Let’s Get Animated!

To animate something is to give it the illusion of having life. The materials animators “bring to life” are unlimited. This year LET’S GET ANIMATED includes a film that recreates common technological items we use daily out of waste materials (THE INTRONAUTA); a cat formed out of clay that, well, behaves like a cat (MAGICAL CAT); and a stop-motion animation capturing what people do in an elevator when they are alone (ELEVATOR ALONE). Animation is a labor of love and you will see it is very apparent in this reel of films.

AVANT CARD – Follow Ernst, a postcard character, falling, tripping and sliding his way through a diverse world of postcards. It’s a colorful journey full of different graphic styles. Where will he end up feeling “himself”? (2021 / 5 mins / Germany / dir. Stella Raith / no dialogue)

THE BOY WHO WOULD BECOME A KNIGHT – The Boy Who Would Become a Knight tells, with live-action and stop motion animations, a moment of transition in the life of Luigi, a child from Florence at the end of the Fourteenth century. Thanks to the words of the family weaver and a precious embroidered blanket, the adventures of the young Tristan come to life before Luigi’s eyes, to teach him what skills a knight must have. (2020 / 7 mins / Italy / dir. Gianmarco D’Agostino / in Italian w/English subtitles)

PEA CHILDREN – As spring turns to summer, eight little peas leave the safety of their peapod to go on garden adventures. Eventually autumn comes and the little peas grow up to continue next spring’s cycle of life. (2020 / 14 mins / Latvia / dir. Dace Rīdūze / no dialogue)

CAT AND BIRD – A white bird living in a black world encounters a black cat living in a white world. The moment they meet, their backgrounds literally collide. (2021 / 8 mins / Germany / dir. Franka Sachse / no dialogue)

COLZA – A young lizard named Clarence steals a precious, sonic plane while the whole village is distracted by the greatest concert it has ever seen. Don’t say you’ve seen this story before! (2020 / 5 mins / France / dir. Victor Chagniot, Camille Broutin, Matthieu Daures, Victoria De Millo Gregory, Maxime Jouniot, Jade Khoo / in French w/English subtitles)

ELEVATOR ALONE – What do people do when they’re alone in an elevator and know that nobody is there to watch them. The answer might be liberating (or disgusting)! (2021 / 4 mins / Greece / dir. Anastasia Papadopoulou / no dialogue)

THE INTRONAUTA – This film is definitely one of the top-ten animations we have in the festival this year. The narrative is open to interpretation but there’s no doubt that Jose Arboleda is one super talented animator. His reinterpretations of daily tasks, common objects and urban landscapes is one of a kind. He too will join us from Colombia during the festival week to virtually discuss his latest work and hear from you! (2020 / 16 min / Colombia / dir. Jose Arboleda / no dialogue)

MAGICAL CAT – The stop-motion film shows the ordinary, yet so very magical, idiosyncrasies of a housecat. (2021 / 4 mins / USA / dirs. Scott DaRos, Alexis Deprey / no dialogue)

BRISTLES – Every paintbrush wants to be the best painter it can be. What they dread most is being THE brush that doesn’t get washed after painting. Jealousy turns to empathy when the other brushes witness this worse-case scenario. (2021 / 2 mins / Netherlands / dir. Quentin Haberham / no dialogue)

Mitch-Match: Episode #6 – If you wanted to tell a story about a soccer game BUT only had matchsticks to do it, could you? Director Géza Tóth does it and very well! (2020 / 2 mins / Hungary / dir. Géza M. Tóth / no dialogue)