Ionian ContemporaryAnimation Festival ICONA December 5th - December 8th, 2024
Student Greek Competition
Thursday 05/12/2024 11:15 - 13:00, Thursday 05/12/2024 23:15 - 01:00
Total Duration: 1:39:00
- Automat(e) 12:00 Greece 2023
Directed: Nicole Tsatsou Dialogue Language: English A tribute to Edward Hopper This project emerged from an extensive process of research and experimentation, aiming to demonstrate the results that can be obtained through a fusion of analogue and 3D virtual elements, combined with an automated interpretive tool such as artificial intelligence. Based on the work of Edward Hopper, I singled out the paintings that personally stimulate me the most, and tried to bring them closer to me by visualizing parts of my imagination that would work more like my own brushstrokes. In the process I imagined them both as static paintings and as backdrops, and attempted to harmonize them into a society of their own - a three-dimensional microcosm. The later stage was the "marriage" with AI, as I tried to discover how a programmed machine interprets the same paintings, and also how it suggests a possible experience of viewing them. I wanted to capture the predetermined and detached effect of the AI, despite its dressing up with verbal embellishments, seeking as mechanical a camera movement as possible, with a steady rhythm, not taking a position, but passing, observing and moving on. The resulting automated visual journey is the filtering of the dialogue between the above fields, in a world that I created starting from personal choices, in concert with an automated algorithm.
- METECHO: An architectural narrative at a medieval ruin / ΜΕΤΕΧΩ: Μία αρχιτεκτονική ιστορία στο μετόχι των Κριτζιανών 02:30 Greece 2024
METECHO is an architectural narrative about the revival of an abandoned building and the spirit of this place, through references to the history of this place and interpretations of the communal monastic ritual, whose dynamic evolution eventually prevents anything alive from becoming static. The characters create an architecture that promotes the commune in itself, promotes people to participate in its creation, to participate in its evolution and to participate in its functioning, thus participating in their association with each other. The animation presented, describes a day in the revitalized commune, and how it continues to evolve spatially and chronologically.
- 66 Days 03:26 Greece 2023
3rd Place - Greek Student Short Animation - JuryDirected: Georgia POURNARA Screenplay: Georgia POURNARA Production: Georgia POURNARA "Tade lives alone in an apartment in the middle of Athens, in the middle of the world, in the middle of nowhere. Every day starts in the bathroom with brushing her teeth. Tade loves simple things, like a cup of coffee, a hot morning meal, and the greenery that peeks out of her windows. Everything is waiting for her impatiently, but it's the magic bath time when Tade forgets all her worries. Steeped into oblivion is a step before she can leave the bathroom. She opens her eyes. I wonder if Tade will ever understand that her life in the apartment isn't the only thing keeping her alive or she will stay forever in a pattern that keeps her trapped in the loop of start_stop_repeat and betrayed by her favorite habits."
- Cut the Tie 04:13 Greece 2024
1st Place - Greek Student Short Animation - JuryDirected: Anna Oikonomou Screenplay: Anna Oikonomou Production: University of West Attica "Cut the Tie" is still in progress. Final version of the film is to be ready on 20.6.2024. The story of a girl's relationship with her eating disorder, told through dance. A girl is looking at herself in her bedroom mirror. She seems troubled by her body image and grabs a measuring tape to measure her waist. When left dissatisfied by the results, she pulles aggressively onto the ends. By doing that, the girl and her tape get transported into an imaginary world in which the tape transforms into a colourful ribbon that comes to life in order to lure the girl into dancing with it. At first, they dance together in complete harmony but once the girl decides to let go of the ribbon and dance alone, the ribbon grabs her and starts to control her every move like a puppeteer. It then starts to manically wrap around the girl until it becomes a nook around her throat. The girl tries to break free but finally surrenders to the ribbon. At that moment, a hand, seemingly from the real world, appears and hands her a pair of scissors. Together they cut the tie. The girl wakes up in front of her mirror once more and realises what has happened. She, then, heads out to seek the help that she needs.
- MetaConverstations 11:36 Greece 2023
Directed: Elena Dimopoulou Screenplay: Elena Dimopoulou Production: Elena DImopoulou Dialogue Language: Modern Greek (1453-) MetaConverstations is an art project, featuring a 11 minute video animation short that takes the form of a movie-style interview with advertisments.The project revolves around Eve,3d a metahuman character from Unreal Engine striving for fame in the game art world. The video offers a glimpse into Eve's journey, exploring her passion for digital art and her ambitions to make a name for herself. where metahuman abilities transcend the boundaries of reality, and digital art becomes a realm of infinite possibilities. The dialogue covers topics such as the impact of metahuman technology on the art world, the exclusivity and creativity of metahuman artists, and the power of imagination in shaping the future of art. Interspersed throughout the interview, humorous advertisements, add a touch of levity and entertainment. The project also incorporates social media elements by featuring an Instagram hashtag to engage viewers and encourage further exploration of the metahuman art world. MetaConverstations invites viewers on a journey into the realm of digital art and metahuman creativity. It celebrates the fusion of art and technology while exploring the dreams, ambitions, and challenges faced by artists like Eve as they strive for recognition and fame.
