Out of the Inkwell: Invisible Ink
Part of the popular series Out of the Inkwell. Max Fleischer draws the clown, who tricks him with invisible ink.
Signed in Ink
60 minutes
When machines can imitate the craft of animation, what remains? That is the central question we explore at Kaboom Animation Festival 2026. Will craft evolve? Disappear? Will animators absorb this existential threat, or become curators of AI-generated images? Maybe they’ll simply persist — like the spiders who inspired this year’s poster, handcrafted by Bea Lema.
Human Touch: Signed in Ink celebrates the materiality and craft of writing. Whether dipping brushes into an inkwell or striking a typewriter ribbon, the artists behind these shorts embrace the joy of sending messages through ink. This program is curated by Dr. Alla Gadassik (Animate Materials Workshop project), who will introduce the screening.
This program screened as part of Kaboom Animation Festival 2026
Showing in this program
A Fly in the Restaurant
In a restaurant in China, waiters try to swat flies while a number of diners eat their food.
Accordion
An exploration of the connections between sex, love and technology. A woman connects to the Internet. She not only embraces technology but surrenders to it entirely as she sends her entire body and soul to her electronic lover. In this world of Pandora's boxes, sexual desire and dehumanizing machines intertwine till they're finally and brutally disconnected.
G-AAAH
Who doesn't love Elizabeth Hobbs' cute yet trippy animations! Using an Underwood 315 typewriter, this film is a celebration of Amy Johnson's journey. Johnson worked as a typist for a firm of solicitors before her record-breaking solo flight from London to Australia in 1930. Now, we feel bad typing.
5¢ a Copy
An innovative experimental animated film that makes moving images with a photocopy machine. Through bizarre images and a pulsing electronic musical score, the filmmakers have created a mind expanding work that will long remain in your memory.
Postalolio
A journey in 2D animation, in which every drawing has been traced onto blank postcards then hand painted, stamped and mailed. Every frame has traveled through the international post prior to appearing in the film.
Polar Bear Bears Boredom
A polar bear is very bored with various marine animals in the deep blue sea. The film follows the ancient tradition of "Caricatures of Frolicking animals" in a scroll painting-style.
Sea Song
An animated look into the sparkling ocean at night. Sounds and pictures drawn on film.
Two Weeks – Two Minutes
Two Weeks - Two Minutes is a sort of film-book, exploring the double page format and the notion of time in both media. During her two-week residency at the Center for Book and Paper Arts in Chicago, Judith Poirier printed simultaneously on paper and 35mm clear film stock using letterpress. Edited as two vertical screens side by side, the film mimics the format of a book and suggests a different reading experience.
Shadow of the Butterflies
In a mysterious forest, a woman is slowly lured into a nostalgic daydream as she observes butterflies.
Miserable Miracle
The animated short Miserable Miracle was inspired by Henri Michaux’s book of poetry and drawings of the same name. The film explores the limits of language and perception, creating connections between sound, meaning, shapes and movement.
