Welcome to Animations for the Season 2021 Start Screening.

Who among us doesn't like animated films; after all, most of us grew up on them! 28 films span creativity from digital to drawings, watercolors and claymation. 

Each represents artistic storytelling in an animated state. 

(Trailer of 2016 film "Hide & Seek." ) 

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 Official Animation Selection 5th Season

(In Screening Order)

Monkey Thief

USA, 5:40

3D animation

Director, Zachary Ates

Original score, Tyler Grow

Monkey Thief tells the story of Myles, a shy boy who musters the courage to face his bully, Dolores, and rescue his beloved sock monkey from her. Following the dream-like quality found only in the world of animation, Myles and Dolores battle alongside stuffed animals brought to life through their imaginations. The film’s message deals with empathy, as Myles discovers something surprising about Dolores.

Director, Zachary Ates

As an avid fan of animation, Zachary Ates made it his dream to become a 3D animator and bring whimsical characters to life. Zach loves the collaborative process and wants to make amazing films with his peers that will reach audiences worldwide. Other productions he’s helped bring to life include Flocked, Lesser of Two, Juracán, Camping Is Cheaper, and Timeless. On this last one, he was the animator on the SCAD Digital Media Collaboration project with the VFX company The Mill. In his spare time, Zach loves illustrating characters, making home videos, and playing with his friendly Great Dane, Chandler.

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The Winter

Australia, 5:00

Paint-on-glass stop motion animation

Director, Xin Li

Original score & sound design, Miguel Otero

The Winter is an abstract narrative which follows a peasant, walking in a snowy forest, who sees an unusual deer and goes to follow it. The deer allures and compels him on a journey to catch the deer, and in doing so, to discover much more.

Director, Xin Li

Xin is a Chinese born animator and filmmaker based in Melbourne, Australia. He specializes in the traditional method of paint-on-glass stop-motion animation, which requires each frame to be hand-painted on a piece of glass with back lighting under a camera. Through this technique, he explores tranquil and often intimate moments of life through abstract narratives. Xin intends to keep discovering possibilities with painting and animation to tell stories that express daily life. See more of Xin's work at https://xinlianimation.com/

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Return

USA, 6:30, black & white

Watercolors, Sumi ink, and charcoal, animation

Director, Jiaying Guan

Original score, Chenyu Sun

Return is a story about returning a “ball”--an existential object in the dream-space from the memory of the director. The express delivery car and boxes labeled “Fragile” lying everywhere are also indispensable elements of the director’s transient life, be it relationships or material items. In returning the ball, the character is returning to the womb, a place of primal safety.

Director, Jiaying Guan

Jiaying Guan is an artist based in Beijing and Chicago. She previously studied Digital Arts in the Communication University of China, in Beijing, receiving a BFA in 2017. She then began to work on animation in the Film, Video, New Media, and Animation department in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and completed the Master of Fine Arts in Studio degree in 2019.

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The Outlander

Austria, 5:16, black & white

Hand-drawn animation, digital

Director, Ani Antonova

The Outlander is the story of an elephant in the 16th century, Süleyman, which makes the long journey from Ceylon to Portugal, then walks the whole way from Lisbon to Vienna through the Alps for five months. To be a living royal gift is not an easy job, where even death is not a peaceful end.

Director, Ani Antonova

Ani Antonova is a visual artist living in Vienna. She graduated Portuguese philology at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” (2010, BG), Multimedia at “die Graphische” (2012, AT) and Master in Experimental Media at the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences (AT). The Outlander is her first animation film and it was made between Portugal, Austria and Bulgaria in cooperation with the historian Dr. Annemarie Jordan Gschwend.

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Pray

Canada, 4:32

Paint-on-glass stop motion animation

Director, Joe Chang

Original score, Shihan Yuan

Pray is the story of an artist’s real life and journey through prayer.

Director, Joe Chang

Joe Chang is an award-winning Chinese-born Canadian animation director. He studied at Lu-Xun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang, China and Tama Art University Graduate school in Tokyo, Japan and the animated short the Chinese Violin (2000) was his first animated film with the National Film Board of Canada. His most recent work is animated film I am not an Angel (2021). His animated short films won numerous awards all over the world, A Long-distance Call (2008) and The Music Box (2019) were selected for Short film Corner section of Cannes Film Festival. Pan Tian Shou (2004) was selected into Annecy, Zagreb, Ottawa and other film festivals. Currently, as an artist , animator and independent filmmaker, Joe lives in Vancouver, Canada and Hangzhou and Shanghai, China.

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Anacronte

Argentina, 14:58

3D animation

Directors, Raúl Koler & Emiliano Sette

Original score, Andrés Goldstein & Daniel Tarrab

Anacronte is the story of Anacronte and the Sorcerers of Evil which, without any emotion and fulfilling their destiny, put to test humanity’s happiness in a struggle that makes winners and losers of everyone.

Director, Raúl Koler

Raúl Koler is an Argentinean artist that has been developing a series of interdisciplinary projects since the 1990's that include works in literature, photography and film. In addition to Anacronte, based upon a short story he wrote, Raúl's creative works include:

Mandato Familiar - Novel - 1996

Trancoso - Novel - 1998

La cadena de Huayna Capac – Historical Novel – 2006

De aquí y de allá - Photography Book - 2013

Learn more about Raúl and the Anacronte team at https://www.anacronteshortfilm.com/team

Co-Director, Emiliano Sette

Director and screenwriter of transmedia contents for studios, production agencies and institutions such as Mr bug, Magic Gardens Animation Studios, Celeste Studios, La República de los Niños, Smilehood, and others.

