AWARDS
Backflip
Attempting a backflip is not safe. You can break your neck, or land on your head, or land badly on your wrists. None of that is nice, so my avatar does the trick. It practices on a 6-core processor with the help of Machine Learning. The processor is not the newest but still calculates 6 jumps per iteration. One iteration takes one minute, this is 360 jumps in an hour and 8.640 jumps in a day. I wouldn’t be able to jump so much myself.
Nikita Diakur
Nikita Diakur is a Russian-born filmmaker based in Germany. He is best known for his projects “Ugly” and “Fest”, which have received critical acclaim at film festivals around the world. His signature style is dynamic computer simulation that embraces spontaneity, randomness, and error.
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Yoshi Sodeoka
A lot of people take technology too seriously. But technology is often silly and imperfect but there's something fascinating about that. And he made a perfect comedy about that in this wonderful short film. I would like to thank him for making me laugh.
TOCHKA
Synthesised voices, imperfect images, strange movements. Although they were created by calculation, it is as lovable as a baby, and everyone cheers for its growth in the cinema space. At first we thought it was too silly to keep up with, but before we knew it, we were happy and sad to see its gradual success. We felt as if we were witnessing the moment when anima (soul) was infused into it.
Mami Kosemura
The originality of the structure of the work itself gives me a sense of the breadth and possibilities of the direction of films. Rather than a one-way point of view or story, the filmmaker's struggles with the program and the process of its failure, errors and mistakes themselves are made into a work of art, and the process is told by his own avatar in the form of so-called commentary. It gave me a sense of how a work should be, not just a mere pursuit of humor. It was funny. Thank you.
Lawless Love
Midnight. Construction site. One guard with a traffic cone on his head. He was bullied by a colleague, his car was stolen, he couldn’t become a dream policeman, and the man was frustrated. In front of him, a beautiful pink-haired woman riding a bicycle appears... A quarter of a century of love, where a pair of men and women meet and explode in this wonderful world. New Sense Boy Meets Girl Climb Suspense Roller Coaster Movie.
Ryuya Suzuki
Born in Miyagi prefecture in 1994. While aiming to be a movie director, he is hired as a store manager at a bar in Kabukicho. Started animation production triggered by Corona, and the first work ”MAHOROBA” won numerous awards in Japan. All production is done by one person.
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Yoshi Sodeoka
The plot is clever and witty and the great use of colors and composition enhance it. The use of vertical and horizontal formats was pleasantly unexpected. It's one of the best short films for the smartphone generation.
TOCHKA
This film may be an attempt to throw a stir in a society that continues to produce short video addicts who don't know anything about film festivals. Each cut is filled with homages to various films so you never get bored. After throwing yourself in the world view and you have begun to wonder what is going to happen next, the screen rotates from portrait to landscape in the middle stage. It encourages viewers to rotate their smartphones to see the film on a wide screen, an approach that draws them into more immersive world. We couldn't help but exclaim, "That's so clever!."
Mami Kosemura
"The film feels like an experiment in trying to express the ""Japanese"" perspective from various directions. In particular, the narrow world view of a smartphone, the use of vertical scrolling and vertical composition is fresh. The composition method, which seems to be sampling of idea sources from various contents such as cell phone games and existing movies, anticipates a new style of film production.
Space
Personal space plays an important role in a relationship.
Zhong Xian
Zhong Xian (b. 1993) is an artist and independent animator based in Taipei and London. She majored in philosophy at university and become a self-taught animator in 2017. Since then she has been drawing every day.
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Yoshi Sodeoka
This piece has a very interesting mix of retro and modern looks and I love how stylish that makes it. On top of that, the sense of rhythm and editing is perfect. it kept drawing me in. It made me want to watch it again and again.
TOCHKA
It is a work that brilliantly visualize the rhythm, vibes, and chemical reactions created between humans with bouncy sound design and vivid, minimalist frame layouts.
