Gemini(2024)

Black Fish(ja)

Darkness and light, as seen by VIFF’s favourite Buddhist erotist. Part of the TOKYO LOOP animation anthology produced by ImageForum Japan.

LAND(en)

LAND is a fluid series of formal land animation experiments based upon the imprint of landscapes in various locations and intuitive interpretations of those movements. Shot in New York, Thimble Islands Bear Island, Connecticut, Armstrong Redwoods, Sonoma County, California, Hastings, England. note* (part of the EYE Filmmuseum Permanent Collection)

ASTRAKAN(pt)

It Fell on Deaf Ears(en)

Because Quebec Sign Language cannot be captured on paper, videography has revealed itself to be the best way to represent this visual language. The first ‘comic strip’ in sign language, the film depicts snatches of conversations between various deaf and hearing protagonists. A visit to a silent world, where the hearing impaired ask us to listen to them.

Demi-Goddesses(xx)

The second essay about still dominant dark aspects of our modern society. It is conceived as a surreal anti-patriarchal thought experiment and raises important questions about gender, power, and social change, prompting us to reflect on how historical patterns of discrimination and oppression might be either repeated or overcome in a reversed gendered world. It challenges the viewer to confront their own assumptions and biases, and to consider the possibilities of a more equitable society.

Street Musique(en)

Animator Ryan Larkin does a visual improvisation to music performed by a popular group presented as sidewalk entertainers. His take-off point is the music, but his own beat is more boisterous than that of the musicians. The illustrations range from convoluted abstractions to caricatures of familiar rituals. Without words.

Tigre(en)

Tigre is an experimental film with animation applied directly onto film.

Mandala(en)

Scroll paintings prepared like film strips with successive images.

Spheres(en)

This animated short is a play on motion set against a background of multi-hued sky. Spheres of translucent pearl float weightlessly in the unlimited panorama of the sky, grouping, regrouping or colliding like the stylized burst of some atomic chain reaction. The dance is set to the musical cadences of Bach, played by pianist Glenn Gould.

Isolation(en)

A meditation on isolation through paint textures, video collage and sound

Ci sono gli spiriti(it)

Short animation by Alvise Renzini inspired by a C.G. Jung's dream

Small World(en)

A teacher spends a day in their classroom where nothing is what it seems.

Concerto(en)

Short animation experiment drawn by Oskar Fischinger

No. 11: Mirror Animations(en)

Cut up animation and collage technique by Harry Smith synchronized to the jazz of Thelonious Monk's Mysterioso.

Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying(en)

Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying is a short meditation on love, grief, and imagination. The hand-drawn animated documentary was created through a collaboration between mother, elder and narrator Edith Almadi and filmmakers Natalie Baird and Toby Gillies. This poetic piece celebrates life and the transformative ability of art to elevate and transcend us. Through vivid drawings and Edith’s simple yet magical words, the film explores our enduring bond with loved ones who have passed. In honouring her son’s life within the cosmos, Edith’s artworks embody colours, shapes and metaphors that remind us of the timeless power of love, gravity, and grace until our final breaths.

Desejo Expõe Suas Orbras (Desire's Exhibition)(pt)

With the aim of finding Desire, so-and-so performs a ritual to go down in the depths of himself.

Dark Mixer(ja)

Iwasaki’s ink oscillates like an evil lava lamp that might actually be alive and its progression into more and more disturbing images create an impressive sense of dread in a film that is basically just some pencil drawings on a blank background. (Film School Rejects)

Faroeste(pt)

Short film made using cardboard cutouts of a classic Western scene

No. 7 Cherry Lane(zh)

Set in Hong Kong in 1967 — a time of complex politics when it was still a British colony — No. 7 Cherry Lane revolves around a love triangle between a university student, a single mother and her teenage daughter.

Demons(pl)

Polish avant-garde animation in which a periodic series of aggressive starbursts interrupt the melodic dancing of fluid shapes, one raid even freezing the image for a moment.