slovak film director, dramaturg and writer who was a founding figure of Slovak animated film. He was a recipient of the Pribina Cross, for his contributions to the development of Slovak cinematography.

Early life and education

Rudolf Urc was born in Zvolen on 12 June 1937. He studied dramaturgy at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, graduating in 1960.

Career

Film career

Urc began his professional career as a director and head dramaturg at the Newsreel Film Unit and the Short Film Studio in Bratislava. During the 1960s, Urc was a key figure in the "thaw" of Slovak documentary filmmaking. He collaborated frequently with Ján Sýkora, notably on the film Hlási sa Slobodný slovenský vysielač, which challenged official historical narratives of the Slovak National Uprising. During the period of political normalization following the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion, Urc was barred from documentary filmmaking. He subsequently moved into the field of animation, which became the focus of his later career.
As the head dramaturg of the Studio of Animated Film at Koliba, Urc mentored a generation of animators. He was instrumental in the development of the Večerníček format for television, directing and overseeing series that became staples of Slovak broadcasting. In 1985, he co-founded the Biennial of Animation Bratislava.

Academic and scholarly work

Following the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Urc was instrumental in establishing the Department of Animation at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. Urc's founding of the Department of Animation at VŠMU represented a "rescue mission" for the medium following the collapse of the state-run Koliba film studios. In his later years, he became a prominent advocate for oral history in film studies, working to record the testimonies of filmmakers from the communist era to ensure a complete historical record.
As a film scholar, he published several foundational texts on Slovak cinema, including Slovenský animovaný film and various historical monographs on documentary filmmaking.

Death

Urc died on 13 January 2026, at the age of 88.

Awards and recognition

In 2017, Urc was awarded the Sun in a Net Award for his lifelong contribution to Slovak cinema. In 2020, he was awarded the Pribina Cross, 1st class by the president of Slovakia Zuzana Čaputová.

Selected filmography

Documentaries

  • The Man from Málinec
  • The Generals
  • Shots in Košúty
  • ''Rebel Pilots''

    Animated films and series

  • The Ploughman and the Giants
  • Master Christian
  • Stories from the Blue Caravan
  • ''The Magical World of Animated Film''

    Selected publications

  • Animated Film
  • Chapters from the Theory of Animated Film
  • Viktor Kubal: Filmmaker, Artist, Humorist
  • ''The Invisible History of Documentarians''