Ben Hora - Julie Rembauville, Nicolas Bianco-Levrin (2010)

A migrants’ family arrives by boat in a fantasized new world. The movie stages the disappointment in front of the absurd laws of our society.

Dir: Julie Rembauville & Nicolas Bianco-Levrin (2010), 4 min
Song Ben Hora, PAD BRAPAD, from the album "Satumare-Bristol" (PB&CIe/Mosaic 2009)

Destino Disney & Dali - (1945, 2003)

Destino is an animated short film released in 2003 by The Walt Disney Company. Destino is unique in that its production originally began in 1945, 58 years before its eventual completion. The project was a collaboration between American animator Walt Disney and Spanish painter Salvador Dalí, and features music written by Mexican songwriter Armando Dominguez and performed by Dora Luz.

Doodlebug - Christopher Nolan (1997)

This early short film from the director of Following (1998), Memento (2000), The Prestige (2006) and Inception (2010) was made when he was a student in London. Nolan was studying English Literature at University College London when he started to make 16mm films at the college film society, of which the surreal short DOODLEBUG was one. This early film shows the preoccupation with narrative boundaries Nolan would later explore in his feature films and has the simplicity common to many good shorts. The film was produced by his now-wife and producing partner, Emma Thomas.



A man waits patiently in his apartment to squash a bug, but he could be hurting himself more than he realizes.

"We did the effects on the best machines we could at the time, for free. We painted our own blue screen with paint from John Lewis shop that doesn't actually work very well. It's worth paying for the proper paint it you're ever faced with a similar dilemma." Christopher Nolan on Doodlebug


UK/1997/3mins/16mm/b&w

Wolność nogi ( Freedom of the Leg) - Piotr Dumała (1988)

1988 - "Wolność nogi / Freedom of the Leg". A dream-like story of a sleeping man whose body parts live their own lives at night to return to him in the morning - all except one leg which has chosen freedom. Its owner as well as a crowd of homeless men chase the leg, but it grows feathers and flies away as a bird. A grotesque tale with a poetic ending and with interesting music by Janusz Hajdun.

Piotr Dumala was born in Poland and studied sculpture and animation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. His award-winning animated ?lms include Lagodna (Gentle Spirit, 1985), Nerwowe zycie kosmosu (Nervous Life of the Universe, 1986), Sciany (Walls, 1987), Wolnosc nogi (Freedom of the Leg, 1988), and Franz Kafka (1990).

Dumala's films have won multiple awards. Lagodna was winner of the Golden Ducat at the International Film Festival in Mannheim, Germany, in 1985, and received an award for the Best Animated Film at the International Short Film Festival in Toures, France. Dumala received a Mister Linea Award at the Treviso International Animation Festival for his 24 episodes of the series Nerwowe zycie, and, in 1998, Sciany received the Grand Prix at the International Short Film Festival in Krakow, Poland, and Special Jury Award at the International Animated Film Festival in Annecy, France. In 1992, Franz Kafka received the Grand Prix at the 10th International Animation Film Festival in Zagreb, Best Animated Film at the International Film Festival in Madrid, Grand Prix at the International Animated Film Festival in Espinho, and Best Cartoon Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

Dumala's most recent piece is an adaptation of Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment (Zbrodnia i kara) which premiered at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in September 2000 and received the prize for Best Design at that festival. In 2001, Crime and Punishment was awarded the Public Prize at the Summer Film Festival in Kazimierz, Poland, and at the International Animation Film Festival in Espinho. In 2003 Dumala was awarded a Luna de Valencia at the Valencia Film Festival for his lifetime achievement in animation. He received the Albin Brunovski Prize in Uherske Hradiste for his artistic creativity in the art of animation, and a Grande FeFe Award at the FeFe Festival in Warsaw for his artistic independence in the field of animation. Dumala has created four MTV idents: Charlatan won the Broadcast Design Gold Award in Orlando, Florida, in 1994, and was a finalist in the New York festivals. Kafka Meets Dostoyevski received an International Broadcast Design Gold Award in 1996.

In addition, Dumala has made commercials and TV trailers; a short public service announcement for Amnesty International; and a ten-second sequence created for the Absolut Vodka website showcasing independent animation. He teaches animation at the Film, Television and Drama School in Lodz, Poland; is a guest professor at the Animation House at Konstfack in Eksjö, Sweden; and a visiting lecturer at Harvard University. He is involved in writing and journalistic activities, and published Razor Game (Male, 2000), a collection of short stories. He also creates graphics, paintings, illustrations and poster designs. He is currently working on his new film The Forest.


Awards: 1989 - Grand Prix at 1st Animated Film Biennial FAZY'89 in Bielsko-Biała; Brązowy Lajkonik at 19th National Short Film Festival in Cracow; Professional Prize at the Kiev KROK Festival; 1990 - 1st Prize for a 5 to12 Minute Film at the Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films.

Michaela Pavlatova

Michaela Pavlatova was born in Prague, Czech Republic, in 1961. In 1987 she graduated from the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague. As an animation film director, her films have received numerous awards at international film festivals, including an Oscar nomination for Reci, reci, reci/Words, words, words, the Grand Prix in Montreal, and accolades at Berlin, Tampere, Hiroshima, Stuttgart and the list goes on. Her short animated film, Repete, has also won a series of awards including the Grand Prix at the International Animation Festival Hiroshima and Golden Bear in Berlin.

1991, 8 min, cell animation. Prod.: Kratky Film Praha
Director, animation, design: Michaela Pavlatova

1995, 9 min. animation on papers, Prod.: Kratky Film Praha
Director, animation, design: Michaela Pavlatova

This Could Be Me, Michaela Pavlátová an interesting animated presentation of the artist and her life.

Official site

Train of Thought -Leo Bridle & Ben Thomas (2009)

A short film in paper by Leo Bridle & Ben Thomas.

In a world made entirely out of paper, the wistful drawings in a man′s sketchbook are brought to life by the rhythm of a train journey....


"Train of Thought was made as our graduation film from The Arts Institute at Bournemouth in 2008-2009. Although we used digital compositing software, all the animation and models were done by hand, not with CGI. The film took approximately 9 months to complete, from storyboards through to the final edit. It was a team effort, and we were especially lucky to work with talented modelmaking students, and a mix of professional and student actors".


Directors:
Leo Bridle & Ben Thomas
Actors:
Napoleon Ryan & Marie Thomas Galvin
Animation:
Leo Bridle & Ben Thomas

The music is by Portico Quartet arranged by Jack Wyllie
and sound design by Andrew South vimeo.com/​andrewsoundesign

Making of on youtube
Official film website - including full credits