A captivating blend of form, content, and style, these narratives offer a unique opportunity to question our familiar perceptions of everyday existence while exploring the uncharted possibilities of animation. Prepare to embark on a journey through diverse realms that elicit emotions often left unexplored in our conventional experiences.
27
Nominated for Best Animation Short
Director: Flora Anna Buda | France/Hungary | 2023 | 11 Minutes
Content Warning – Nudity and drug use
Alice is 27 years old today. She still lives with her parents and tends to live in her dreams to escape her dreary everyday life. After a psychedelic party on a factory roof, she has a serious drunken bike accident. Will this give her the courage to become an adult?
Cast: Natasa Stork, Adam Fekete, Eva Enyedi, Franciska Farkas, Simon Szabo
Writer: Flora Anna Buda | Producer: Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, Pierre Baussaron, Gàbor Osvàth, Pèter Lukàcs Benjàmin | Director of Photography: Flora Anna Buda | Editor: Albane du Plessix | Music: Màko Màri, Màko Rozi
Trace
Original Title: Sleda
Director: Asparuh Petrov | Bulgaria | 2022 | 7 Minutes
А young writer dedicates his nights to hunting entangled phrases with his pen. The moment he is confronted with the pregnancy of his wife his world collapses. Lingering fears and painful memories overwhelm him as he discovers he needs to trace the missing piece.
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Writer: Asparuh Petrov | Producer: Vessela Dantcheva | Editor: Iva Kraljevic | Music: Andrea Martignoni
The Grand Book
Director: Arjan Brentjes | Netherlands | 2023 | 20 Minutes
A young woman lives on the streets in a city that is reminiscent of the 1920s. The city has an inescapable surveillance system, as invasive as our world of Big Tech. Our protagonist learns that the only place to escape from this can be in the world of her dreams.
Cast: Anne-May de Lijser
Writer: Arjan Brentjes | Producer: Richard Valk, Eline van Hagen | Editor: Arjan Brentjes | Music: Arjan Brentjes, Jasper Boeke
To Do
Director: Saul Pankhurst | UK | 2022 | 3 Minutes
A reflection on productivity and the pervasive self-improvement industry, explored through the filmmaker’s attempts to participate in a modern mindfulness exercise. A chaotic animated collage of images that’s part Pop Art, part Dalí, part Monty Python. Anyone who can’t escape swirling thoughts just before bed will surely identify.
Cast: Saul Pankhurst
Writer: Saul Pankhurst | Producer: Saul Pankhurst | Director of Photography: Saul Pankhurst | Editor: Saul Pankhurst | Music: Saul Pankhurst
We are Fireflies
Nominated for Best Animation Short
Director: Sophie Smiles | UK | 2023 | 7 Minutes
We Are Fireflies is a graphic autobiography of a young woman’s experience of violence and silence. A raw, beautiful and haunting animation, accompanied by the recorded voices of a mother and daughter and a musical score conjuring intensity of despair. A powerful work of art and vulnerability.
Cast: Sophie Smiles, Wendy Smiles, Dorette Engi
Writer: Sophie Smiles | Producer: Sophie Smiles | Director of Photography: Sophie Smiles | Editor: Sophie Smiles | Music: Sophie Smiles, Rupert Cobb
Now I’m in the Kitchen
Director: Yana Pan | USA/China | 2022 | 5 Minutes
Content Warning –
I refused to cook for a long time. Growing up, watching my mum struggle as a housewife made me label cooking as an activity that is, lonely, frustrating and tedious but as I grow older, I’ve started cooking more. The same pot, same recipe, same smell, connecting my mum and I
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Cast:
Writer: Yana Pan | Producer: Yana Pan | Editor: Yana Pan | Music: Ana Roman
Wild Summon
Winner of Best Animation Short
Director: Karni Arieli, Saul Freed | UK | 2023 | 15 Minutes
A natural history fantasy film, following the dramatic life cycle of the wild salmon in a human form. We follow a single female diver through endless challenges through the river and majestic landscapes in this eco aquatic adventure of a lifetime. With narration from Marianne Faithfull.
Cast: Marianne Faithfull
Writer: Karni Arieli, Saul Freed | Producer: Saul Freed, Karni Arieli, Jay Woolley | Director of Photography: Saul Freed, Karni Arieli, Yuli Freed Arieli | Editor: Saul Freed, Karni Arieli | Music: Saul Freed, VILK Collective
MONDAY AT THE CUBE FACTORY
Director: Sebastian Freudenschuss | Austria | 2022 | 2 Minutes
Content Warning – bright, flashy images, mild strobing
We enter the gate to the cube factory on an ordinary Monday. Strange processes create an endless flow of cubes, their purpose unknown. The endlessly repeating flow hypnotizes us as our vision begins to blur. Is there an end? It wouldn’t hurt to watch a little longer…
Cast:
Writer: Sebastian Freudenschuss | Producer: Sebastian Freudenschuss | Director of Photography: Sebastian Freudenschuss | Editor: Sebastian Freudenschuss | Music: Dead Mythologies/Pieter Gabriel
Lil Sherbet
Original Title: 我的身体是记忆枕头
Director: Xinhe Zhao | China | 2023 | 2 Minutes
A hand drawn animation with 1352 paintings, every single one is a hymn to my body, which is mine, but not all mine. It belongs to everyone who has touched it, like a memory pillow, always remembering the marks left by the last person, while slowly rebounding and forgetting
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Cast: Xinhe Zhao
Writer: Xinhe Zhao | Producer: Xinhe Zhao | Director of Photography: Xinhe Zhao | Editor: Xinhe Zhao | Music: Xinhe Zhao
Humo
Nominated for Best Animation Short
Director: Rita Basulto | Mexico | 2023 | 12 Minutes
Daniel, a young boy who travels by train towards a dark destination, is helpless in the face of the horrors of war. This stop-motion showcases the brutal contrast between the innocence of a child and the flaws of humanity that have turned him into a despondent passenger of his life.
Cast: Daniel Basulto, Roméo Gouvemeur
Writer: Adapted by Juan Medina from “Smoke” by Antón Fortes | Producer: Juan Medina, Rita Basulto | Director of Photography: Rita Basulto | Editor: Héctor Fausto | Music: Mario Osuna
La Mecha
Director: Nicholas Hooper H. | Chile | 2022 | 14 Minutes
Content Warning –
Mecha is the wandering soul of an environmental activist who dies under suspicious circumstances. Her death generates commotion in town and unleashes mixed feelings in her family. This leads Mecha’s ghost to seek reconciliation with her son Juan and make him take charge of her fight.
Cast: Giannina Fruttero, Roberto Villena, Francisco Reyes, Paula Zúñiga
Writer: Nicholas Hooper H., Tomás Benavente, Sofía Eluani | Producer: Tomás Benavente | Director of Photography: Manuel Vlastelica | Editor: Cattalina Silva, Matías Riquelme | Music: Camila Moreno, Eduardo Gatti, Lenuah & Nidae
