Shorts Animation Competition 1

Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2023
Programme
Shorts Animation Competition

From realism to surrealism and abstraction, all animated shorts of the competition programme manifest both depth and style.

In the variety of 2D, 3D and stop-motion animation, the films' characters assume the form of animals to express what humans cannot. They focus their gaze on the nature of relationships, which can wither away. They explore femininity and motherhood and dare to examine social malaise as well. Their design ranges from the lush to the minimal, and their directors can bridge our new, online brave world with our old unexplored natural world. We can relate to nuns in love, gay male desires, anxious artists and overworked athletes all with one intake of air. The films are alternatively brave and witty, all revealing the need for connection – whether being one of the Greek gods or your familiar and lovable cow. It's all in the eye of the animation beholder.

Screenings

Hall 2 Kino Artis
Screening052202 / Shorts anima võistlusprogramm 1
Q&A duration
Screening duration
Trailer

Films

Baltic premiere

Island

Local title
Saar
Original title
Island
Director
Michael Faust
Country
Israel
Year
2022
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2023
Programme
Shorts Animation Competition

This film recounts the history of a small secluded island over the course of several millennia, to reveal a telling lesson about human nature.
From the island’s rise to riches to its ultimate fall into ruins, the film explores the island’s different chapters over time: a heap of boulders, a massive guano deposit, a tropical oasis, a colonial territory, a prosperous republic, and an open-pit mine eventually devouring the island to the point of bankruptcy and desolation.

Director
Michael Faust
Runtime
Language
English

Baltic premiere

Via Dolorosa

Local title
Kannatuste rada
Original title
Via Dolorosa
Director
Rachel Gutgarts
Country
France
Year
2023
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2023
Programme
Shorts Animation Competition

Between drug addiction, first discoveries of sexuality and a permanent state of war, the filmmaker searches for her lost youth by wandering the streets of Jerusalem.

Director
Rachel Gutgarts
Runtime
Language
Hebrew, French
Subtitles
English

Estonian premiere

Electra

Local title
Elektra
Original title
Electra
Director
Daria Kashcheeva
Country
Czechia, France, Slovakia
Year
2023
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2023
Programme
Shorts Animation Competition

Electra rethinks her 10th birthday, mixing memories with imagination and hidden dreams. Isolated in her fantasy world full of made-up busty dolls, plastic men’s body parts, juicy strawberries and dentist tools, she builds up her own relationships with her body and sexuality.

Director
Daria Kashcheeva
Runtime
Language
English
Subtitles
English

The Family Portrait

Local title
Perepilt
Original title
The Family Portrait
Director
Lea Vidakovic
Country
Croatia, France, Serbia
Year
2023
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2023
Programme
Shorts Animation Competition

A quiet Sunday afternoon in the aristocratic, family home, just before the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Andras and his daughter Zsofia are caught by surprise when Andras’ brother Zoltan intrudes in the intimacy of their home, along with his big family. A poetic, dark, and somewhat humorous social observation, in which family ties and relationships are broken down and dissected to pieces.

Director
Lea Vidakovic
Runtime
Trailer

Baltic premiere

A Crab in the Pool

Local title
Krabi basseinis
Original title
Un trou dans la poitrine
Director
Alexandra Myotte, Jean-Sébastien Hamel
Country
Canada
Year
2023
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2023
Programme
Shorts Animation Competition

In a run-down neighborhood, Zoe and her little brother Theo are left to fend for themselves. A young adolescent, Zoe is a ball of anger haunted by an intimate terror. Theo, still a child, flees reality into a fantastical world. During a scorching summer day, the two children will have to burst the abscess of their relationship so as not to lose each other.

Director
Alexandra Myotte, Jean-Sébastien Hamel
Runtime
Language
French
Subtitles
English