Of the almost 700 entries from 53 countries and the approx. 1 200 animated films that have been viewed in addition to that, 36 films from 16 countries have eventually made it to the four International Competition programmes.

As always, they present the best and most innovative what the artistic animated film can offer at the moment, as the following examples indicate: In PHOTOGRAPH OF JESUS Laurie Hill is on a trip to the Getty Archive in London, and the incredible stories told in the film are by no means invented! ...

NEVER DRIVE A CAR WHEN YOU ARE DEAD by Gregor Dashuber is, together with some biographic elements it contains, a declaration of love to Berlin, to the punks and freaks, to the city’s social types and individualists. ... Chekhov fans are likely to go for OCHUMELOV by Alexy Demin. ... David O’Reilly tells us, in cold-synthetic computer design, in PLEASE SAY SOMETHING about the not so simple love affair between a cat and a mouse. ...

Cordell Barker’s film RUNAWAY guarantees black humour, when an initially leisurely train ride turns into a fight for survival.... And then there is still the new WALLACE & GROMIT – A MATTER OF LAOF AND DEATH, simply smashing. ... Or the dreamy GOSHKA’S TALE, in which Dimitri Naumov tells the bewitching story of a night somewhere outside in nature.

Decisions upon the best animated films out of the four competition programmes will be made by the International Jury.

Don't miss:

• ANIMA Talk | a talk with the filmmakers of the competition films screened the day before
• ANIMA Podium | panel discussion on the topic: "Training for Whom? Young filmmakers between Film School and Market"
  

Competition 1:
Thursday 27.10. | 8 pm
Wednesday 28.10. | 2 pm

Cinema: Astoria | Passage Kinos

• The Royal Nightmare by Alex Budovsky | USA 2008 | 3:40 min.
  This animated short tells a story of an evil king, whose life is turned into a nightmare by a pilgrim who constantly reappears by the royal tower and totally ignores the king.

• Wings and Oars (Spārni un airi) by Vladimir Lesciov | Latvia 2009 | 5:38 min.
  A former pilot looks back on his life – the earth, the sky, the woman, and everything that happened on the way from the airport to the deserted landing stage.

• Please Say Something by David OReilly | Ireland 2009 | 10:00 min.
  A film about the troubled relationship between an emotional cat and her husband, a mouse. Set in a distant future, this is the very first film to be created in a completely synthetic way.

• Rains (L'ondée) by David Coquard-Dassault | France, Canada 2008 | 7:40 min.
  In this animation, a sudden rainstorm is unleashed on a city. Everyone seeks refuge. Activity slows down and nearly stops. Some pedestrians wait in bus shelters, others are determined to risk it. When the clouds thin out, life continues. The downpour has been a moment's respite in never-ending human busyness. A film without words.

• Aanaatt by Max Hattler | Great Britain, Germany, Japan 2008 | 4:45 min.
  The ever shifting shape of analogue futurism – a visual experiment on music by Jemapur.

• Law of Life (Sakon schisni) by Rischat Gilmetdinow | Russia 2008 | 9:00 min.
  The laws of a North-American Indian tribe are just as severe as the laws of nature. An old chief is taken to the forest to die. All that he has is pile of wood to make fire and time to think over his past life.

• LoopLoop by Patrick Bergeron | Canada 2008 | 5:00 min.
  "LoopLoop" is made from a sequence captured in a train going to Hanoi in Vietnam. Using animation, sounds warping and time shifts this video runs forwards and backwards looking for forgotten details, mimicking the way memories are replayed in the mind.

• My Blood Is My Tears by Andy Glynne | Great Britain 2009 | 3:20 min.
  Abbie, Lois and Nicole have burned themselves with everything from heated metal to cigarettes, stabbed needles into their skin, punched the wall and thrown themselves downstairs. They were fighting against ‘feeling unreal’, against the inability to cry and express emotions, the urge to cut away ‘the monster inside themselves’. This film explores the impulses that cause some young people to self-harm and the relief that physical pain seemingly provides from the emotional pain they suffer.

