Program One - Animated East Coast
This East Coast dominant blend of animated cinema focuses on an array of themes from mental health to relationship dynamics and house pets. The Animated East Coast program highlights a diverse group of filmmakers sharing personal stories, ideas of hope during an uncertain time.
Animation Block Street Team (Rob Bohn / NYC / 45 sec)
This year’s Brooklyn themed intro features the talents of Amigo Unit.
Sum of its Parts (Alisa Stern / Hudson Valley, NY / 3:18 min)
Mysterious forest creatures move to the beat of music.
Don't Touch Your Face! (Leah Shore / NYC / 1:06 min)
Better safe than sorry.
Ducked (Michael Higgins / Brooklyn / 4:42 min)
A heart-warming tale of a mild-mannered mallard in search of his soulmate.
Condolences from the Vulgar Tongue or (Boner) (Christina Fidler / MICA / 5:29 min)
Huxley, a jaded dog and victim of the universe, chooses to burden himself with the responsibility of arranging his mother's funeral.
Blackheads (Emily Ann Hoffman / New York / 7:46 min)
A woman copes with bad therapy, heartbreak, and blackheads.
thum (Luca Depardon / New York / 4 min)
In a deep bath of mossy light, visions of snail farmers, tiny fish and frogs in vibrant tide pools, slug people and musty microbes appear.
Edge (Steven Subotnick / RI / 3:15 min)
A call and response.
Otis March (Mark Minnig / NYC / 4:02 min)
Animated short about a man and his dog, navigating a fresh break up and shared custody living.
The Wonderful World of Tomorrow (Iuliia Zhukova / Pratt / 4 min)
A Utopian dream of a girl who wants to believe in the optimistic future of progress and society.
Trauma Chamelon (Gina Kamentsky / Somerville, MA / 2:51 min)
An escaped laboratory rat navigates through a sea of punctuation.
Ciervo (Pilar Garcia-Fernandezsesma / RISD / 10:15 min)
A young girl holds violence, submission, and independence in an uneasy balance.
The Excruciatingly Endless and Dishearteningly Tedious Tale of The Creator Who Cannot Create: A Journey Into Lifelessness (Urja Vakta / NY / 2:07 min)
Artist’s block. We’ve all been there before, right?
Rabbit Retrieval (Phillip Sossou / MassArt / 7:36 min)
A teacher gets a class pet and ends up with more than she asked for.
Beanstalk (Tom Cassese & Kory Hilpmann / New York / 5 min)
A musical take on the classic story of "Jack and the Beanstalk."
Masquerade Monday (Moksha Rao / SVA / 2:17 min)
A story loop of delivery people being killed for witnessing the previous delivery person's death.
The Island of My Home (Cynthia Chu / RIT / 4:44 min)
Everything's on fire.
Lizard Ladder (Ted Wiggin / NYC / 5:20 min)
The latest film from longtime Animation Block Party alumni, Ted Wiggin.
Program Two - Animation for Kids
A new edition of excellent family-friendly animated shorts from Animation Block Party. This delightful telecast highlights studio pilots, independent content, energetic student works and a handful of international cinematic wonders.
Nature (Isis Leterrier / France / 3 min)
The forest’s inhabitants welcome a bird in sorrow and everything comes to life in a delicate miniature opera
Dinner Is Saved (Teresa Park / SVA / 2:35 min)
A firsthand look into a young girl’s experience becoming the hero she always dreamed of.
My Pet Venus (Ariel Paxton / SCAD / 3 min)
A little girl goes to a public garden with her mom and buys a Venus Fly Trap. After taking the plant home she takes care of it improperly.
Lamput - The Chase (Vaibhav Kumresh / Cartoon Network / 5:08 min)
Lamput is a gooey orange substance that escaped from a secret lab. Two scientists are trying their best to catch him. But Lamput, a master of disguise, escapes right under their noses!
Duino (Austin Vincent / Lesley University / 4:58 min)
Duino is a story about a young boy named Pete who manages to bring a little robot to life.
A date with Mr Mappleton (*multiple directors / ArtFX / 4:50 min)
Treasured souvenirs, fueled by jealousy, attack their owner’s chance of present and future happiness
*Gabriel Akpo-Allavo, Constance Auge, Julia Brasileiro Lopes Garcia, Lucas Narjoux, Méghane Reynaud
The Guardians (AgainstAllOdds / Paris / 2 min)
We are once again allowed a glimpse behind the scenes as the elves prepare for Christmas.
Empty Nest (Ethan Long / Florida / 1:37 min)
The littlest bird of the family must leave the nest, with hazardous winds blowing.
