The Employment
The Employment
Around
Around
Retouches
Retouches

Screened as part of NZIFF 2009

Animation Now! 2009 

Narrowed down from an amazing 2000+ entries, this year’s survey of the best in animated short films covers the gamut from sumptuous painterly Russian styles to the most inventive and expressive CGI, including NZ-made Poppy.

83 minutes

It has been an astonishingly rich year for the animated film. We reviewed more than 2,300 entries and seldom has it been more difficult to confine the programme within the 90 minute limit we set ourselves. We have long-anticipated new releases from several of our favourite masters of the form, such as George Schwizgebel and the Academy Award winning creator of Ryan, Chris Landreth. Hand-crafted work vies with CGI on this year’s programme: sumptuous evidence that classic Russian animation is still being made competes for your attention with an absolutely world class digital New Zealand work that we are certain is going to go far. — MT

Muto 2008

Director

7 minutes

A larger than life graffiti mural springs to life, rapidly consuming every paintable surface in its path. paint direct to street surfaces

Codswallop 2008

UK
4 minutes

Blending a fascinating multi-frame layout with classic cartoon strip styling, this film takes us on a joyously irreverent trot through a series of random moments. 2D hand drawn

Take It Easy 2008

No corras tanto

5 minutes

A thoroughly entertaining compendium of just how many images can be crafted from coloured sands. sand animation

Rabbit Punch 2008

Director

UK
5 minutes

A disturbing story about two young boys with too much time on their hands playing the dangerous games young men do. ink on paper

Around 2007

Director

3 minutes

A chain of dizzying images lavishly illustrate a day in an imaginary town as seen through the wide eyes of a boy who steps into it. pen and pencil on paper

The Employment 2008

El empleo

6 minutes

Where would you fit into this world in which the role of every household item and every piece of urban machinery is dutifully performed by a human? 2D hand-drawn

The Black Dog's Progress 2008

Director

UK
6 minutes

The unwanted Black Dog patrols a confounding neighbourhood depicted as a seething mass of flickering, roughly hewn images. hand-drawn flipbooks, stopmotion

Toy Angel 2008

Director

15 minutes

A visually stunning, quintessentially classic Russian style animation tracing the path a small wax angel carves into the troubled soul of a small boy. paint on glass, hand-drawn

Retouches 2008

5 minutes

Master of gloriously hand painted, perception bending visual acrobatics, Schwizgebel’s latest mesmerising film swoops and soars through the fleeting fragments of everyday journeys. paint on board

Poppy 2009

A superbly depicted battlefield dilemma. In the horrors of the trenches, two New Zealand soldiers take responsibility for the smallest of lives. computer animation

The Spine 2009

Director

11 minutes

The latest film from the Academy Award winning maker of Ryan. The brittle, complex collection of personalities within a counselling group critique the lop-sided loads of gifts and sacrifices shared by an unusual couple. computer animation