• Mei Ling by Stéphanie Lansaque and François Leroy | France 2009 | 15:36 min.
  Mei Ling, an idle young Chinese woman, lives alone in her flat, waiting for her lover. One day, she finds a little octopus in the kitchen sink. She decides to adopt it to escape her boredom. The octopus grows up ...

• Chick (Laska) by Michal Socha | Poland 2008 | 5:00 min.
  "Chick" humorously and truthfully tells about male-female relations. Infatuation and its consequences are depicted in an ironic way: meeting a guy, dancing, having fun and sex.

Competition 2:

Wednesday 28.10. | 8 pm
Thursday 29.10. | 2 pm

Cinema: Astoria | Passage Kinos

• Never Drive a Car When You're Dead by Gregor Dashuber | Germany 2009 | 9:55 min.
  The blundering hero discovers a long-forgotten piano. The music takes him out of his shabby existence into the big city, where he plays a last funeral march for the scruffy figures by the roadside.

• Photograph of Jesus by Laurie Hill | Great Britain 2008 | 6:40 min.
  Looking for photographs of Jesus, yetis and Hitler in 1948? Help is at hand with this documentary-fantasy based on true stories of requests for impossible images. Real-life archives become the stage where fact and fiction collide, belief runs amok and unruly images have a life of their own.

• Gosha's Tales (Goschiny skaski) by Dmitri Naumow | Russia 2008 | 7:45 min.
  An animation film based on drawings by Georgiy Lyakhovetskiy.

• Orgesticulanismus by Mathieu Labaye | Belgium 2008 | 9:29 min.
  "Orgesticulanismus" is an animated short delivering a very important message about exclusion due to disability. The film celebrates disability by recognizing the concept of inner space and strength that allows physically challenged people to rise above the average. The use of repetitious, constantly reinvented movements in combination with the voice over and sound design create an uncomfortable and yet positive atmosphere for the audience.

• Roue by Taili Wu | USA 2009 | 5:13 min.
  "Roue" is a Chinese word meaning rub back and forth and disorder something. This animated piece is composed by fragments of dreams, memories and emotions. Using imagery inspired by molecules and atoms, the filmmaker explores the unconscious, recreates the process of dreaming. "Roue" is the first short film of Taili Wu.

• Western Spaghetti by PES (Adam Pespane) | USA 2009 | 1:44 min.
  PES takes everyday objects like Post-it notes, a Rubik's Cube and dollar bills and morphs them into key ingredients for a very unconventional meal.

• Crocodile (Krokodill) by Kaspar Jancis | Estonia 2009 | 16:38 min.
  The story of a former opera star who, as fate would have it, is forced to work as a Crocodile in a styrofoam costume entertaining children in a shopping centre. This kind of life seems joyless and even disgusting to the former leading tenor, and he vents his frustration by behaving rudely. Until one day, a fateful woman enters his life ... and a crocodile.

• The Necktie (Le nœud cravate) by Jean-François Lévesque | Canada 2009 | 12:26 min.
  This is the story of Valentin and his compelling quest for the meaning of life. The film skilfully outlines the way this model employee's personality is effaced by futile work in a dead-end job. As his birthdays go by, boredom replaces hope and his old aspirations fade. When revolt emerges for a moment, it is quashed by despair. On his 40th birthday, he rediscovers an old accordion hidden in a closet and regains the joy of life.

Wettbewerb 3:

Thursday 29.10. | 8 pm
Friday 30.10. | 2 pm

Cinema: Astoria | Passage Kinos

• The Black Dog's Progress by Stephen Irwin | Great Britain 2008 | 3:14 min.
  A series of flipbooks tell the sad story of the black dog.

• Joseph's Snails (Les escargots de Joseph) by Sophie Roze | France 2009 | 11:48 min.
  Joseph is a shy, introverted little boy who collects snails. One day he is swallowed up by his own belly button and discovers the disturbing world of the 'navel-gazers', people who, by only communicating with their navel, curl in on themselves and turn into snails.

