Au bout du monde (1999)

The adventures of a precariously-balanced house. Built on the top of a hill, it swings to and fro to the great displeasure of its inhabitants. Through various gesticulations and unintelligible verbal exchanges, these small characters are imbued with a lot of personality.
The gags build seamlessly on each other as the house teeters on the tip of the mountain.



The dialogue-free comedy transpires on both sides of a house perched on a peak so pointy the tiny structure see-saws whenever humans or animals make a move. Konstantin Bronzit's sense of comic timing couldn't be better and his cartoony drawing style is very appealing.
Its humor is quite understated, with gags based on timing, perspective, and sound, all used sparingly.

Blue Monochrom

By Michel De Broin. Through a collection of objects and actions, his works seek to escape the constraining nature of modern utopian aspirations whilst attempting to reenact them in playful, jesting objects that glorify the referent on the one hand while upstaging it on the other.
Drawing on his doubt in the capacity and value of ideas, his sculptural projects seek to put them to the test by literally confronting them with the necessities of reality in assemblage that often troubles the ideas it purports to speak for.

Musicotherapie

Amaël Isnard, Manuel Javelle and Clément Picon directed this strange short, in which madness at the mental institution as the animals drive the monkey doctor crazy making music.



Musicotherapie is a very well done short.

Doggy Bag

Doggy Bag is a 3d short by Guillaume Cassuto, Thomas Moine and Sylvain Perlot, three students from France’s Supinfocom school.
At the same moment, in a bombed-out neighborhood, two starving tenants decide to eat the dog of the old woman who lives on the top floor of the building...



It's a macabre tale of the comically surreal lengths two men will go just to get a decent meal. The animation is snappy and thelighting excellent.

Alphabet blocks

By Lauren Nassef.

Cashback (2004)

Sean Ellis narrates a sedate and surreal story of broken love and reborn.
The protagonist is a reflective man, who works in a supermaket and struggles against the tyranny of time.
Ben Willis is an art student who works the night shift several times a week at the Whitechapel Sainsbury's. Heart broken and tortured by insomnia Ben explains his view and experience of female beauty.



The movie is about love, art and supermarket co-workers and shows an interesting view of time and time stopping. The most obvious artistic quality in the movie might be that of drawing, capturing beauty, but the red thread in the story is the path between one lost relation and the passionate flames of new love and the feelings it conquers.
Cashback was nominated for the 2006 Academy Award for Live Action Short Film. It was expanded into a full-length feature of the same name which was released by Gaumont in late 2006. It had its North American premiere on September 10, 2006, at the Toronto International Film Festival and has been screened at a number of other international festivals.
You can buy Cashback.

I Took the Wheel

By Gea.

Africa (1997)

The idea of this film is based on the interest in african painting and masks about faces and human body. This is the story of a young man who, doing is boring duty in an office, dreams about a journey into the mythical continent.

Francisco Lança realized a black and white crayons over acrilic painted backgrounds.

Cannes 2008

Palme d'Or
ENTRE LES MURS by Laurent Cantet

Grand Prix
GOMORRA by Matteo Garrone

Prize of the 61st Festival by Cannes ex-aequo
Catherine Deneuve for UN CONTE by NOËL by Arnaud DESPLECHIN
Clint Eastwood pour / for L’ÉCHANGE (The Exchange)

Award for the Best Director
ÜÇ MAYMUN (Three Monkeys / Les Trois Singes) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Jury Prize
IL DIVO by Paolo Sorrentino

Prix d'interprétation masculine
Benicio Del Toro for CHE by Steven SODERBERGH

Best Performance for an Actress
Sandra Corveloni for LINHA by PASSE by Walter SALLES, Daniela THOMAS

Award for the Best Screenplay
LE SILENCE by LORNA by Jean-Pierre et Luc DARDENNE


IN COMPETTION - SHORT FILMS

Palme d'Or
MEGATRON by Marian Crisan

Jury Prize
JERRYCAN by Julius Avery


CAMERA D'OR

HUNGER by Steve McQueen (Un Certain Regard)

