.It is about time to sum up Etiuda&Anima Festival which ended last week in Krakow, Poland. I assume there are still some events connected with the festival in Nowy Sacz, however the results of the short film and animation competition are already known. The official awarding ceremony took place last Thursday. Well. I am not a huge fan of the films which were selected and awarded. In my opinion there were better shorts in the program. But I like the films which got the 3rd place prize both in the animation and a feature film cathegory- feature film Arsy-Versy by Miro Remo (which I noticed and described earlier on my weblog - I have this intuition!) and "This Way Up" by Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes, which was also in Sundance Film Festival 2009 official selection and was nominated to Oscar award for best animated short.
"This Way Up" tells of a father and a son who are in mourning after their wife/mother who just died. They want to make a nice funeral, however there are many obstacles. The film is full of dark humour.
Animated short film fairly awarded at festivals in the world, however not at this one - Skhizein by Jeremy Clapin, France
portrays a story of a man who got hit by a mysterious meteoryt. There are no visible effects of the accident apart from the fact that the man's body moved 71 or so centimeters from the place where his aura stayed. If he wants to move a chair, he has to stand 71 centimeters from it, put a hand in the air and try to move the object. He goes to a doctor who is not helpful and gives him a feeling that he is crazy. He stayes all alone with his problem of being 71 cm away from himself. He comes up with an idea that if a meteorite hits him again, his body and aura will surely get united again. He starts looking for a meteoryt in the sky and runs to a desert to meet it. The result of another collision are surprising. The film is available on YouTube /LINK HERE/, but only in French, with no subtitles, which is bad. You can however buy the film for 10 Euros on a DVD on the film's official site, which is a fair prize for a fair film.
"Big Man" by a Danish artist Cav Bogelund is a story of a giant whose mother is a tiny little woman. The huge man is big and scarry, but his heart is pure and gentle. When his mother dies, he goes to a city for the first time in his life. He holds her coffin in a had like match-box and wants to bury her in a local cemetary. It turnes out that the people in the town are against him.
"DIX" = "TEN" by The Bif, France/United Kingdom also impressed me strongly.
"DIX" = "TEN" by The Bif, France/United Kingdom also impressed me strongly.
It is about a young man who goes to a therapist. The doctor helps him reverse the bed effects of his childhood. The story ends up well, but there is a lot of blood here!!! Hard stuff.
There were other good films at the festival including
Mother by Geza M. Toth, HugaryThe Black Dog's Progress - by Stephen Irwin, Great Britain
Kitchen Dimensions - by Priit Tender, Estonia
I Am So Proud Of You - by Don Hertzfeldt, USA
"Jancita" - by Karla Castaneda, Mexico which was also awarded at world festivals.
It is a story about being old and dying in fact. The subject might not be too cheerful, but the animation is very nostalgic, funny at points and original.