Ottawa Animation Festival April 7–14, 2011

İstanbul Modern Cinema hosts the “best of” selection from the Ottawa Animation Festival, which brought together the most talked about and award-winning animations of 2010! Among the selected animations are: Andreas Hykade’s psychedelic film Love & Theft with many references to the world of animated films, Dustin Grella’s film Prayers for Peace which was garlanded with awards wherever it was shown, Anita Killi’s crowd-favorite Sinna Mann (Angry Man), and Joseph Pierce’s A Family Portrait which catches a twisted family pose.

Playtime
Canada | 2009 | 2:43
Director: Steven Woloshen
Member of a Canadian art collective, Woloshen presents a show in which playful images on fingertips are combined with jazz rhythms.

This is Love
China | 2010 | 3:00
Director: Lei Lei
This short, which won the “Best Narrative” award at Ottawa, is a love story. Two lovers are hugging passionately when the boy discovers there is a hole in the girl’s sock.

LGFUAD
USA | 2010 | 4:22
Director: Kelsey Stark
A young girl shares the memories of her ghostly past. A funny animation depicting the crazy antics of ghosts.

A Family Portrait
UK | 2010 | 4:44
Director: Joseph Pierce
A family is going to have their portrait taken. But jealousy and suspicion among the family members begin to fume under the photographer's relentless camera. The contortions in their faces grow ever more frightening. This is the first sign that it will truly be an unforgettable day.

Midtown Twist
USA | 2009 | 1:06
Director: Gary Leib
In the film, which flows like skillfully drawn cartoon pages, midtown Manhattan evolves and the city’s heart throbs to the beat of the twist as the director shows us his satire.

Little Deaths
USA | 2010 | 11:00
Director: Ruth Lingford
The film, which won the “Best Experimental/Abstract Animation” award, conveys the experience of orgasm in the language of animation. In this stylized film people try to describe orgasm in fragments from interviews.

Sorry film not ready
Canada | 2010 | 0:56
Director: Janet Perlman
When exactly is a film ready? This is the question the Oscar-nominated director asks in this film using unusual animation techniques.

Kuchao / A Gum Boy
Japan | 2010 | 3:48
Director: Masaki Okuda
Chewy Boy loves his gum. Clash gnash, clang clap… The noise he makes annoys his class. When out of school he continues chewing and starts flying with a balloon that is red and likes gum as well.

La Traversée
Canada | 2010 | 4:30
Director: Elise Simard
A boy embarks on a night journey in this fairy-tale world created from pen and ink graphics. Creatures await him in the forest…

Prayers for Peace
USA | 2009 | 7:38
Director: Dustin Grella
This film, which was awarded the Walt Disney Animation Studios grand prize for “Best Student Animation,” is a narrative stop-motion animation confronting the memory of the artist's younger brother killed in the conflict in Iraq. Drawn entirely with pastels on a slate chalkboard, the materials used to create the animation become a metaphor for the impermanence of life.

Jean-François
France | 2009 | 5:47
Directors: Tom Haugomat & Bruno Mangyoku
A massive swimming champion virtually competes against his childhood memories. The medal he wins cannot rival the riptide of nostalgia which takes the swimmer back to the sea, his father, and that buoy just out of reach.

Blockhead, The Music Scene
USA | 2010 | 5:21
Director: Anthony Schepperd
In a post-human New York, television and animals discover each other. Cast to Blockhead’s The Music Scene this video creates a “self-awareness” session through the synchronized movement of line and color.

Sinna Mann / Angry Man
Norway | 2010 | 19:52
Director: Anita Killi
After his fish dies Boj builds the strength from his fantasy world to attempt to seek help from the King of Norway. The film, which got a general thumbs up at its first screening, is about the heartbreak of a young boy who suffers from violence from his father. 

Love & Theft
Germany | 2010 | 7:00
Director: Andreas Hykade
A strange psychedelic love letter written to cartoons! This letter bears the marks of different sources of inspiration. We find references not only to cartoon characters from Sesame Street and Spiderman to Sponge Bob and Snoopy, but also, for instance, to Bob Dylan.