Mami Kosemura
It is a simple, yet deeply satisfying work that does not get tired no matter how many times you watch it. The wonderful brevity of the work, in which the interesting rhythm of lines, colors, and shapes unique to animation is expressed while linking directly to the story of this film and the rhythm in life, made me realize again the potential of animation techniques.
Another Presence
Another Presence recounts the unique and often curious experiences of people living with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), the third most common form of dementia. A multi-sensory condition that can cause dream-like symptoms, it’s a condition like no other. Told through the testimonies of those living with DLB, the film explores the surreal and lesser known effects of dementia, compelling us to question how our brains function and to what extent we can trust our senses.
Simon Ball
Simon Ball is an award winning film-maker and animator working across abstraction, documentary and commercial projects. His abstract works, in collaboration with Zai Tang, have screened and exhibited internationally. Simon’s most recent documentary ”Do I See What You See?”, about people living with a rare form of Dementia’ was awarded ”Best Commissioned Film” at the Manchester animation festival and continues to be screened widely in scientific communities.
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- This is a moving and very educational film about a complex disease that I knew so little about. It's beautifully animated and it perfectly matches the confessions voiceovers. It shows how effective it is to have compelling visual art to educate complex issues.
Sliver Cave
Stepping into a cave, the sight fluctuates by the firelight. Left to right, top to bottom. The same goes for the screen in front of you. It is a borderless tunnel, presenting domestication and desire.
Caibei Cai
Caibei Cai (b.1992 Shenzhen, China) received her MA from Jiangnan University in 2017 and Royal College of Art in 2018. She obsesses with the illusion on the screen and believes the image has a body. She is good at capturing these hidden bodies by drawing frame by frame. The materials she makes traps include: fingerprint fluff, reflective scales, pixel teardrops and an uncertain tail. Her films always invite the audience to experience the conflicts within the body and the anxious environment outside the body.
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- Bizarre animation, mediated by strong light and shadow produced by bumps and dips carved into the metal plate, have been burned into our retinas. The fingerprints, work marks, and wet footprints on the metal plate surface make you feel a body that certainly has been there. The refrain of rebirth and cessation is like a cycle of life and death. Preserved records of life from ancient times embedded in fossils and the empty cinema seats reflected in a broken mirror also remind us of the end of the cinematic medium. The transition of cameras from single-lens reflex to smartphones, and the dim mirror images of humans moving into them. We felt that these are ambitious attempts to imbue the body into the media.
Epicenter
Bukhansan Mountain grows in an earthquake in a normal daily life. Little by little, as fine cracks appear on the wall that divided the world of fantasy and reality, someone begins to notice the existence of an invisible world.
Hahm Heeyoon
1994 Born in Seoul, South Korea. 2019 Graduated from Hongik University of Art. 2020 Studying at Korea National University of Arts of animation.
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- First of all, I was surprised by the precision with which the pictures were created. I sensed the meticulousness of the artist's awareness of capturing ordinary, everyday life as it is, in the way the objects are drawn and the attention paid to the selection of even the slightest movement. Although the subject of the work is a harbinger of something about to happen or the disquiet, I felt the author's characteristic and well-balanced sensibility in the way he tried to depict the events as an extension of normalcy in a calm manner.
My Love Affair with Marriage
From an early age, songs and fairytales convince Zelma that Love would solve all her problems as long as she abides by societal expectations of how a girl should act. But as she grows older something doesn’t seem right with this concept of love: the more she tries to conform, the more her body resists. A story of inner-female rebellion.
https://www.myloveaffairwithmarriagemovie.com/
Signe Baumane
Signe Baumane is a Latvian-born, Brooklyn-based independent filmmaker, artist, writer, and animator. She has made 17 award-winning animated shorts but is best known for her first animated feature Rocks in my Pockets. The film covers a 100-year history of depression and suicide of women in her family, including herself. It premiered at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2014, went on to over 130 international festivals and opened theatrically in the U.S. through Zeitgeist Films. Signe’s new animated feature My Love Affair With Marriage fuses animation with music, theater, science, photography, three-dimensional sets and traditional hand-drawn animation to tell the story of a spirited young woman’s quest for perfect Love and lasting Marriage. Signe is a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fellow in Film for New York Foundation for the Arts. She has a degree in Philosophy from Moscow State University.
