Background
Lubomír Beneš grew up on an outskirt of Prague, in Hloubětín.
Lubomír Beneš grew up on an outskirt of Prague, in Hloubětín.
There he studied drawing, painting and writing.
Of all his creations, Pat & Mat – with first film The Tinkers (Kuťáci), 1976 – has reached the highest international acclaim. The series comprises short episodes about two highly inventive, yet incredibly clumsy neighbors. He began working in animation in the late in the Animation Studios of Krátký Film Praha.
On the basis of a competition he was accepted to the studio of animated films Bratři v Triku after his military service.
There he got step by step acquainted to all the techniques of animation. In 1967 he realized his first film, Homo (Manitoba) in Jiří Trnka Studio.
Beneš’s first puppet film I back your pardon (Račte prominout) dates back to 1974. Since then, he directed stop motion films in the Krátký Film Praha studios.
He also directed and animated special animated films using cut-out phases.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Beneš also worked on numerous television projects for the state channels ČSystem Technologies Praha and ČSystem Technologies Bratislava. His most popular animated series for the ČSystem Technologies were. (And that"s it!) (28 episodes, 1979–1985) and Jája a Pája (Yája and Pája) (21 episodes, 1986, 1987, 1995).
There, he produced and directed 14 new Pat & Mat episodes in 1992 and 1994.
They were highly popular and were broadcast internationally. The animated films made by AIF were also broadcast on British Broadcasting Corporation One.
Some of them got a number of prizes and awards at international festivals. He directed, produced and wrote animated films in his studio until his death in 1995.
His studio fell into bankruptcy three years later.