Awards Emiliano has received include: 

Martín Fierro 2012 - El payaso Plim Plim, Tv Serie 

Infancia INCAA - Reflejos, Animation Short film 

Animation INCAA - Noticiero, Animation Tv Serie

Expotoons - Mili, Animation Tv Serie

Learn more about Emiliano and the Anacronte team at https://www.anacronteshortfilm.com/team

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Hide & Seek

United Kingdom, 5:55

Stop motion, digital animation

Director, Qunxiang Lin

Hide & Seek is an abstract story about a fox, a sheep, and a pig which are hiding in work and life. The title beckons the viewer to think about the game hide and seek, and in the words of the director, think about what it’s like to continue to “play” this game as an adult in life--waiting for someone to find you, feeling forgotten, and the hope of those truly like you finding you one day. Are you hiding?

Director, Qunxiang Lin

Director,  Animator, illustrator, photographer. He is a wizard of storytelling and he is trying to capture audiences through his unique and compelling style. He made an interactive projection book named Switch (2018), combining with high tech. He produced a short film Our Place (2018) to celebrate Feminist Library’s 43 years establishment. He joined a cooperative project that showed in Barbican Theater. Qunxiang is completing a Master in animation at University of the Arts London. He is now focusing both on short film making and creating illustrations. 

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Go! Go!

USA, 4:39

2D animation

Director, Patradol Kitcharoen

Original score, Bill Piyatut Hemstapat; Original song, Matt Bierwagen

Go! Go! follows Aaron the alligator, who lives his entire life in a tank in an animal theme park and who accidentally gets loose one day  and finally gets to pursue his dream to see fireworks up close. It is up to Sue, the zookeeper, and Harvey, the park mascot, to get him back into his cage before he gets taken down by the animal control officer.

Director, Patradol Kitcharoen

Patradol or "Dodo" is a story artist, storyboard artist, illustrator, and 2D animator based in Los Angeles, California. His sister gave him the name Dodo when he was born and it stays. His works mainly focus on narrative storytelling and character animation. He received his BFA degree in Animation Production from Mahidol University International College and currently studies MFA Animation and Digital Arts at University of Southern California. He has experience as a full time storyboard artist at "The Monk Animation Studio" in Thailand. He specializes in Storytelling, Storyboarding, Concept sketch and 2D animation. See more of Patradol's work and bio at https://www.patradodo.com/

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The Square Roots of Twins

USA, 8:11

Paper cutout, Animation

Director, Linda Kudzmas

Original score, Chris Simonini

The Square Roots of Twins follows the true story of identical twin brothers, embroiled by competition in every aspect of their young lives. The loving bond they share is strong, but suffers under the constant scrutiny of their classmates. A decisive point is reached when one twin receives a lower test score due to a teacher’s mistake. Trying to rectify the errors sets in motion an event that changes both twins’ lives and outlooks. Written by one twin and narrated by the other, the film gives us a peek into the secret lives of twins. Learn more about the project and the team at https://friedegganimation.com/pressKit/

Director, Linda Kudzmas

Linda Kudzmas is an independent animator based near Philadelphia, PA. Linda started animating in college by using paper cut-outs filmed with a 16mm Bolex camera. After graduating, she was hired as full-time faculty in the animation department at the Art Institute of Philadelphia where she continued to teach all levels of traditional and 2D digital animation for over 22 years. During that time, Linda obtained mild success with her independent animation in the festival circuit. She took a leave of absence from teaching to animate and direct segments in season two of ‘VH1 Illustrated’ produced by Camp Chaos. Linda continues to develop her paper cut-out style, now digitially using Adobe programs. She operates a freelance business and is producing her next independent animated short.

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Where Do Socks Go?

USA, 3:56

3D animation

Director, James Henry

Where Do Socks Go? is the lighthearted, poetic story of a man who discovers where socks disappear to in dryers.

Director, James Henry

jameshenry50@verizon.net

Biography

James Henry has been a Television Corporate Executive who has worked many for several Networks including CBS, ABC, Fox, Showtime as well as others. He has experience in Business Affairs, Production and Development as well as a Script Writer, Story Supervisor and Producer for various independent film companies. After several years working at Mattel animations which inspired him to make Where Do Socks Go?, he's currently in production on an ambitious family adventure animation feature film.

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Sum of Its Parts

USA, 3:18

Clay stop motion

Director, Alisa Stern

Original score, Scott Ampleford

Sum of Its Parts follows the journey of mysterious forest creatures that move to the beat of the music. The film is an exploration of stop motion animation made in a natural setting and includes hand sculpted and painted creatures.

Director, Alisa Stern

Alisa is an animator and filmmaker residing in Brooklyn, New York. She has over a decade of experience in the animation industry and has worked on commercials, preschool TV, social media, and also created a YouTube series called Doctor Puppet. She also loves hiking and nature. Learn more about Lisa and her work at https://www.alisastern.com/

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The Hole

USA, 3:42

Watercolor animation

Director, Will Kim

Original score, Green Seo

The Hole is about a mother bird with a big hole in her heart, on a journey of searching for her baby son that fails to fly and accidentally falls into a hole. With an original soundtrack, this story explores personal and universal experiences of tragedy and despair, and something hopeful beyond it.

Director, Will Kim

Will Kim is a Los Angeles-based visual artist, filmmaker, and educator who grew up in Los Angeles and Seoul, Korea. Will graduated from Cal Arts with a BFA and UCLA with an MFA. Will's works have showed in various international film festivals and museums. Currently Will lives and works in Los Angeles and teaches animation at Riverside City College in California. Will’s work has been shown in over 100 international film/animation festivals and auditoriums including Directors Guild of America Theater, Regal Cinemas, Academy of TV Arts and Sciences Theater, The Getty Center, and more. Some of Kim’s works have been aired on TV throughout the world as well. Learn more about Will and his work at https://www.willkim.net/about