Abstract Animals (Dana Sink & Ivica Širanović / PA-Macedonia / 1:18 min)
Help me find my abstract animals.
Boriya (Min Sung Ah / France / 17:13 min)
Boriya, a 7-year-old girl, is bored by the routine of daily life in the countryside.
Yuan Yuan and the Hollow Monster (Catherine Chen / USC / 6:31 min)
Personal story, inspired by writer-director's family members and childhood filled with hurricanes.
Just Married (*multiple directors / ENSI / 6:17 min)
A young girl who is about to get married is kidnapped by her teddybear in front of the church. Together, they will live a dreamy adventure
*Aliénor Bouteloup de Vilers, Marianna Crosetti, Claire Ducluzeau, Donghee Kim, Daphné Peltier, Minh-Thu Pham
Monster Beach (Sean Zwan & Patrick Crawley / Cartoon Network / 10:38 min)
Frightfully funny adventures of surd-siblings Jan and Dean. Enjoying an endless summer vacation, they have a monster good time on the island of lki-lki.
Program Three – Experimental, Graphic Design and Music Videos
Experience the best design centric animated shorts, music videos and outstanding experimental works. A hallucinatory program of abstract imagery, dimensional space, false impressions and reflective truths.
Däncing düplös (Kristian Pedersen / Oslo / 1:15 min)
Jolly building blocks wants to dance with you!
Metro6 (Geoff Hecht / San Francisco / 8:14 min)
Zak goes through a bus ride metamorphosis, realizing the value of human interaction.
Out of Bounds (Franz Impler / Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig / 15 min)
Arbitrariness of boundaries and rules, the complexity and ambiguity of the modern world.
BLOXX- Lie Out Loud (Barnaby Catterall / UK / 3:27 min)
Animated Music Video for the song 'Lie Out Loud' by British band BLOXX.
Now 2 (Kevin Eskew / Los Angeles / 9:27 min)
Who's grooming whom? Scenes of puzzling new truths piercing through the foam veil.
Serial Parallels (Max Hattler / Germany / 9 min)
Approaching Hong Kong’s built environment from the conceptual perspective of celluloid film.
Alexander 23's 'IDK You Yet' (Chris Ullens / London / 3:06 min)
Poetic visual interpretation of Alexander 23's song 'IDK You Yet.'
Helfer (Anna Szöllősi / Hungary / 9:45 min)
A young woman who is struggling with anxiety and recurring nightmares that she wants to end.
Opera (Erick Oh / California / 8:43 min)
Intrinsically connected so viewers can enjoy the Pyramid no matter which character they watch.
We're Not Out of the Woods Yet (Alexandre Nart / Paris / 3:27 min)
A psychedelic forest, a strange beast roams.
Bubble (Janelle DeWitt / Pratt / 4:32 min)
A surreal short that literally deals with getting caught up in one's own head.
Frog Dog Log: Live à Laval (Jared D. Weiss / California / 2:46 min)
Dog attempts to sleep in the hills of Laval, Québec, Canada.
Program Four – Independent Animators
An eclectic program of animated films by indie artists, freewheeling alternative worlds, historical interpretations, karmic retribution and urban visual cues.
Sidewalk (Celia Bullwinkel / Brooklyn / 4:15 min)
A woman walks through life, confronts her changing body, and learns to love herself. Screened at Animation Block Party 2013.
Proton Reign (Turner Lange / Los Angeles / 8:50 min)
New animated short from the maker of Wally Fresh.
History of Ska! (Ian Ballantyne & Sarah Schmidt / Columbus, Ohio / 4:20 min)
Killer animated segment from "Pick it Up! Ska in the 90s!”
Three (Soyeon Kim / California / 2 min)
A visceral impression of a life in the society based on the Walden by Henry David Thoreau.
Mother Bunker (George Metaxas / North Hollywood / 4:48 min)
A military robot begins to self express, dressing in human drag and performing to a robot army.
Zorg II (Auden Lincoln-Vogel / Estonia & Iowa / 21 min)
An alien comes to earth in hopes of starring in a sci-fi blockbuster.
Chef Giants (Troy DeWinne & Ethan Dirks / California / 1:16 min)
Hyper colorful music video with trippy vibes.
Sidewalk Filmmaker Responds To Your Comments (Celia Bullwinkel / Montreal / 6 min)
Animated storytime video for YouTube commenters circa 2020.
Sublo and Tangy Mustard - Convention (Aaron Long / Cali-Canada / 8:24 min)
Two fast food restaurant mascots travel to the corporate convention for performance evaluation.
