Animation NOW

80 mins approx.

When it comes to animation, the only limit is a filmmaker’s imagination and we have a selection of treasures and oddities from some of the most brazenly creative minds around the globe. These two collections of animated shorts are curated by Malcolm Turner, animation programmer at NZIFF since 1988, and director of the Melbourne International Animation Festival.

The Better Angels

Michael Cusack Australia 2021 | 13 mins A young soldier trying to escape the horrors of war finds an abandoned house. Within its walls, light shines on what might have been.

Push This Button If You Begin to Panic

Gabriël Böhmer UK 2020 | 13 mins Bartholomew Whisper’s doctors are keen on experimental surgery, but the growing hole in his head is becoming quite beautiful...

Average Happiness

Maja Gehrig Switzerland 2019 | 7 mins A sensual world of statistics where pie charts melt, arrow diagrams twist and stock market curves merge with bar graphs for a collective climax.

Screenings

LUM Sun 31 Oct, 3.30 pm LUM Thu 11 Nov, 4.45 pm

tbc NZ Classification tbc

My Galactic Twin Galaction

Unraveled

Isabel Emily Katherine Wiegand, Asil Atay, Arden Colley, Kellie Fay Spain 2020 | 4 mins After a family separation, a young woman failed to provide the emotional support her mother needed. The woman relives this pivotal moment, wishing she could go back and say the things left unsaid.

About Love

Jelena Girlin, Mari-Liis Bassovskaja Estonia 2020 | 10 mins A forest, a fractured couple and an angel that may be able to lead their way meet at an opportune moment, when all choices seem possible.

Nocturne

The Stork

Morten Tšinakov, Lucija Mrzljak Estonia 2020 | 16 mins While smoking on a balcony, Citizen Stork is struck by a moment of clarity: in which he realises that he is a not a person but, rather, a bird.

My Galactic Twin Galaction

Sasha Svirsky Russia 2020 | 7 mins Good and evil, utopia and dystopia; narrative and post-narrative universes collide in a mortal battle to entertain the audience.

Nocturne

Alexander Dupuis USA 2020 | 9 mins Channelling stylings of sci-fi comics, op art and anime, a nameless character roams through a dreamlogic journey in search of an elusive piano.

The Stork

Animation Now! #2: Into the Dark

78 mins approx.

There is a deliciously seductive patina of menace and malevolence that purrs beneath the skin and directs the claws of so much fine animation. Whether it is depicting the misshapen internal logic of the psychopath, recreating the darkest horrors no live-action camera could capture or Trojan-horsing a vision of darkness past the first line of our defences, animation is an artform perfectly suited for the purveyors of these dark visions. — MT

Clara With a Mustache

Ilir Blakcori Kosovo 2021 | 10 mins Passed from hand to hand, a German banknote bears silent witness to the grim tango that is the life of those exiled by war.

Heart of Gold

Simon Filliot France 2020 | 13 mins In the exchange of flesh for gold, a mother and son discover the value of the deeper identity that glows beneath.

Family That Steals Dogs

John C. Kelley USA 2020 | 6 mins Witnessing his brother lead a canine abduction at a funeral pushes an artist into a quiet, melodic reevaluation of his family… and all the pets he knew as a child.

Screenings

LUM Thu 4 Nov, 3.45 pm LUM Sun 14 Nov, 6.30 pm

Conversations With a Whale

Anna Samo Germany 2020 | 9 mins Part love letter, part shoulder-tocry-on, one filmmaker attempts to reach through the curtain of festival rejection letters to locate a warmer space.

Goodnight Mr Ted

Sole Nicolas Spain 2020 | 11 mins Every night when the lights go out a valiant bodyguard made of the all the wrong stuff steps up to do what has to be done.

I, Barnabe

Jean-François Levesque Canada 2020 | 15 mins A priest haunted – or being chased - by his own demons has his life take a dramatic turn after an encounter with a mysterious rooster.

Vadim on a Walk

Sasha Svirsky Russia 2021 | 9 mins Vadim gathers his courage and leaves his narrow, familiar cube to stumble into an unknowable world.

Happiness

Andrey Zhidkov Russia 2020 | 5 mins In a cold and chaotic world a man is searching for true happiness, hoping that the simple things can transform into something blissful.