Step into a realm where animation dances to its own rhythm and filmmakers are poets with pixels. A programme of experimental, offbeat, peculiar, unorthodox - or brilliant shorts.
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Step into a realm where animation dances to its own rhythm. These shorts defy (visual) conventions with flair. They don't just break the rules - they scribble over them, fold them into paper cranes, and set them aflutter. Call these shorts offbeat, experimental, idiosyncratic, peculiar, audacious, unorthodox, or just call them brilliant. These filmmakers are no mere humans, they are poets with pixels, pioneers of the peculiar, serving up visions you never knew you craved but won't soon forget.
Ukrainian director Mykyta Lyskov based his animations for Bridge on engravings by Dnipro-based artist Andrii Sokolenko. This beautifully crafted short film transports you to a bumpy world of railways, making you feel as if you are traveling east.
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A girl wakes up alone on a surreal night, with moths emerging from the TV set, guiding her to explore the darkened room. Through a series of emotional flashbacks, she gradually recalls fragmented memories of neglect by her caregivers. Cocoon is a crayon poem about metamorphosis, darkness, and light, directed by Chinese director Yiwei Chen.
The intro to Desk Bugs warns you that the film contains flashing images. But that’s not all. There’s a bright red desk and a blue pencil. Also skulls, cups, and a modular synthesizer. They appear when you sit at the desk. With their fluffy purple bodies, they're called Desk Bugs. Still with us? Wow! OK, just prepare for a three-minute psychedelic trip packed with color, rhythm, bleeps, and rapid-fire edits and you’re good to go!
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Have you felt overwhelmed by the news lately? Then you might have noticed that the battle for our attention has suddenly become an actual war. Information technologies appear not just as mere means for somebody’s ends, but as one of the acting forces. We have no control over it and are doomed to scroll through the newsfeed. At least, that’s what director Sasha Svirsky concludes in this idiosyncratic response to the state of the world.
Edith and the Tall Child is a deeply intimate, hand-drawn film about hair, dysphoria, and the growing pains of a repeating puberty. It follows the titular Tall Child as they outgrow their tiny apartment, their gender, and their giant ground sloth, Edith. A beautiful yet confusing journey about self-image, directed by Kohana Wilson.
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A man searching for the shortest thing in Tokyo uttered "da" at the last moment of his life. This witty work, the first in the Bungaku Bideo collaboration between contemporary Japanese literature and animation, features a recitation of Hideo Furukawa's Totemo mijikai, with animation by Koji Yamamura.
Fusion investigates the interplay and love affair between sound and picture as an abstract experimental experience. Using a wide variety of colors and shapes, director Richard Reeves creates a sense of dimension and space in this trippy, handmade short film, with both sound and pictures created by drawing onto 35mm film.
Pinocchio feels a longing deep within him. Someday, he would become a real girl and live a life beyond the confines of make-believe. Experimental animation at its finest!
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Once seen as terrifying dragons, glaciers are now evaporating, warning us of what’s catching up. They fly away, leaving the mark of a thousand-year-old reign. HIC SVNT DRACONES plunges through these giants, on a journey where the scales of space and time fragment. With beautiful paint-on-glass animations, director Justin Fayard memorializes the world we still know today.
The sun moves lower and the days grow shorter. Birds fly south, porcelain animals and insects hide from the freezing wind and snow. Only a small porcelain girl wanders the abandoned landscape, with no way out. A wintry poem by director Anu-Laura Tuttelberg about Nordic nature, where animation and the rhythm of nature intertwine.
South Korean director Inju Park gave birth to this film to move to a world where the remains of her sister and herself can be reborn together. Reborn with You can be seen as a mesmerizing installation that naturally flows from one striking image to the next. A poetic short that could be looped for ages—if only we had the time…
A graffiti wall in Vienna transforms into an archaeological site and a graffiti sculpture, as ‘skrffologists' activate traces of the past with stop-motion animation. But can history ever be remembered clearly in all its complexity? Corrie Francis Parks and Daniel Nuderscher deliver a hypnotizing short, uncovering layer upon layer of color.
What is lost and what is gained when pixels become fabric? Textile Translations, a Labour of Love contains a series of knitted animations exploring the translation process from pixel design to physical objects.
Kaboom Animation Festival is the one-stop-shop for the latest and greatest in all things animated. Ranging from cutting-edge experimental arthouse to colorful stories for families and kids, Kaboom will cater to the animation needs of all. Yes, even yours, my amazing weirdo friend!
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