Category: Official competition 5

A young girl immigrated. Having to function in a new environment is slowly transforming into a routine, and herself, into a modern Frankenstein’s creation. The new approach and behaviour no longer match the old habits and patrimonial stereotypes. The decision to reunite with family and return the feeling of comfort became a turning point and reveals the process which modern immigrants experience.

Director
Anastazja Naumenko – animator and director of animated and experimental films. She was studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and at KASK in Belgium. Her works have been exhibited in Kraków, Wrocław and Gent.

Contact: katarzyna.wilk@kff.com.pl

Screen addiction. Species at risk. Whatever! A dead tree goes viral, attracting wildlife, a nature lover and a crowd of online followers. Animated entirely outside, “WhateverTree” examines our connection to nature in the age of social media, screens, and selfies.

Director
Isaac King is an award-winning animation filmmaker and artist from Canada. Directing commercials and short films for 20 years, his work spans drawing, stop-motion, cutout and outdoor animation techniques. Using handcrafted and digital media, he focusses on environmental and social issues with humour and warmth. His films have screened worldwide, winning numerous awards including the Annecy Audience Prize.

Contact: isaacjayking@gmail.com

A Group of refugees tries to reach themselves to a safe country in search for a better life. They pay a smuggler to convey them across the boarders in a fridge truck. However, the freezing temperature of the truck turns their hopes for a better future into a fierce struggle for survival.

Director
Farzaneh Omidvarnia was born in Iran. Graduated from University of Tehran, faculty of Fine Arts, she received a PhD in Design in 2015 from Technical University of Denmark. Following her graduation, she began to focus on creation of fabric sculptures and writing short stories. Her artworks soon appeared in several art exhibitions in Europe and Iran, and she published her first collection of short stories in 2016. In 2017, she directed and produced her first animated short film, “To Be”. The movie was acclaimed internationally and won prizes in different festivals. Her second film is “Song Sparrow” (2019), World Première at Galway Film Fleadh and selected at Flickers’ Rhode Island Int. Film Festival and Giffoni Film Festival. She is now based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Contact: distribuzionezenmovie@gmail.com

A boy looks for his cat along a river. He will not find it. He’s about to die, and has moved away from everything to find intimacy. The child arrives at the doors of time, where the dead disappear, and the living let them go. The child is afraid, he enters a forest of symbols and memories. He grows up. His illusions of children dissolve and mingle with the landscape.

Director
Born in Pesaro in 1979, Magda Guidi studied for 5 years at the Art Institute of Urbino (“Scuola del libro”), and for 2 years in the course specialized in animation cinema. She is an animated film director and illustrator.

Contact: distribution@miyu.fr

Julie can’t fit into her school. The arrival of Emile, an autistic child, will change the game…

Director
Paul Mas obtained an Assistant Director Diploma at the EMCA animation school of Angouleme (France) with his graduation film “Children”. He lives and works in Paris, and makes stop motion short films.

Contact: mikhal.bak@gmail.com