Mention Spéciale Caméra d'Or
VSE UMRUT A JA OSTANUS (Ils mourront tous sauf moi) by Valeria Gaï GUERMANIKA (Semaine Internationale by la Critique)


UN CERTAIN REGARD

Un Certain Regard Prize
TULPAN by Sergey Dvortsevoy

Jury Prize
TOKYO SONATA by Kurosawa Kiyoshi

Heart Throb Jury Prize
WOLKE 9 by Andreas Drese

The Knockout of Un Certain Regard
TYSON by James Toback

Prize of Hope
JOHNNY MAD DOG by Jean-Stéphane SAUVAIRE

CINEFONDATION

First Cinéfondation Prize
HIMNON (Hymne) by Elad Keidan (The Sam Spiegel Film and TV School, Israël)

Second Cinéfondation Prize
FORBACH by Claire Burger (La fémis, France)

Third Cinéfondation Prize
STOP by Park Jae-ok (The Korean Academy of Film Arts, Corée du Sud)
KESTOMERKITSIJÄT (Signalisation des routes) by Juho Kuosmanen (University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finlande)

Éramos pocos (2005)

After his wife leaves him, Joaquín brings his mother-in-law back home to look after him and his son.



Borja Cobeaga makes a simple, but neat short. There's a strange humour in Eramos poco you'll surely enjoy!

Sztuka spadania (2004)

In an old forgotten military base far from civilization, a group of deranged military officers nurture their insanity.
A volunteer soldier plummets to his death. A photograph is taken and sent by courier to a huge man, who adds it to his macabre collection.
The message behind ‘Fallen Art’ changed during production. At the beginning Tomek Baginski wanted to make just a funny film about the army, but many things happened in the world while the crew was fine-tuning the storyboards.



Fallen Art is an exploration of animation itself, as it is done in very caricaturist CG but has the second level of being something of a stop-motion animation.
The main assumption of the technique used in the film was the combining of the modern language of computer animation with the classical hand painting so that the picture would gain the feeling of an actual painting.

NYC Mech pinup

Jim Rugg has worked with VH1, Harcourt, SLG, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics, Adhouse Books, Meathaus, Alternative, SPX, Top Shelf, and Sparkplug. He is the co-creator of Street Angell, Afrodisiac and the The Plain Janes.

J'attendrai le suivant... (2002)

Philippe Orreindy directed I'll Wait for the Next One, a short which sets itself up as a cute little comedy skit, and it delivers on that premise but also surprises you with an incredibly moving finale.



Lasting only four minutes, the film takes place almost entirely on a metro train.
On a subway train, a man announces that he's looking for someone who might be interested in him; the usual dating methods have not worked, though there's nothing wrong with him. He explains that any interested woman can just get off at the next stop. One woman looks interested...

We the Robots 4

We The Robots is a comic strip by animator and former syndicated cartoonist, Chris Harding. It is about robots.

Helium (2005)

Adam Janeczeic directed one of the best animated videos I've ever watched.

Helium is so elegant for its choreography. This short reminde of some sequences of dancing fairies in Fantasia. The animation is perfect for its graceful timing of these Casper - ghosts.

Alter

By Michael Englert.

Copy Shop (2001)

Copy Shop is an ingenious, visually stunning experimental film about a guy who works in a copy shop. During his morning test of the machine, he accidentally copies his hand; while he's looking at that copy, the machine starts churning out scenes from earlier that morning. Spooked by this, he closes up early and goes home. Soon, it seems, he's part of a society in which everyone looks like him and wears check vest. Can he get things back to normal?


Virgil Widrich shot the film on digital video then took the footage into a computer and edited all the fancy effects. The result is truly unique.

We the Robots 3

We The Robots is a comic strip by animator and former syndicated cartoonist, Chris Harding. It is about robots.

Empire (2005)

As we see the Statue of Liberty from the air, the voice of President George W. Bush speaks about a great people facing terror. Then there follows a montage of images of offices, homes, and back yards of the U.S. in the late 1950s and early 1960s: the colors of avocado green and harvest gold dominate. People, all of them white, are well dressed and well scrubbed; houses and offices well kept.



