Jannik Hastrup, born in 1941, is now considered the most successful animator in Denmark. His short film “Jamila – If Only I Could Fly,” which will be shown in the competition program “Tricks for Kids Shorts” at the ITFS 2014, and in which he takes a closer, empathetic look in the everyday life at a Danish refugee camp, reflects the diversity and social-critical dedication which have shaped Hastrup’s short and feature length films since the 60s.
After he filmed his first animated film “The History of Jazz” in 1959 on 8 mm, he did an apprenticeship with the old master of Danish animated film, Bent Barford. Starting in 1967, he filmed his first television series “Cirkeline”, which he now continues after more than 30 years with the feature-length film “Cirkeline – Big City Mice”. In the 1970s, his animated films became increasingly political and more controversial. From 1972 to 1974, nine parts of “The History Book” were created, an animated documentation and Marxist re-writing of history. In 1976, Hastrup founded the production company Tegnefilm, which continues to be known for its original, fantasy-awakening animated children’s films.
His biographical feature-length film “Hans Christian Andersen and The Long Shadow” from 1998 is meant for an adult audience and, in 2000, it received the CDT Telecom Prize at the ITFS. The children’s film “The Boy Who Wanted To Be a Bear,” in which Hastrup shows the dilemma of a human boy who grew up with bears and cannot accept his human identity, received awards in 2003 at the Berlinale and the Montevideo Divercine Festival.

WED, 23.4.// 2 PM // Metropol 2
Jannik Hastrup 1:
Drengen der ville gøre det umulige
The boy who wanted to be a bear
Denmark 2002, 76:00 min.

THU, 24.4.// 2 PM // Metropol 2
Jannik Hastrup 2:
H.C. Andersen og Den Skæve Skygge
Hans Christian Andersen and The Long Shadow
Denmark 1998, 78:00 min.

SUN, 27.4./6 PM Metropol 2
Jannik Hastrup 3:
Shorts

“My art is called excessive, limitless, provocative, feminist. I would also add uncensored, direct, amoral. But especially attractive, trendy, funny. And modern because I never adapt, I invent.” Mariola Brillowska is an animated filmmaker, performance artist, visual artist, singer, author, and professor. She is one of the shrillest and most provocative post-feminist artists in Germany, and her extensive work is enriched with elements from entertainment, trash, kitsch, and pop-art relics.
Brillowska was born in 1961 in Zoppot, Poland, and grew up in Danzig. Between 1984 and 1991, she studied at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. Since 1988, she has produced and directed her own animated films; anarchist performances and theater shows are also included in her repertoire. Between 2005 and 2013, she was also a Professor for Drawing and Illustrating at the University of Art and Design in Offenbach am Main.
Her first short animated film, “Grabowski, Haus des Lebens” (Grabowski, House of Life) received the Grand Prix at the short film festival in Oberhausen in 1991. Over 30 short films followed with titles like “Snoopy Dog,” “Porno Karaoke International,” or “Black Hand,” all of which drew fans in with her characteristic extremely colorful drawing style, funny and grotesque-brutal stories, and the surreal fantasy landscapes. In 2010, Brillowska’s third animated feature film “the Children of the Devil” was released in which she looks at the concept of family and, in a series of episodes, builds up to the tragic death of the parents at the hands of their own children. Her wacky works now receive recognition as a part of numerous international exhibitions and retrospectives as well as film festivals, but Brillowska’s non-conformance continues to stand out from the animated film scene.

THU, 24.4.// 8 PM // Metropol 2
Mariola Brillowska 1

FRI, 25.4.// 10 PM // Metropol 2
Mariola Brillowska 2
The Children of the Devil
Germany 2010, 67:00 min.

The search for a home, the private “utopia” – the Israeli filmmaker couple Michelle and Uri Kranot have not only dealt with this topic in their films, but also in reality. They were born in Israel in 1977 and 1975 and for more than ten years they have made animated films together throughout the world; they see themselves as immigrants who transfer their personal experiences and the experiences of their culture creatively into artistic projects.
While they studied animation at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, they made their first joint short film “Avinu Malkenu” in 2001. Between 2003 and 2006, Michelle and Uri Kranot were Artists in Residence at the Dutch Institute of Animation Film in Tilburg, where their fifth film project “God on Our Side” was created in 2005. Inspired by Picasso’s painting “Guernica” (1937) and transferred to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the film takes a merciless look at the whirlpool of violence and loss. This dark political contribution was recognized at numerous national and international festivals. Since 2006, they teach as Artists in Residence at the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark, and have founded the independent production company TinDrum Animation. During this time, in 2008 “The Heart of Amos Klein” was created and received numerous awards with its complexly told story about moral corruption, militarism, and indoctrination as well as music composed by Uri Kranot himself. Their most recent film contribution and first puppet animation “Hollow Land,” which is being shown this year at the ITFS in the international competition, shows a couple searching for a home. In the film, Michelle and Uri Kranot show a picture of repression and conformity, but also of solidarity, hope, and love.