- Jury Statement
- This is the story of a creative and intelligent woman who has struggled with her gender roles and identity since she was a little girl and sets out to find answers. I thought it would be subjective, but instead, I was drawn in by the tempo as it moves perspective back and forth, analyzing and explaining chemically what was happening in the body and brain. Skillful storytelling that incorporates mythology and musicals transforms a personal story into a universal one.
Barber Westchester
Barber Westchester is an up-and-coming astronomer who is trying to ignore everything in their life. When Barber gets an internship at NASA, it gets harder to ignore everything, so they have to learn how to be a person instead.
Jonni Phillips
Jonni Phillips is a filmmaker from California. Her work includes The Final Exit of the Disciples of Ascensia, Goodbye Forever Party, Secrets and Lies in a Town of Sinners, Rachel and her Grandfather Control the Island, among others. In 2021, Jonni independently produced and released a 90 min animated feature film, Barber Westchester.
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This movie fully embodies the meaning, power and possibilities of the technique of animation. All the visuals are carefully calculated, and if you underestimate them, it delivers a strong punch. Its unique style was derived to strike the times more strongly, and its drawn lines are cute, but are actually frighteningly delicate.
With tricky motions, the viewer is skillfully entwined with the story. When the 90 minutes had passed (that is, at the end of the film), I shuddered at the matching of theme and method. We felt resolution and conviction for being an animation.
When something precious inside of you wavers, the world is too flimsy to support you. Where is the measure between the uncertainty of the visible and the certainty of the invisible? It is an out-of-the-ordinary film that captures the mood of this era, which is sharpened by the earnest desire to find answers, while at the same time combining the ingenuity to entertain and the pursuit of originality. The most important discovery of the decade.
The work questions the essence of animation films in that it encourages lively discussion around the world. I felt that the essence of the animation film festival was being brought to question at the same time.
Mom, What’s Up with the Dog?
Gwen is a young girl who just turned 11. As she discovers her sexuality, she catches her dog laughing.
Lola Lefevre
Lola Lefèvre graduated from the Atelier Supérieur d'Animation at the Atelier de Sèvres in 2021. Mom, What's Up with The Dog? (2021) is her graduation film.
- Jury Statement
- It is a bold and humorous work dealing with seldom-discussed theme of a young girl's sexual awakening, juxtaposed with the mischievious actions of her family's pet dog. Concepts of morality and shame created in human society vs wild instincts. I even felt a sense of liberation when I saw the girl imitating her pet and manifesting her animal aspect. To where does the dog escape as it runs into the night? By repeating symbolic items and compositions, it is a powerful and impactful work.
Goodbye Jérôme!
Having just arrived in paradise, Jerome sets out to find his wife Maryline. In the course of his search, he sinks into a surreal and colourful world in which no one seems to be able to help him.
Gabrielle Selent, Adam Sillard, Chloé Farr
Adam, Chloe, Gabrielle studied animation at Gobelins. They like the 70s and chunky shoes. For
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Jérôme, who has come to heaven in pursuit of his beloved wife, learns something unexpected when he is finally reunited. The film boasts psychedelic and colorful artwork, and features comical characters moving in a comfortable rhythm. It's also a reminder of the joy and lightness of an era when there was a naive excitement about the possibilities of animation, such as "Yellow Submarine" directed by George Dunning(1968) and the works of the Japanese artist Yoji Kuri. The disharmony of love that becomes apparent with humor is extremely contemporary, and the loneliness of the main character, who can no longer die despite the situation, fills the screen with gentle pathos. The use of music and sound effects is skillful, and the pacing as the story develops is perfect.
