Animation at Flatpack Festival
New films, artist talks, live scores and YouTube treasures. Here's a round up of the brilliant animation on offer at this year's fest.
Art College 1994
Based in part on his own experiences and those of friends and fellow students back in the day, Liu Jian’s latest feature follows Kurt Cobain-enthusiast Xiaojun and his trustee sidekick Rabbit as they ponder art, philosophy, life and love.
The beautifully hand-drawn 2D animation is, according to Jian, a ‘logical extension of my background as a painter’ (he studied traditional Chinese painting during his own years as a student), capturing in exquisite detail the wayward years between early adolescence and maturity.
Resonance of Time: Ukrainian Classics Reimagined with Potreba Group
This selection of shorts comes straight from the Dovzhenko Centre’s incredible Ukrainian animation archives. The four films cover a huge amount of ground in terms of style and subject matter - from myths and legends to political satire, and from gothic to abstract to cut out animation.
Giving the films a new life will be Ukrainian experimental band Potreba Group, who have been working on new live scores the likes of which you won’t have heard before!
Book now for Resonance of Time
Tom CJ Brown in Conversation
We’re joined by artist and filmmaker Tom CJ Brown for an afternoon of short films and conversation. Tom’s best known for his short films t.o.m. (2007), teeth (2015), Cousin John - The Arrival (2020), and Christopher at Sea (2022) which have collectively won over 50 awards at festivals over the years. He’s also worked with New York production house Psyop for a number of years.
One for animation fans and animators alike.
Book now for Tom CJ Brown in Conversation
Short Film Comp
The Short Film Competition programme showcases the best of the best in boundary-pushing short films from across the world, and always includes a healthy dose of animation.
If you’re coming to the shorts primarily for the animation, Short Film programmer Max recommends The Space Between and Flesh and Bone.
The former includes animations Margarethe 89, about a young punk detained in a psychiatric hospital dreaming of breaking out to join the man she loves and Spring - an exploration of unrequited love via the story of a woman attempting to lure their resident house spirit with food.
The latter features A Crab in the Pool - a brother and sister navigating inner worlds and fending for themselves after the loss of their mother - and Beautiful Men, a tense family trip to get hair plugs put in.
Book now for the Short Film Competition
Overlap
Brummie animator and director Louis Hudson’s evening of animation and mayhem returns to the festival. Always a whole lot of fun.
Chicken for Linda!
"A uniquely styled and all-around delightful hand-drawn family drama" - Variety
A simple dinner of chicken and peppers quickly unravels into an outrageous series of events in the award-winning Chicken for Linda!
A beautiful, tender and very funny exploration of the bond between mother and daughter - what better way to spend your Thursday evening?
Book now for Chicken for Linda!
Mid Length Films: Leave it all Behind
‘Every idiot knows the earth is flat. Except, that’s not true…’
The citizens of Antipolis live deep within the Earth’s crust. Their society is on the brink of collapse, and finding out their world is not flat, but instead a gigantic globe, certainly won’t help things.
This animated double bill takes us from deep in the earth to outer space where five mutated singing animals find a goal when they learn of their Earthly origins in Zoopticon.
An invitation to leave the world behind for an hour.
Book now for Leave it all Behind
Best of the web
All these high-end, globe spanning, award winning short films are all well and good, but what happened to the good old YouTube video?
Best of the web, new for Flatpack 2024, is a series of events exploring the very best of YouTube. There are five screenings in total, but if it’s animation you’re after then look no further than Haha, You Clowns + Bigtop Burger.
Book now for Haha, You Clowns + Bigtop Burger
Stopmotion
Combining live action, stop motion animation and pure, unadulterated horror.
The gruesome film is British filmmaker Robert Morgan’s debut feature, which according to Morgan is "about the relationship between creativity and madness." We follow talented animator Ella (Aisling Franciosi) as she embarks on her new film, but as her mind starts to unravel, the characters in her film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed power of her imagination threatens to destroy her.
Boxer Short Films
A perfect way to round off the festival, Boxer Shorts brings you an evening of brilliantly bonkers animated shorts. Expect an island full of hermit wizards (Hermit Island), David and Goliath meets the world of football (David), and a father who simply can’t get over that loose nail (The Final Nail in the Coffin).