FRI, 25.4. // 8 PM // Metropol 2

01
Avinu Malkenu
Israel 2001, 3:00 min.

02
Ducks
Israel 2002, 4:00 min.

03
Fallout
Israel 2003, 5:30 min.

04
God on Our Side
Niederlande Netherlands 2005, 7:00 min.

05
The Heart of Amos Klein
Dänemark, Frankreich, Niederlande, Israel Denmark, France, Netherlands, Israel 2008, 14:00 min.

06
Hollow Land
Dänemark, Frankreich, Kanada Denmark, France, Canada 2013, 14:00 min.

Born in 1956 in Pärnu, Estonia, Rao Heidmets studied at the Tallinn Technical University, faculty of electro-energetics, from 1975 to 1981. As a career changer into the film industry, in 1982 he started working as an animator at the then largest Estonian film company, Tallinnfilm. One year later, he did his first directing work with the animated short film “Dove Aunt,” for which he received several prizes, including that of the best debut film at the 3rd Estonian Festival of Animated Film in 1984. Even in his early films, he preferred to work with puppet animation and has developed an enormous talent in this area through the years.
The animated film made with life-sized puppets “The Theatre Papa Carlo”, which Heidmet filmed together with Priit Pärn and which looked at the collapse of a totalitarian system and the path to freedom, won the Grand Prix at the International Film Festival Cinanima in Portugal in 1989 and was nominated for the Palm D’Or in Cannes. In the same year, his cultural-critical film “Noblesse Oblige,” in which he criticized the loss of spirituality in everyday life, was nominated for the Nika, the most important film prize in Russia. In 2004 at the ITFS, he received the SWR Audience Award for the stop-motion short film “Instinct,” an ironic reflection about free will and the process of creation.
Since 1991, he has managed his own studio, the Rao Heidmets Filmstudio, and has been the chairman of the Estonian Animation’s Union since the mid-90s. He continues to be a regular member of the jury at international film festivals, leads workshops in the US, Mexico, and Armenia, among other places, and participates in diverse artistic exhibitions.

WED, 23.4. // 7 PM // Metropol 3

01
Prohveti sünd
Coming of Oracle
Estland Estonia 2011, 13:00 min.

02
Papa Carlo teater
The Theatre Papa Carlo
UdSSR USSR 1988, 10:00 min.

03
Pärlimees
The Pearlman
Estland Estonia 2006, 10:00 min.

04
Muna
The Egg
Estland Estonia 2012, 11:00 min.

05
Noblesse Oblige
UdSSR USSR 1989, 10:00 min.

06
Kaasasündinud Kohustused
Inherent obligations
Estland Estonia 2008, 10:00 min.

07
Instinkt
Instinct
Estland Estonia 2003, 10:00 min.

Paul Bush was born in 1956 in London and studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths College. He became involved in the London Film-makers Co-op in the 1980s and thereafter has been producing experimental films that have been shown worldwide. His films cross the boundaries between documentary, fiction and animation and have been shown in art galleries and as installations as well as conventional cinemas. He has won numerous awards and his work is owned in public collections all over the world. In the 1990’s much of his work was co-commissioned by Channel 4 and the Arts Council. In 2001 he received a Nesta Fellowship. Since then he has mainly subsidised his work by teaching - at the National Film and Television school in the UK, Luzern University and Centro Sperimentali di Cinematografia in Italy. He regularly lectures and screens his work at art and film schools in Europe and the United States. Recently he has had retrospectives in Cracow, Tallinn, Tampere, Bogota, Ghent and at the National Cinema Museum, Turin.

WED, 23.4. //8 pm // Metropol 2

01
His Comedy
1994, 8:00 min.

02
Still Life with Small cup
1995, 3:00 min.

03
Furniture Poetry
1995, 5:00 min.

04
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
2001, 5 min.

05
While Darwin Sleeps
2004, 5:00 min.

06
Paul Bush Talks
2006, 2:00 min.

07
Secret Love
2002, 3 min.

08
Pas de Deux de Deux
2001, 5:00 min.

09
Room 2 commercial
2000, 2:00 min.

10
Shinjuku Samurai
2004, 6:00 min.

11
Geisha Grooming
2003, 3:00 min.

12
Central Swiss
2006, 8:00 min.

13
Busby Berkeley's Tribute to Mae West
2002, 1:00 min.

14
Lay Bare
2012, 6:00 min.

15
The Albatross
1998, 15:00 min.

THUR, 24.4. // 11 PM // Metropol 2
„Babeldom“ (2012 , 80 min)

Babeldom is a city so massive and growing at such a speed that soon, it is said, light itself will not escape its gravitational pull. How can two lovers communicate, one from inside the city and one outside? This is an elegy to urban life, against the backdrop of a city of the future, a portrait assembled from film shot in modern cities all around the world and collected from the most recent research in science, technology and architecture.