It is a masterpiece full of esprit, with an extremely high degree of artistry as a short animation. The walking hot dog, literally a "dog" that snuggles up to the main character, was so adorable that I would like to present the Best Supporting Animal Award too.
Sliver Cave
Stepping into a cave, the sight fluctuates by the firelight. Left to right, top to bottom. The same goes for the screen in front of you. It is a borderless tunnel, presenting domestication and desire.
Caibei Cai
Caibei Cai (b.1992 Shenzhen, China) received her MA from Jiangnan University in 2017 and Royal College of Art in 2018. She obsesses with the illusion on the screen and believes the image has a body. She is good at capturing these hidden bodies by drawing frame by frame. The materials she makes traps include: fingerprint fluff, reflective scales, pixel teardrops and an uncertain tail. Her films always invite the audience to experience the conflicts within the body and the anxious environment outside the body.
A Town Called Panic: The Summer Holidays
School is over. Indian and Cowboy are getting bored. They decide to build a boat and set out in search of adventure. But their first attempt is a disaster. With the help of the animals, they finally manage to inaugurate their proud vessel. But of course, nothing will happen as planned…
Vincent Patar, Stéphane Aubier
Vincent Patar and Stephane Aubier met at the Saint-Luc Fine-Arts Institut in Liege, Belgium. In 1986, they both entered La Cambre (ENSAV) art school in Brussels where they obtained their diploma in 1991. They directed their first short film ”Pic Pic Andre Shoow” in 1988, where they laid the foundations of their crazy universe. In 2001, they created ”A Town Called Panic” where they animated small miniatures having absurd and wacky adventures.
A Town Called Panic: The Summer Holidays
School is over. Indian and Cowboy are getting bored. They decide to build a boat and set out in search of adventure. But their first attempt is a disaster. With the help of the animals, they finally manage to inaugurate their proud vessel. But of course, nothing will happen as planned…
Vincent Patar, Stéphane Aubier
Vincent Patar and Stephane Aubier met at the Saint-Luc Fine-Arts Institut in Liege, Belgium. In 1986, they both entered La Cambre (ENSAV) art school in Brussels where they obtained their diploma in 1991. They directed their first short film ”Pic Pic Andre Shoow” in 1988, where they laid the foundations of their crazy universe. In 2001, they created ”A Town Called Panic” where they animated small miniatures having absurd and wacky adventures.
OUR 2
To commemorate the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, the film reinterpreted the story of Dante and Beatrice’s reunion, which followed from ”La Vita Nuova” to the three parts of ”Divine Comedy” (hell, purgatory, and heaven). where are young us now? where should we go? ”The situation” has been going on since 2020. Young we are free to choose anything. We can choose to die or even live and love. The new world is coming. Let’s jump to the new world with self-love and love for others. This poem is a gift for ourself young and weak.
Song Yungsung
Short animation filmmaker, born in South Korea. He’s approach to filmmaking is based on early 20th century art such as thoughts and painting styles of Kandinsky, Delaunay, Matisse etc. He directed ‘OUR 2’(2021), ’CREATIVE EVOLUTION’(2019).
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*New Chitose Airport Award"" is given to an outstanding work produced in Asia, including Japan, among all the entries. (selected by the festival committee)
In a flowing metamorphoses, even a thin line breathes and and raises voice to itself. We were stunned and deeply moved by the way it creates our world with others, sometimes with embrace and sometimes with destruction.
Yugo
On a lifetime scale, the itinerary of a woman and a man forced to leave their native countryside questions the capitalist and liberal economic development of Latin America and its consequences on humans beings, through the environmental and societal changes it generates.
Carlos Gómez Salamanca
The work of Carlos Gómez Salamanca focuses on painting and audiovisual languages. In his recent works he reconstructs images and visual archives in order to create animations that explore, from a critical perspective, different social and culture aspects of his country.
