An Animating Desire

Unique animated shorts, Stop-Mo from the NFTS, and news from SIGGRAPH

Author

Jason Sondhi
August 11, 2023

Animation-lovers rejoice! This edition of the weekly digest is for you. What’s the reason? No reason! Sometimes the editorial calendar just ends up that way and you look up and realize 75% of your picks are animated. We run the breadth of the medium too: from simple faux-naive styles and innovative handcrafted techniques all the way to the state of the art, as we check in on SIGGRAPH, the world’s biggest conference for computer graphics professionals, which just wrapped this week in Los Angeles.

Speaking of LA, Céline will be at Hollyshorts this week serving as a member of their jury alongside fellow jury members Chiwetel Ejiofor and Zoey Deutch, so say hi if you’re attending.

📅 This Week on Short of the Week

Stay by Yu Sun

A 5-minute animated film made using hand embroidery on tracing paper, depicting the relationship between a daughter and her absent father.

Green Bank Pastoral - A Fragment, by Federico Urdaneta

A portrait of a group of electro-hypersensitive refugees living in the shadow of the world’s biggest radio telescope.

Stranding by Ben Kadie

Ten-year-old Theo makes friends with a mysterious beached whale while his parents plan their divorce.

Meow or Never by Neeraja Raj

A catstronaut travels around the galaxy in search of the meaning of life but finds her journey interrupted by a space pup in this madcap musical

We kicked off the week with Yu Sun and her innovative student short which won Best British Animation at Edinburgh. With its novel technique and moving story, Rob called it “a welcome reminder of the creative possibilities available at the hands of talented animators.”

From there, Georg tackles an unusual documentary—Federico Urdaneta cut his mid-length film, which debuted at IDFA 2020, to create a 10min short film version for the web in the hope that it could not only attract its own audience but could serve as an advertisement for the longer film. Success? We think so, but you tell us.

Next up is Stranding, a covid-lockdown collaboration between Ben Kadie and S/W alum producer, Reef Oldberg, that drew upon a childhood memory of Reef’s. Adam says that it will be “familiar to anyone who ever felt like they saw things too clearly at a young age.”

Finally, Rob highlights an exquisitely fun film from filmmaker Neeraja Raj that, interestingly, has been optioned for feature development by Nexus Studios (The House)

🪐 Shortverse Collections

Again, weird quirks of the editorial calendar! After featuring a stop-motion animation from England’s top film school for the second straight week, we decided to throw together this quick collection spotlighting stop-motion shorts from the National Film and Television School. Check out a dozen shorts that prove that the hallowed tradition of Harryhausen and Aardman Studios is in safe hands with the new generation.

🍿 New releases you’ve been enjoying…

TESLA | Shortverse

Rushing to work, a man unwittingly installs a dangerous software update in his car. Edward Robles’ new release caught eyes on the web and on Shortverse, including Jonathan in his review below.

The Big BIG Hug | Shortverse

Remember those loooong days inside the house, when there were no planes in the sky, no sharing pizza, no way to see your friends other than by zoom (and plenty of wild hairstyles!) A charming musical piece by Iria López of London’s Wednesday Studio.

💡 Product Updates

Some new features were added to Shortverse you should be aware of!

🎨 Techniques—We have a lot of excitement for Advanced Search, one of the PRO features on the Films tab. Now, in addition to the existing Genre and Topic labels, we’ve introduced Techniques. Filmmakers can now add them to their film details and search for specific techniques (such as stop-motion? 😏) using the Explore filters.

✉️ New Emails—Filmmakers, we are now sending you emails when you add a film (with tips on what to do next)

❓New help button—Find it in the bottom right corner on Shortverse!

🖥 Spotlight on SIGGRAPH

The biggest news this week in the larger film industry is that VFX professionals at Marvel are pushing for unionization after years of stories around horrific labor practices. It’s wrong to think of VFX in film and TV as a supplement to “real” filmmaking, quite often they are a primary component, and new technologies surrounding Virtual Production and AI should only solidify that status.

With that in mind, it’s a good time to check in on the cutting edge with SIGGRAPH, the computer graphics conference and showcase which just ended yesterday, by linking to some news out of the conference and also highlighting the short films that were in competition in the conference’s Oscar-qualifying Electronic Theater. Congrats to S/W award-winners Miguel Ortega and Tran Ma for taking home a prize!

HEADLINES

WINNERS from the Electronic Theater

Best in Show: La Diplomatie de L’éclipse | César Luton, Achille Pasquier, Selim Lallaoui, Clémence Bailly, and Axel Mechin at MoPA–L’École de la 3D

Jury’s Choice: Overwatch: Kiriko | Jeremiah Johnson & Dave Stephens

Best Student Project: Swing to the Moon | Marie Bordessoule, Adriana Bouissie, Nadine De Boer, Elisa Drique, Chloé Lauzu, Vincent Levrero, and Solenne Moreau of école supérieure des métiers artistiques (ESMA)

Again, thrilled for Miguel and Tran as Voice in the Hollow had its World Premiere on Short of the Week/Shortverse and went on to receive mention at our most recent Short Awards. I also have a fondness for Overwatch and Blizzard Entertainment’s commitment to short films writing about the potential productive synergy between film and gaming way back in 2016.

Some great SIGGRAPH films have been selections of ours over the years, you can browse Shortverse with SIGGRAPH filtered as an “Honor” using this link.