Archives images compiled by Edouard Salier demonstrate the blissful consumers of the standard American family, which become deformed by their transparent backdrops. Each image is criss-crossed by optical effects that magnify or obscure, and that invite sharper observation. Empire is remarkable for its integration of form, technique and content, deploying digital technologies with glacial precision in its exploration of the pervasive, unsettling realities of our times. Empire is a graphic illustration of the American way of life, and its warlike tendencies.

0055

By Momo.

Kleingeld (1999)

Herr Hoffman parks his late-model car in a lot across from his corner office on the top floor. Each day, he puts a coin in the cup of a beggar who stands in front of the building. One day, Hoffman looks out his window and notices the beggar washing his car. That evening, when he gives the beggar a coin, Hoffmann tells him not the wash it. But the next day, it happens again...

Kleingeld was inspired by The Philanthropist, a play which was performed in Berlin by a student theater group. In the play a character tells a story about something that happened to him, but in the film, it's a different character, it's a different setting.
Marc-Andreas Bochert makes a short which is exceptionally well thought through, visually.
The cinematic space that articulates this story is made up of a series of repetitions, this space is shown with many variations.
Marc-Andreas Bochert also worked very carefully with the music. These are the dynamics from which Kleingeld can profit.

We the Robots 2

We The Robots is a comic strip by animator and former syndicated cartoonist, Chris Harding. It is about robots.

Giocattoli futuristi (2005)

Futurists Toys is a grotesque tale that sparks a sense of loss and amazement in the viewer via a dreamlike vision. It’s inspired by Depero’s paintings and his “Balli Plastici,” the “futuristic theatre of marionettes”.



Claudio Castelli wants to wake sleepy consciences from their mechanicist torpor.
The story also touches issues raised by classic novels such as Dante's “Divine Commedy” and Manzoni's “The Betrothed” and wants to provoke thinking for young people ruled by routine.

Tokimeki

By Yuka Yamaguchi.

grant

2007 independent artist grant - saskatchewan arts board

Ballad of Mary Slade (Slamdance 2007)

Robin Fuller narrate a tale of passion, adultery and murder. The body of a young woman is slowly consumed by insects.



This is a gothic tragedy, told from an unusual point of view. The tragic story of her life and eventual demise slowly unfolds as the insects that consume her decaying body become actors in the fateful retelling of her downfall.

We the Robots 1

We The Robots is a comic strip by animator and former syndicated cartoonist, Chris Harding. It is about robots.

City Paradise (Ottawa 2005)

At first, Gaelle Denis depicts the metropolis as an intimidating presence.
When Tomoko, a young Japanese girl who comes to London to learn English, leaves her house, we discover a mysterious, secret underground city below London, a place that's colorful and friendly.



City Paradise was commissioned by Channel 4 as part of the MOMI Artist in Residence (AIR) animation scheme.
This animation is so richness for its color choice and its music. And there is also humor in the mockery of British life.
When animation is art ...

Reflection

This photo is part of a series shot at Nicholas Dattner's factory in Melbourne which produces furniture from recycled timbers. James McArdle was using a large format camera and tilting the focus plane to draw the viewer's attention here to the point of contact between the stacked chairs, giving the illusion of a mirrored surface, and the worker's eyeline.

One Weekend, A Month (Sundance 2005)

Meg's Monday morning routine is turned upside down when the phone rings. The caller delivers some news that turns her life, and lives of her children, upside down.
This is a tale of sacrifice, loss of faith, and redemption set in the land of diminishing returns



Eric Escobar choose to film the scene in basically the same area, the kitchen. The raw emotions portrayed by Renee O'Connor sensed her character's desperation but felt it as well.

Elmer

The trailer of comicbook Elmer.



Visit Jerry Alanguilan's website.

The Deadline (The Presentators 2004)

Three animators struggle to make a film as the deadline rapidly approaches.
If you ever lived through the creative crisis at the end of any group project will easily identify with the humour in The Deadline.



Stefan Marjoram designed this short to show how Aardman's stop motion heritage was not lost in the newly developed CG department. It is predominantly a lip-sync piece, it's funny and produces a laugh of recognition.
The Presentators are a series of one-minute, 3D, computer-animated shorts made for Nickelodeon.