Wet & Soppy (Cliona Noonan / Ireland / 4:02 min)
A weather-tormented man who wants to dry his underwear is forced to use the local laundromat.
Oh Say Can You See (Noam Sussman / Canada / 1:59 min)
A socio-political analysis of the United States of America's current state of affairs.
Wood Child and Hidden Forest Mother (Stephen Irwin / UK / 9:30 min)
Deep in the forest, a hunter encounters a strange creature he cannot kill.
Awkward (Nata Metlukh / San Francisco / 3:45 min)
A day full of socially awkward moments.
Program Five - International Shorts (A)
Animation Block Party presents the first of two incredible collections of award-winning international shorts. A dreamscape assortment of digital celluloid, delving into perceptive effects and reactive emotions.
Nox Insomnia (Guy Charnaux / Brazil / 7:54 min)
A three-act epic about a seven-year old boy who can't sleep, thinking about his issues.
Sheep, Wolf and a Cup of Tea... (Marion Lacourt / Paris / 12:15 min)
While family members indulge in curious rituals before sleep, a child invokes a wolf from the bottom of a box hidden under his bed.
Frankee Freak (Michele Annibali / Italy / 3:32 min)
A creature considered frightening, maybe it’s not like that, if you look behind his harshness, it hides something else.
Katalog of Flaws (Marv Newland / Canada / 11:45 min)
Fever dream, multiple endings, no political, environmental, racial, gender, or religious content.
Freeze Frame (Soetkin Verstegen / Belgium / 5 min)
Identical figures perform the hopeless task of preserving blocks of ice.
Sounds of Sighs (Atam Rasho / France / 19:46 min)
The Book of Lamentations is a masterpiece of Armenian medieval poetry, written by Grigor Narekatsi in the 10th century.
Postpartum (Henriette Rietz / Berlin / 4:36 min)
The chaotic phase in life of a new mother.
St. Moritz (Joseph Balaclav / Israel / 6:21 min)
Relations between mother and son are tested during preparations for Passover cleaning ritual.
SH_T Happens (Michaela Mihályi & David Štumpf / Czechia-Slovakia-France / 13:10 min)
The caretaker exhausted by everything, his frustrated wife and one totally depressed deer.
Program Six – International Shorts (B)
Animation Block Party shares a second program of breathtaking international shorts, a travelogue during a time of pure withdrawal, an intimate exodus of movement.
riviera (Jonas Schloesing / France / 15:35 min)
At the Riviera residency, on a sweltering summer day, it’s nap time.
Eaten (Mohsen Rezapour / Iran / 7:20 min)
Mysterious unknown planet, a rabbit-like creature is eaten; but that’s not the end of the story.
Aletsch Negative (Laurence Bonvin / Berlin-Switzerland / 11:32 min)
Sensory visually compelling experience, a double reflection on the nature of the moving image.
Tête de linotte ! / Airhead ! (Gaspar Chabaud / Belgium / 5:43 min)
A child struggles with a math problem, helped by a mother losing slowly but surely her patience.
Snow Shelter (Robertas Nevecka / Lithuania / 16 min)
Freezing winter in a war-devastated town, a man is banished from his apartment by strangers.
To the dusty sea (Héloïse Ferlay / France / 12:28 min)
Alone in the deepest of the summer, Malo and Zoe try their best to catch mother’s elusive eye.
Rivages/The Shoreline (Sophie Racine / France / 8:21 min)
Small island off the coasts of Brittany; stormy weather, wind blows, dark clouds obscure the sky.
Lah gah (Cécile Brun / Zürich / 6:34 min)
Dive into sunny childhood memories, when a girl is singing and cooking with its father.
Program Seven - Student Films (A)
Animation Block Party highlights exceptional short films from students worldwide, together looking back at the past, ambivalence, understanding, sometimes finding humor in isolation.
Pause. Play. Repeat. (Ankita Panda / USC / 4:29 min)
A film that identifies the patterns that exist in the macro and micro systems around us.
You’re So Far Away (Jeongki Kim / RISD / 3:38 min)
An ominous force violently separates two bears in space. A friend is gone but not forgotten.
Sous la glace / Under the ide (*multiple directors / ENSI / 6:50 min)
On a lake, a heron is fishing while winter arrives.
*Milan Baulard, Ismail Berrahma, Flore Dupont, Laurie Estampes, Quentin Nory & Hugo Potin.
The Wishing Well (Rita Wong / RMIT / 5:30 min)
A young girl makes a wish at a wishing well to reunite with her dead twin sister.
Gravedad (Matisse Gonzalez / Filmakademie Baden Württemberg / 10:35 min)
In a world where gravity changes constantly, you have to find something to keep you grounded.
