Animation Now 2012
86 mins approx./Censors rating tbc
Our annual opportunity for short animations to come out and play. This year’s programme delivers a bounty of diversity. We showcase the creative possibilities of what animation can do in the hands of artists who let their imaginations roam freer and on a longer lead than the rest of us. In the parallel universes that these artists patrol, absolutely anything and everything is possible. Rules of physics, logic and narrative do not – or at least, need not – apply. Let the ideas twist, turn, merge and morph; redraw and recreate any new reality that comes to mind. Phones to silent please, lights down, you are about to enjoy one of the most beguiling rides a cinema can offer. — MT
Swarming
Joni Männistö/Finland 2011/7 mins
An insect universe scuttles forth from the insides of a dead bird – much to the delight and wonder of the child who discovers it.
Crowded
Luke Sault/UK 2011/3 mins
The experiences, musings and utterings of a suffering schizophrenic.
Yonalure: Moment to Moment
Nakata Ayaka, Sakitani Yuki/Japan 2011/8 mins
Pure animation magic! A tour of arcs and soaring glides that ever ebb and rise through a village as it attempts to separate from the moon.
Many Go Round
Nakanishi Yoshihisa/Japan 2011/6 mins
A certified can’t-believe-my-eyes piece of animation made of ingeniously cut paper silhouettes formed into a kind of phenakistoscope.
En parties
Hugo Bravo/France 2011/4 mins
Modern deco blended with cubism.
Belly
Julia Pott/UK 2011/7 mins
A self-reflecting look at the awkward age of nine.
September
Thibault Chollet/France 2011/3 mins
An extravaganza of reconstruction starting with ships awash in the deep blue and ending in a solitary exit.
Moxie
Stephen Irwin/UK 2011/6 mins
A sad face, a dead bear, a subdued detective and a ‘lemon enema’.
Metachaos
Alessandro Bavari/Italy 2010/8 mins
A hyper-speed recreation of amoebic chaos fuelled by inspiration drawn from the sickly madness and pain of Bosch and Bruegel. Definitely intended for big screens.
Mulvar Is Correct Candidate
Patrick Désilets/Canada 2011/1 min
Promises, promises. Mulvar make precious fuel come from eyes! Vote Mulvar!
Lumberjack
Pawel Debski/Poland 2011/15 mins
On the shore of a great ocean, surrounded by foreboding cliffs, live a boy and a lumberjack, drawn towards the stormiest of horizons.
Abiogenesis
Richard Mans/New Zealand 2011/4 mins
A spectacle. In this breathtaking science fiction spectacle, a strange mechanical device lands on a desolate world and uses the planet to undergo a startling transformation.
Wild Life
Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis/Canada 2011/14 mins
Alberta, 1909. The wide, open prairies of the wild west. Enter a well-tailored young Englishman, fresh from the ‘old country’.
NZIFF STAFF PICK: Natalie Gilberd