International Competition 2 (rep.)

The International Competition (IC) is the beating heart of the festival. The best of current animated shorts from around the world are shown in this section. Films are humorous, contemplative, creative, or critical. An international jury selects the best animated short film of the year which will be honoured in the grand awards ceremony on Sunday. But you get to vote as well: Choose your favourite film for the SWR Audience Award!

AYNY (My SECOND EYE)

Regie Director: Ahmad Saleh / Deutschland, Jordanien, Palästina / 06/2016 / 00:10:40 min. / Verleih Distribution:

A cruel war has taken two brothers’ home. Their mother protects them and is anxious about something could happen to them. But the boys chase their dream to play a music instrument, they’ve fallen in love with. A beautiful Oud. They collect scrap metal to earn money and must find out that their mother’s fear was for a good reason. But as strong birds will always fly, the two boys become one to overcome their trauma.

Bullet Time (Bullet Time)

Regie Director: Frodo Kuipers / Niederlande / 11/2016 / 00:05:30 min. / Produktion Production: Merlijn Passier Productions / Weltvertrieb World Sales: KLIK! Distribution Service

A desolate street in a small village in the Old West. Two cowboys face each other in a good-old-fashioned shootout! But when both of the colts fire their deadly bullets, those bullets immediately fall in love with each other, forgetting what they’re supposed to do! This has dramatic consequences…

Connect (Connect)

Regie Director: Hi-Jeong So / Deutschland / 04/2016 / 00:04:12 min. / Produktion Production: Filmuniversität Babelsberg “Konrad Wolf”

Stones that grow, rub against each other to become smaller, more active and more mobile. A grown stone is also trying to rub itself until it understands what happens when it is too much.

Estilhaços (Fragments)

Regie Director: José Miguel Ribeiro / Portugal / 03/2016 / 00:17:09 min. / Produktion Production: Praça Filmes / Weltvertrieb World Sales: Agencia- Portuguese Short Film Agency

This is a film about how war settles in the bodies of people who are forced to live it directly in the eye. And then, thousands of miles away and dozens of years ahead, like a virus, it can still infect other human beings.

The Alan Dimension (The Alan Dimension)

Regie Director: Jac Clinch / Großbritannien / 05/2016 / 00:08:47 min. / Verleih Distribution:

Alan Brown uses divine powers of precognition to foresee the fate of mankind… and breakfast. Meanwhile, Wendy has had enough of being married to ‘the next step in cognitive evolution’.

After All (After All)

Regie Director: Michael Cusack / Australien / 11/2016 / 00:13:22 min. / Produktion Production: Anifex Pty. Ltd.

After all is said and done… all that is left are memories. A man cleans out his childhood home remembering past conversations.

Fields Of Rape (Fields Of Rape)

Regie Director: Anselm Pyta / Deutschland / 03/2016 / 00:10:40 min. / Produktion Production: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH

Far from here lies a giant field of rape.

Cop Dog (Cop Dog)

Regie Director: Bill Plympton / USA / 2016 / 00:05:37 min. / Produktion Production: Plymptoons Studio

The sixth film in Bill Plympton’s Oscar-nominated “Guard Dog” series, in which our plucky hero – the dog – has a new occupation: patrolling our airports sniffing for illegal drugs. You know that’s not going to end well.

Batfish Soup (Batfish Soup)

Regie Director: Amanda Bonaiuto / USA / 04/2016 / 00:05:00 min.

Wacky relatives give way to mounting tensions with broken dolls, boiling stew and a bang.