Mind Trip

By Naoto Hattori.

This Is for Betsy Hall (Sundance 2000)

A daughter's personal story recounting her mother's lifelong battle with Bulimia.

An impressionistic montage of stills, projected video, underwater footage and an intimate phone conversation, this deeply personal film was crafted as a gift for the Hope Hall's mother.

Geek And Poke

by Oliver Widder. You can read other Geek and Poke stories on their website.

Agricultural Report (2004)

A new strain of a disease that could be dangerous to livestock herds is being discussed on the radio. A cow listening to the show naturally gets a bit worried about the topic.
This is why cows shouldn't listen to the radio. What's a cow to do? Why, freak out, of course.




Barley Films was founded in Ireland in 2002 to produce entertaining animated films. This is its second short and it has gone on to win ten international awards and has screened in over one hundred festivals.
Melina Sydney Padua makes a great work!

Beef

Ed Piskor has collaborated with Harvey Pekar on American Splendor. He and Mr. Pekar are currently wrapping up a graphic novel called "MACEDONIA" for Random House.

The Corporation (Sundance 2004)

The Corporation features interviews with prominent corporate critics such as Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, Vandana Shiva and Howard Zinn as well as opinions from company CEOs such as Ray Anderson (from the Interface carpet & fabric company), the conservative viewpoints of Peter Drucker and Milton Friedman, and think tanks advocating free markets such as the Fraser Institute.



150 years ago, the business corporation was a relatively insignificant institution. Today, it is all-pervasive. Like the Church, the Monarchy and the Communist Party in other times and places, the corporation is today's dominant institution. This documentary examines the nature, evolution, impacts, and possible futures of the modern business corporation.
You can buy The Corporation.

Subnormality

You can read other Winston Rowntree's comics on Virus Comix.

Metropopular (Sundance 2001)

Metropopular is an animated short film about what the cities of America would say to one another if they could talk. Jonah Hall use a unique animation style. The characters are great and the plot is fun.




Frantic about a popularity contest in which these cities are competing, they jockey for top position while arguing between themselves. Highlighting their separate personalities, each city had his or her own reason why they should be America's favorite city.

A really entertaining film.

Details

By Ye Rin Mok.

Born Into Brothels (2005 Accademy Award)

Amidst the apparent growing prosperity of India, there is a dark underbelly of poverty of another side of the nation that is little known. This film is a chronicle of filmmakers Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman's efforts to show that world of Calcutta's red light district.
Briski, a documentary photographer, went to Kolkata to photograph prostitutes. While there, she befriended their children and offered to teach the children photography to reciprocate being allowed to photograph their mothers. The children were given cameras so they could learn photography and possibly improve their lives. Much of their work was used in the film, and the filmmakers recorded the classes as well as daily life in the red light district.




The red light district has existed for centuries and will exist for centuries more, but now we know the tortured lives of children in the shadows of Calcutta. The fate of the children is not resolved, but their dreams resonate in our world and lives.
The Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee has criticized Briski for using hidden camera work to incorrectly present the children's parents as uncaring, for ignoring the prostitutes' substantial efforts to unite, and for harming the global movement for sex worker rights and dignity.
You can buy Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids.

The Bureaucrats

by Robert Renaud. You can read other The Bureaucrats' strips on their website.

Tenshi no Tamago (天使のたまご, 1984)

Angel's Egg incorporates surrealistic and existentialist qualities but very little dialogue, making it a commonly cited example of progressive anime.
The whole film is beautifully animated and designed. The atmosphere is dark: empty streets creates a dreamlike, slightly sinister atmosphere reminiscent of proto-surrealist painters Giorgio deChirico and Dalì. And there is plenty of symbolic Christian imagery: almost the story of Noah's ark takes up a good portion of the sparse dialogue. There are also references to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.



In a desolate and dark world full of shadows, lives one little girl: she is the sole protector of a very precious, large egg. A mysterious man enters her life and when he wins her trust, they begin to discuss about the world around them.
Each metaphor spoken and piece of symbolism shown only helps to further deepen the mystery behind the film.
You can read this article about its simbolism.