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*Minister for Foreign Affairs Award"" is given to an allegorical work of excellence that reflects the state of modern society among the works selected for the International Competition.
Migration, labor and ongoing disease. The economic system that forces us to use our physical and mental energy is no stranger to us, and there was enough tension to keep us glued to the screen for 10 minutes.
The Queen of the Foxes
In the hopes of seeing their queen smile again, a group of foxes rummage through the city’s trash, searching for all the love letters that were never sent.
Marina Rosset
Marina Rosset was born in 1984 in Lausanne, Switzerland. She studied animation at the ENSAV La Cambre in Bruxelles and at the Lucerne School of Art and Design (HSLU) where she graduated in 2007. Since then, she’s been writing, directing and drawing short animated films. She also works as a film editor and as an illustrator.
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*Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Award"" is given to a work selected for the International Competition that is aimed at a wide range of audience, including young children, and which shows a sense of modernity that shines through in its universal expression.
The animation, which is simple but conveys the emotions of the characters vividly, shows the author's excellent technical skills. The story is also wonderful, and we were heartened by the last scene where the Queen leaves her crown to join her friends.
Beloved Animals
Last summer, I didn’t go anywhere and spent an animation of my friends on the wall of the ruins. This is the document of that time.
Satoshi Kikuya
Born in Hokkaido,Japan., 1989
2011 BFA, Kanazawa College of Art,Ishikawa,JP
2013 MFA,Kanazawa College of Art,Ishikawa,JP
Live and work in Ishikawa
In the Big Yard Inside the Teeny-Weeny Pocket
When it shrinks, it expands. It floats and it sinks. It separates but connects. When I think I’m watching them, they’re actually watching me. A charming animation rhyme that weaves together the many days of observing, recording, and experimenting.
Yoko Yuki
Born in 1987, Aichi, Japan, currently based in Tokyo. Inspired by everyday events, she creates animation films in a variety of materials. Her main works are “See ya Mr.Banno!” which is based on vague and mysterious memories from her childhood, “Zdravstvuite!” depicting a day with a stranger she met in a seaside town, “A Snowflake into the Night” adapted from a poem by contemporary artist Tomoko Konoike, and the music video “ShalaBonBon” co-produced with musician BonnouShimizu.
Ogre, Curtain and Salt
Long ago, the ogres and the villagers decided to live in separate mountains a short distance apart. But as time passes, the promise has been forgotten by everyone. The curtain tied to the tree vaguely shields them from each other, while the salt vaguely tries to connect them. The samurai rush to the villagers’ fear, but everyone is unable to understand what is so terrible.
Misa Nishihara
Born in Hiroshima in 1991. Studied animation at Hiroshima City University Faculty of Art and Hiroshima City University Graduate School. Currently, Part-time Assistant Professor, Faculty of Art, Hiroshima City University. During the production of this work, I thought that sharp and pointy objects have some kind of authority and strength. I like Kagura (Shinto music and dance) and ogres.
I Remember
In ”I Remember” the juxtaposition of art styles was not only used as a narrative device, but also directly and organically as part of the story itself. I used the characteristics of animation to create an indirect metaphor for my growth through the changes in my painting style. As the style of the painting changed, I told a story from my childhood dream of becoming a painter, and collected information in my brain about people, places, and incidents related to these memories. As a result of this process, I began to paint in the style of my own childhood and gradually changed my painting style as I got older.
Wei Man
Born in China, Learning in Japan. Production animation, Illustration. Contact：weiman0826@gmail.com /ins:sheepmmm
Fourth Period Swimming Class
The fourth-grade protagonist is going through physical and emotional changes and feels awkward as she can’t help but compare herself to her friends. One day, she is blown away by her classmate Aya’s swimming and realizes that she has feelings for her.
Mayo Kobayashi
I was born in Tokyo in 1994 and graduated from the Department of Intermedia Art at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2018. I went on to study animation in the same university’s Graduate School of Film and New Media where I received my master’s degree in March 2022.
Poproy Station
