This year’s big-screen celebration of the latest and best animated shorts is a dazzler, including Don Hertzfeldt’s World of Tomorrow, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Film at Sundance.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2015
Animation Now 2015
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When NZIFF took the plunge and hired me to programme animated shorts in 1997, the job seemed massive: the number entered that year was 600. All arrived in the mail on VHS tapes. To get to this year’s programme, a grand total of 3,535 shorts had to be sifted, weighed and catalogued – and fewer than 100 arrived in a physical format. That speaks volumes for what is happening in the world of creative animation. There is a diversity, complexity and an intriguing, ingenious artfulness to so much animation that never makes it into the cinemas. As always, the overarching mission is to cut to the essence of what auteur animators are creating and showcase it here in one glorious big-screen hit. It’s a special pleasure to open this year’s programme with a stunning film that has many of its roots in New Zealand. — Malcolm Turner
The Story of Percival Pilts 2015
Young Percival vows he will not let his feet touch the ground and spends his time ensuring that they never do. Narration by Mark Hadlow.
Bendito Machine V – Pull the Trigger 2014
Doomsday rendered in exquisitely filigreed silhouettes.
Me and My Moulton 2014
This droll, beautifully crafted short from Oscar winner Torill Kove traces a young girl’s struggle with her parents’ obsession with modernism.
Scoop 2014
Clark and Tiffany take their Chopper- Chopper to the annual Lava Fish Day to watch Lava Fish Man erupt yummy, red-hot seafood. But something’s wrong.
Locus of Everyday Life 2014
Abstraction of astounding beauty and visual complexity.
Cruise Patrol 2013
On a lonely highway in the blazing desert heat, a patrolman interrupts a couple of homicidal teddy bears.
Bear Story 2014
A bear’s autobiography as played out at his own marvellous tin marionette theatre.
Nothing Else but Water 2014
Celebrating the safe return of a ship of intrepid explorers, a young pig wonders just where he fits into it all.
The Sleepwalker 2015
If Miro had been an animator, he might have come up with this fiesta of lines, shapes and colours.
Play like a Driver 2013
Confounding mini-masterpiece from one of Japan’s most audacious rising stars.
World of Tomorrow 2015
One of the year’s great short films, animated or otherwise, World of Tomorrow takes a young girl on a truly mind-bending tour of her future.