Animation NOW! Living Masters New Works 

Clearly marking the distinction between auteur and animator, this selection rounds up nine masters of the medium for a showcase of new works. From Japan to Russia to Belgium to Australia, these filmmakers hail from a diverse range of scenes, and yet share decades of broken ground between them. There’s fresh material from some formidable pioneers: Joan C. Gratz, the progenitor of clay painting, delves once again into her brand of textured, expressive symbolism; and Steven Woloshen, a forefather of drawn-on-film animation (in the same breath as Len Lye), pays tribute to jazz, blackjack and his late father.

Yamamura Koji uses Erik Satie’s ballet Parade as a launching pad for a surrealist parade of his own (with cameos from Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso and Charlie Chaplin); Dennis Tupicoff dusts off an old baby photo and a film noir for an autobiographical meditation on cinema and memory; and Igor Kovalyov delivers a sweeping love-triangle epic of voyeurism, infidelity and vengeance in his unmissable programme-capper. And then there’s Marv Newland’s Scratchy, featuring a ditty about the perils of itching that might not ever leave your head. — JF