Feb 9, 2018

2018 Sundance & Slamdance Review: animation permeates the festival

The Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, is crowded with big stars and their latest films, leaving limited space for animation, but digging into the program for the 2018 edition, whether it be the Animation Spotlight shorts program or shorts combined with features, or several live-action directors included an animation segment in their stories, there were films that proudly represented the medium, whether it was a sneak peek into a feature premiere.

In addition, thanks to the Sundance Kids section, two animated feature films, Masaaki Yuasa's "Lu Over the Wall" and Alexandre Espigares' "White Fang," were also screened.

Meanwhile, at the top of Park City's Main Street, the Slamdance Film Festival, which runs parallel to Sundance, attracted a unique collection of animated shorts that reflected a more global flavor than the well-known festival. There were also several documentary films that used animation as a primary storytelling tool.

Since the Sundance Film Festival does not require premiere screenings of short films, the "Animation Spotlight" program consisted of films that have been on the festival circuit for quite some time. One of the pleasant highlights was "Manivald" by Estonian director Chintis Lundgren.

Her character design, use of color, and overall aesthetic are very similar to her previous film, "Life with Herman H. Rott.") Like the short before it, the music in "Manivald" is also an important part of the short's appeal; in "Manivald," Lundgren explores identity through the eyes of the fox of the same name, who has just turned 33 and still lives with her overbearing mother (who gives her socks as gifts every year). The film explores. What should be a mundane celebration turns into a problem-filled evening when a handsome handyman, specifically a bisexual wolf, shows up. Both Manivaldo and his mother become infatuated with him, causing the protagonist to rethink his current situation. Poignant and humorous, "Manivaldo" expands Lundgren's candid world.

Also shown before the LGBTQ-themed Grand Prize winner, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Diane Obomsawin's I Like Girls is a collection of hand-drawn stories about lesbian love told through anthropomorphic animals The book is a collection of hand-drawn stories about lesbian love told through anthropomorphic animals. The bittersweet tale of love and self-discovery offers plenty of laughs and a rustic style that adds warmth. There are dream sequences within even just a whimsical storyline, no doubt allowing Ovomsawin to dive deep into clear visual possibilities. [Randall Christopher's short animated documentary "The Driver is Red," set in 1960s Argentina, when the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was strategically pursuing Nazis around the world, focuses less on the imaginary world but is equally effective It was. The film tells the fascinating story of Tzvi Aharoni's attempt to capture Ricardo Clement, known to the world as Adolf Eichmann, in flowing black-and-white sketches that constantly change shape.

The Animation Spotlight also featured Niki Lindroth von Bahr's widely beloved The Burden. The film was released theatrically in the U.S. as part of the traveling Animation Show of Shows and has won awards from Annecy to the Tokyo International Film Festival. This darkly comedic stop-motion musical is a standout in any program. Other successful shorts screened at Sundance include Don Hertzfeldt's "World of Tomorrow Episode 2: The Burden of Other People's Thoughts" in Short Film Program 1 and Bosnian-Croatian director Eva Kvijanovic's "The Hedgehog's House," which screened at the Berlin International Film Festival and New York International Film Festival, and was screened before White Fang.

Jeron Braxton's "Glucose" won the Sundance Short Animation Award presented by Youtube. This colorful CG experimental short film seeks to find a connection between slavery in the United States and the current hardships faced by people of color in this country. Using characters and backdrops that seem to be taken straight from video games, especially PlayStation games from the past decade, this myriad of ideas come together to form a singular and ambitious project.

The most striking and thematically daring short at Slamdance was Greek director Eirini Vianelli's Icebergs. The stop-motion film is based on the book "Scenes" by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Efthymis Philippou, who co-wrote "Dogtooth," "The Lobster" and most recently "The Killing of a Sacred Deer"

Indeed, the book is based on the book "Scenes.

Indeed, "Icebergs" looks like a Yorgos Lanthimos film performed by a faceless handmade doll. The withering humor familiar to those who have seen the Filippou/Lanthimos collaboration is still present in this adaptation. Annoying noises in the night, a terrible job, or even an overjoyed gardener, all drive the characters in this short film to the edge.

Michael Müller's "Airport" is a whirling, sensory piece about air travel from the perspective of those who cannot cross borders freely. The sounds, conversations, and constant vigilance that everyone is subjected to at the airport are paired with the notion of globalization in a world that only benefits a privileged few. Ascribed Achievements, directed by Iranian-born Samaneh Shojaei, is a quirky and brutally honest 2D portrait of family and the traits that allow one to escape it. Unable to face his less-than-ideal appearance, the outspoken protagonist considers suicide as an escape route, but forgets to consider that his decision may backfire.

Blending time-lapse photography, brief live action, and hand-drawn 2D animation, Kim Sunhee's "The Realm of Deep Psychology" is an impressive mixed-media work that is more intriguing for the seamlessness of its diverse parts than for its clear message, but is captivating nonetheless.

The Slamdance programmers also proved to be fans of director Shunsaku Hayashi. Director Shunsaku Hayashi has two short films at this year's festival, "Interstitial" and "Railment," both of which have screened at other festivals. His uncompromisingly hand-drawn worlds challenge big ideas about time and space with clever visual metaphors. Both films won awards at Slamdance: Interstitial won the Sparky Award for Best Animated Short Film, and Railment won the Creative Future Innovation Award.

At both festivals, a handful of filmmakers who produced fiction and documentary features used animation as an important device to portray the inner voice of their protagonists. For example, in Jeremiah Zagar's "We the Animals," which was selected for the Sundance Film Festival's Next section, childlike illustrations are brought to life to express the emotional turmoil of the protagonist Jonah. we the Animals is based on the novel by Justin Torres, and the vivid The vivid animation creates a lyrical work of art. Mandy, a crazy midnight fever dream directed by Panos Cosmatos starring Nicolas Cage, also boasts nightmarish animation in keeping with the heavy metal sensibilities that color this cinematic trip into the abyss. [Boots Riley's directorial debut, "Sorry to Bother You," unashamedly draws on Michel Gondry's influence, dedicating inventive animated scenes to the French whimsical master. In fact, the entire film is deeply shaped by Gondry's specific magic. Gus Van Sant's "Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot" and Pablo Bryant's documentary "Mr. Fish" were screened at the Sundance Film Festival: Pablo Bryant's documentary "Mr. Fish" screened at Slamdance Fish: Cartooning from the Deep End, uses animation as a key element to honor two prominent cartoonists.

Animation is not a prominent feature at the Sundance Film Festival, held in a small town in snowy Utah, but this year more and more filmmakers are seeing the creative storytelling potential of animation outside of the short film category. Sundance will never be Annecy, but it could use more animation outside of the kids' section, so check back in 2019, when we'll see more films from the festival's shorts section, and maybe even a few from the shorts section, as well as a few from the shorts section.