• Ochumelov (Otschumelow) by Aleksei Demin | Russia 2009 | 13:00 min.
  A police officer, a dog and lots of petty bourgeois – a cinematic fantasy about themes and motives from Anton Chekhov’s early literary works.

• The Da Vinci Time Code (Der Da Vinci Timecode) by Gil Alkabetz | Germany 2009 | 3:00 min.
  The film takes a painting to pieces to create an animation from the isolated fragments. Various sections based on similar forms uncover hidden movements. The people in the painting eat, dance, talk and argue – until they are all silenced.

• Mixed Bag (Valise) by Isabelle Favez | Switzerland 2009 | 7:00 min.
  Can a bag of money solve the problems of an unhappily married couple? And what are the plans of the blundering bank robbers who lost the bag? A story of greed, treason and weird containers.

• The Soliloquist by Ma Kuang Pei | Taiwan 2008 | 6:06 min.
  Each of all those lonesome days, a heart broken man is receiving letters and packages stating with the wrong addressee. Unable to return those letters, he starts to read them. As the letters pile up, he feels to being fallen in love with an imaginary character.

• Smolik by Cristiano Mourato | Portugal 2009 | 8:00 min.
  Two characters get into an argument. A story about human feelings and experiences of life.

• Jazzed by Anton Setola | Belgium, The Netherlands 2008 | 7:00 min.
  "Jazzed" incites the audience on an introspective journey through the most mysterious, profound an imperceptible emotions of its main character Jack.

• August by Matthias Hoegg | Great Britain 2009 | 4:25 min.
  Unwanted visitors disturb the tranquility of a campsite at the height of summer. While mayhem breaks out on the lawn, a group of ants makes brave new discoveries in the grass.

• Runaway by Cordell Barker | Canada 2009 | 9:11 min.
  Happy passengers are having a great time on a crowded train, oblivious to the fate that awaits them around the bend. When carriage by carriage has to be fueled, and the effects of the spatial shortage that ensues begin to be felt, the result is a class struggle that is as amusing as it is mercilles. Naturally there are victims, but in the end everyone is equal. Rarely has a disaster seemed so delightful!

Competition 4:

Friday 30.10. | 8 pm
Saturday 31.10. | 2 pm

Cinema: Astoria | Passage Kinos

• Airport Tunnel by Vitor Hugo | Portugal 2009 | 4:38 min.
  A magical journey to the sound of the band Olive Tree Dance evokes the street as the free stage of all artists who make our everyday life more beautiful.

• Berbaoc by José Belmonte, Izibene Oñederra, Mercedes Sánchez-Agustino, Gustavo Díaz and Irati Fernández | Spain 2008 | 5:00 min.
  A short film based on a sound piece of Xabier Erkizia, created from an interview given by the musician Santiago Irigoyen.

• The Texture of Dreams (Matières à rêver) by Florence Miailhe | France 2009 | 6:14 min.
  Searching for the traces of fantasy in paintings. The texture of dreams will create its own path, just like love. It all depends on your imagination, your partner, the weather ...

• Birth by Signe Baumane | USA, Italy 2009 | 12:00 min.
  Amina, a 17-year-old woman, is pregnant and afraid to give birth. For consolation and advise she goes to older women but their stories scare her even more.

• Cocoon Child by Sonja Rohleder | Germany 2009 | 5:00 min.
  "Cocoon Child" is a poetic film about the fantasy world of an autistic child, showing the moment when his inner world merges with the outer one.

• Boris by Daniel Lundquist | USA 2008 | 3:28 min.
  Boris loves those beats. It seems nothing can stop him from driving the village crazy with his drumming. But will Boris find a way to keep drumming when the village resorts to extreme methods?

• I Slept with Cookie Monster by Kara Nasdor-Jones | USA 2008 | 3:30 min.
  This is the story of a woman's escape from an abusive husband.

• Wallace & Gromit – A Matter of Loaf and Death by Nick Park | Great Britain 2009 | 29:00 min.
  Wallace's and Gromit’s new bakery business faces danger when a mysterious killer starts targeting all the bakers in town.