Watch the the Animation Show of Shows trailer now!
The Digital Media Department is excited to host a special screening of the 22nd Annual Animation Show of Shows, which includes 16 new and innovative animated short films! After the screening, attendees have the opportunity to engage in a Q&A panel with select featured filmmakers! Please RSVP via Eventbrite to attend. Limit one RSVP per person. Ticketing and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Films have not been rated and contain mature themes and images some may find disturbing.
After a two-year Covid hiatus, Animation Show of Shows returns with a 22nd edition comprised of 10 films—nine recent, along with one restored classic—which deal with both the anxieties and hopes of a world faced with a seemingly endless series of existential crises. All films are inventive, their tone ranging from the whimsical to the profound, and their techniques from stop-motion to hand-drawn to computer-aided.
“Animation is a natural medium for dealing with abstract ideas and deeply felt concerns, and Animation Show of Shows has always strived to scour the world for the most affecting and engaging films,” says founder and curator Ron Diamond. “While the recent films were conceived and some finished before the Covid lockdowns, all but the most abstract display a concern with the ways in which we are all interconnected...or sadly alienated from our sense of human connection.”
This general issue appears in many forms and styles: While Beyond Noh cleverly shows the prevalence of masks through all cultures and Rain humorously explores the dangers of groupthink, Ties takes the notion of connectedness from the metaphorical to the actual. The nine new films come from Europe, Asia, and North America. The program culminates with a striking restored 4K digital remaster by the Academy Film Archive of Frederic Back's classic 1987 Oscar-winner, The Man Who Planted Trees. As a bonus, an exhibition of original production art from the films listed below will be presented!
The 22nd Annual Animation Show of Shows includes 10 animated short films (in order of appearance):
- Beyond Noh, Patrick Smith/Kaori Ishida (U.S./Japan)
- Empty Places, Geoffroy de Crecy (France)
- Beseder (Good and Better), Gil Alkabetz (Germany)
- Zoizoglyphe, Jeanne Apergis (France)
- Rain (Deszcz), Piotr Milczarek (Poland)
- Average Happiness, Maja Gehrig (Switzerland)
- Aurora, Jo Meuris (U.S.)
- Yes-People, Gísli Darri Halldórsson (Iceland)
- Ties, Dina Velikovskaya (Germany/Russia)
- The Man Who Planted Trees, Frédéric Back (Canada)
The Animation Show of Shows is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit created for the expressed purpose of expanding awareness of exemplary animated short films and animated short film restoration and preservation. Donations are tax deductible. Earnings from the distribution of Animation Show of Shows will be used for the sustainability of our mission and compensate the participating animators/rights holders.