In Her Boots (Kathrin Steinbacher / RCA / 6 min)
Hedi embarks on a hiking journey to the deepest parts of the Alps, revealing the reason for her devoted attachment to her hiking shoes.
Duo (Sidney Gale / CCAD / 4:43 min)
A yellow, triangle fella trying to live their life meets resistance when a new, blue fella appears.
Where am I? (Cheng Qiu / RCA Animation / 4:16 min)
What do you see inside the mist?
Combust (Tyler Washington / MICA / 4:22 min)
Ashe, a young woman made of smoke, tries to keep her calm on a particularly horrible day.
Put Stick in It (Austin Kimmell / MassArt / 3:57 min)
PopPop retells a story from his own childhood to teach his grandchildren a lesson.
White Tape (Emily Hampson / SVA / 2:27 min)
Tamra is stuck working the late shift at Video World, but the night doesn't go as planned.
Framed! (Aya Kneitner / CalArts / 4:25 min)
Kids get framed for stealing the smiling Mona Lisa.
Killing Time (*multiple directors / Goeblins / 4:47 min)
Loukoum can’t stand the passage of Time anymore. She decides to go face it in person.
*Guillot Camille, Hagdahl Sorebo Fanny, Krechman Aleksandra, Nacir Sarah, Ravelonary Morgane & Zhang Valentine.
Mettle Creek (Britt Sodersjerna / Pratt / 4:01 min)
A narrative about courage, and the lengths that two young girls will go to for one another.
Unlikely Love (Molly Mayhew / UCA Farnham / 1:38 min)
Love really can conquer all no matter how unlikely the match.
Program Eight – Student Films (B)
Animation Block Party showcases the best student films of the year in a program exploring cultural shifts, societal norms and rhythmic innovation mixed with narrative threads.
The Slug Finger (Lily Shaul / Kingston / 3:57 min)
Unusual story of a girl whose finger transforms into a slug forcing her to love and care for it.
Superstitions (Tonya Amyrin Rice / UArts / 3:15 min)
A visual exploration of various superstitions.
White Out (Karen Wang / RMIT / 4:05 min)
A girl leaves home for the first time, but the yearning of home itches the forefront of her mind.
One Left (Sebastian Doringer / University of Applied Arts Vienna / 6:12 min)
Several patients waiting in a doctor’s office for test results regarding their remaining lifetimes.
El Gran Corelli (Abel Carbajal / ESCAC-Barcelona / 7 min)
The Great Corelli is a successful magician. But his career goes down when his best trick fails.
The Kitchlets (Clarisse Chua / CalArts / 7:30 min)
Mina lives alone in her apartment accompanied by three little house spirits, the Kitchlets.
Waste Away (Elly Stern / MassArt / 4:49 min)
In a trash-filled city, a homeless woman's encounter with a fish takes an unexpected turn.
In Passing (Esther Cheung / Sheridan / 4:08 min)
Following two neighbours as they grow up in government housing in bustling Mong Kok, Kowloon, the film pays homage to old Hong Kong, capturing the culture of the times.
Unconditional (Austin Braddock / Pratt / 2:52 min)
Defining moment in a mother and son relationship, dealing with gender expression and its innocence.
Matryoshka (Danou Jenny He / NYU / 5:29 min)
A wild chase ensues after a mother and a daughter arrive inside the stomach of a sheep.
Dogs (*multiple directors / Goeblins / 7:15 min)
A young Polish partisan flees from the Warsaw Uprising. Whilst hiding in the yard of a countryside manor, he is chased up a tree by a large wolfhound.
*Benjamin Berrebi, Jakub Bednarz, Diego Cristofano, Théo Lenoble, Mohammad Babakoohi, Karlo Pavicic-Ravlic, Marthinus Van Rooyen
Fortune (Em Jiang / RISD / 3:52 min)
Each decision is a roll of the dice, exploring luck, fear, yearning, ambivalence as part of an endless road in a board game.
Dance of the Angel (Zoe Zheng / USC / 1:54 min)
A visualization of piano piece, Milonga del Angel, by Argentine composer, Astor Piazzolla.
Mako and Mendoza: Battle for Bulkhead Beach (Bonny John / UCF / 3:30 min)
A rambunctious young super villain and his adorable pet shark dog seek world domination from below the ocean surface.
Oniden (Aimee Uehara / LCAD / 1:27 min)
An uptight health inspector bites off more than he can chew when he inspects a noodle restaurant run by demons.
Any Instant Whatever (Michelle Brand / RCA / 5:13 min)
Man in a room, in a film – the becoming of something and simultaneously becoming in itself.
