Best of Animation 1: Love, Friendship & Family

How did I shape the Best of Animation only two decades in to the new century? A slightly frustrating journey through the programmes of my predecessors urged me to skip some heartfelt choices, because I wanted to avoid repeats; partly in vain I tried to stay away from films that had travelled the festivals successfully recently and left these for future colleagues. Still I tried to find a balance between old and new, must-sees and must-haves, gender and issues, usual suspects and debuts, the art and the accessible, the joy and the urgent, the touching, the poignant and the funny. I also allowed some personal choices and guilty pleasures. The long list of already screened powerful titles; a limitating burden at the beginning became liberating in the end. It offered me an opportunity to search the caverns of my memory and retrieve less obvious gems. I curated thirty-five titles loosely based on the themes: Love, Friendship & Family, The Joy of Animation, Shaping Life and I Plead Guilty. Some of the leading themes will be clear while watching, some might need explanation. In The Joy of Animation technique made the impossible possible in crazy, poetic or beautiful structures, graphic styles, storytelling or appearance. I Plead Guilty presents an uncensored potpourri of some of my favourite films. In my eyes they have all deserved a place in this programme and I cannot wait to see them again. I hope you will enjoy them again or discover films both old and new. All of them I guarantee are worth seeing. This is only a glimpse of the artistic shorts animation from the first part of the 21st century, thank goodness future curators will follow to fill the blanks! So many more to see. Drop me a line for more suggestions!

Mi ne mozhem zhit bez kosmosa (We can’t live without cosmos)

Regie Director: Konstantin Bronzit / Russland / 07/2014 / 00:15:24 min.

Two cosmonauts, two friends, try to do their best in their everyday training life to make their common dream a reality. But this story is not only about the dream.

Moms on Fire (Moms on Fire)

Regie Director: Joanna Rytel / Schweden / 01/2016 / 00:12:48 min. / Produktion Production: Altofilm AB / Verleih Distribution:

What’s it like to be massively pregnant with only four days until you’re due to pop? You’d like to jerk off but can’t even reach, your boyfriend is fucking boring you just would like to have some fun. Than this happens. You are pregnant. Again. Yuck!!!

Hot Spot (Hot Spot)

Regie Director: Mark Brierley / England / 2000 / 00:03:20 min.

Set in a Friday night disco, Ray and Dave compete on the dance floor for the attention of the beautiful Imogen.