Children no more

Rocco Lombardi is the founder of some punk bands (I.A.S., Waika, R.aM.A., 'Sti Cazzi). He issued illustrations on Kerosene, Blu, Stripburger, Frigidaire and Lamette. He also issued L'albero Sfregiato.

Titler (Sundance 2000)

Filmed with effective black-and-white visuals and disintegrating locations of abandoned Met State hospital which evoke a bombed-out post-war Berlin, Gregory Roman energizes the screen with a performance of brilliant comedic nuances and mannerisms that evoke the lonesome glamour of Marlene Dietrich.
It's an entertaining, hilarious and shocking film.



This short performs eight numbers as Titler, a cross-dressing man with a woman's figure and the hair and mustache of the Fuhrer's. An absurd superimposition of two brands of charisma featuring Adolf Hitler!
What wonderful portrait of the Führer in drag belting out sexually reassigned show tunes!
Greg Roman has also created Titler web site that further evolves the character and tone established in the film.

Guest Comic From Adam Holwerda!

You can read A Slice of Life by Noel Graham.

Plasticland (Future Film Festival 2004)

The Setting:Night. Metropolis. Future?
A pocket full of money. When a tramp asks him for some money, a cat has to struggle with his many internal consciences to come up with a decision.



Simon Bogojevic-Narath has created a surprising and rich world in 3-D computer generated animation.

Batcha

Dice Tsutsumi worked for Blue Sky Studios as a visual development/color key artist on their blockbuster film projects such as Ice Age, Robots and upcoming Horton Hears A Who. Now he works as art director at Pixar Animation Studios.

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (Accademy Award 1989)

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam is a documentary based on the book which printed letters from the soldiers and nurses who served in Vietnam.
This movie is so powerful precisely because it is so simple. Using real letters written by US soldiers and archive footage, the film creates a highly personal experience of the Vietnam War.



An intensely moving and disturbing experience. It shows a more humane story of the war than we see in most media outlets and reveal real people in real situations trying to explain or understand the war.
It has no plot except of thousands of young men who went to a faraway country and had unspeakable experiences there; many of them died or were wounded for life in body or soul.
You can buy Dear America - Letters Home from Vietnam.

Making Biscuits (A Slice of Life 3)

You can read A Slice of Life by Noel Graham.

One Man Band (Annecy 2006)

Like many Pixar shorts, this film is completely free of dialogue, instead using music (played by the characters) and pantomime to tell the story.
Andrew Jimenez and Mark Andrews show us what Pixar can do with four minutes and the simplest of story lines. This short is fun because it's funny and imaginative.



With one coin to make a wish at the piazza fountain, One Man Band tells the humorously captivating tale of a peasant girl who encounters two competing street performers who'd prefer the coin find its way into their tip jars. As the two one-man bands' rivalry crescendos, the two overly eager musicians vie to win the little girl's attention.
You can buy Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 1.

Key Lime Pie

By Trevor Jimenez

Visas and virtue (Academy Award 1998)

Inspired by the true story of a Holocaust rescuer, Visas and Virtue is a dramatic rencostruction that explores the moral and professional dilemmas that Japanese Consul General Chiune Sempo Sugihara faced in making a life or death decision: defy his own government's direct orders and risk his career by issuing lifesaving transit visas or obey orders and turn his back on humanity.



Although he is not as well known as Schindler, his heroic efforts resulted in one of the largest rescues of Jews during the Holocaust.
Chris Tashima shows us that it's possible narrate a true story without making a documentary.

Omlette Food (A Slice of Life 2)

You can read A Slice of Life by Noel Graham.

Ersatz (Academy Award 1961)

This short traces evidence of American cartoons, specifically from the UPA studios. Dusan Vukotic takes cues from modern art and graphic design. The animated figures consist of simple geometric shapes and most of their movements are either parallel to one of their edges or else curvilinear. Despite this minimalism, the characters are identifiable as characters, and within the boundaries of fable the story works just fine.



The Substitute was the first film produced outside the USA to win an Oscar for best animated short.
It's a simple story about the man who comes to the beach and uses inflatable objects for all of his needs.
You can buy The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For/The Classic Collection.

Transformationen

By Andrea Ren.