Michael Dudok de Wit presents a master class for a general audience. Michael's talk will focus on the backgrounds in his films, in particular in the feature The Red Turtle. To him, the landscapes are the most important 'characters' in his films and he will describe how they are conceived by using both intuition and reason.
In The Red Turtle, a castaway desperately tries to escape from the desert island he was washed ashore on. One day, he meets a mysterious turtle that will change his life. The touching, dialogue-less movie tells us about milestones in a man’s life.

The world première of The Red Turtle in May 2016 at the Cannes film festival (Un Certain Regard) reaped particularly laudatory reviews, as well as the special jury award. Michael Dudok de Wit’s long-anticipated feature debut in cooperation with the renowned Japanese production company Ghibli was the opening film at the Annecy animation festival in June and screened shortly afterwards at HAFF in Utrecht, followed by an extended Q&A with Michaël Dudok de Wit.
The Red Turtle won an Annie Award in the Best Animated Feature – Independent category. The Annie Awards are significant prizes in the animation film industry and are annually granted by The International Animated Film Society (ASIFA-Hollywood). The Red Turtle was also nominated for an Academy Award and a César.

This program screened as part of HAFF 2017