- EPHEMERAL CREATURES / ΕΦΗΜΕΡΙΚΑ ΠΛΑΣΜΑΤΑ 03:26 Greece 2024
Directed: Valentina Farantouri Screenplay: Valentina Farantouri Production: Valentina Farantouri Dialogue Language: English A Lab that gets alive by redesigning dream memories and navigating the epistemological maze of memory reconstruction. A ceaseless pursuit of transcending the confined material world embodies creatures made of body parts from the material world to overcome humanity. It is a forgotten lab produced by the reconstruction of memories. Memory shapes personal identity. It is often seen as crucial for maintaining a sense of self and continuity over time. Memories of past experiences help individuals construct narratives about themselves and understand their place in the world. This idea suggests that memory is not static but rather dynamic and subject to change over time. Here we see the virtual world of the perception of a dream system. The emergence and transformation of body parts are intricately tied to the reconfiguration of memory within dynamic spaces characterized by a perpetual flux of multiplicities and assemblages of the creature's bodies. Within this framework, the perpetuation of systems hinges upon the ongoing manipulation of attention and memory, influencing the continual emergence and metamorphosis of body parts that now take shape. In the abandoned laboratory of nightmares, dream assemblages of possible worlds echo this intricate interplay, where the production of body parts is shaped by the manipulation of attention and memory within these dynamic spaces.
- IN LIMBO (2024) / IN LIMBO 15:02 Greece 2024
Directed: Antonis Koutsakis Screenplay: Antonis Koutsakis In a strange and dystopian world, between chaos and magic, one sullen and bony dog confronts the absurd, by a series of paradoxes and frustrations. In a timeless time, where the questioning of existence is complicated with the eternal need for closeness and coexistence and where death balances with the countervailing power of hope. A surreal journey, unfolding unexpectedly in and out of the gaze of a suffering creature, the dog. An entity incessantly searching for a reference point, a "port" and who perhaps seems to find it in an existence as doomed as he is. A creature similar in appearance to the others he has already met, but which he is totally different. Withdrawn from the rest of the world, immersed in his thoughts and disillusioned with the world in which he lives. A meeting that offers security, understanding and expectations in redemption and the hope for something better, but at the same time it requires the ascent and the effort that have to put together for another world.
- SPHINX 03:42 Greece 2024
Directed: Myrto Kokkinou Screenplay: Myrto Kokkinou Production: Myrto Kokkinou Sphinx depicts an idyllic world where curiosity and play are the only way of living imagined. But it witholds the answer to its own enigma. Loosely based on the poems "Oedipus" by Cavafy and "The Mirror" by Sachtouris, Sphinx aims to remind that not everything is as it seems.
- Choosing ignorance / Εθελοτυφλώντας 06:29 Greece 2024
Directed: Mariza Tseva Choosing ignorance is an animated film based on Plato's "Allegory of the Cave", in his work "Politeia" and concerns "the effects of education and the lack of it on human nature". The story takes place in a small village full of lambs, whose only care in the world is playing around, having only one real goal: being accepted in a most popular clup in their village. The only ones that can go through the club’s Security are the ones that possess a special coin, which given to a few chosen ones every day through an ATM. The protagonist, Lana, failed to get the needed coin and couldn’t follow her best friend, Sia, to the club that day. Against all odds, she eventually found it in the most unusual of places. But in the same time she accidentally unearthed the secret hidden behind her village’s weird ways.
- FLEETING 12:23 Greece 2024
Directed: Michael Kotaidis Dialogue Language: English A man returns home after a long resupply trip only to find his family deceased. A deadly sickness afflicts the environment and everyone living in it. Planning to put an end to this state of affairs he prepares for one last journey.
- Lustful Threads of the Subconscious Nexus 04:29 Greece 2024
Directed: Ioannis . Karalis Screenplay: Ioannis . Karalis Production: Ioannis . Karalis Swirling organic shapes in deep gold and black tones create flashes of abstract symbols which emerge and dissolve in a dreamlike rhythm. These archetypal forms evoke the chaotic energy of desire, pulsating and shifting in hypnotic patterns, reminiscent of cosmic phenomena and the unpredictable nature of emotions. Electric beats and organic sounds, mirror the tension between logic and instinct. AI-infused transitions add an uncanny layer, creating a surreal, otherworldly atmosphere that amplifies the hallucinatory impact of the viewing experience. As the visuals evolve, intricate networks of light and shadow seem to collide and coalesce, suggesting the intrinsic relationship between chaos and the subconscious cravings that drive human behaviour.
- AMARI 07:26 Greece 2024
Greek Student Short Animation - Audience AwardDirected: ELEFTHERIOS ANAGNOSTOPOULOS Screenplay: ELEFTHERIOS ANAGNOSTOPOULOS Production: ELEFTHERIOS ANAGNOSTOPOULOS Dialogue Language: English An african mother struggles to take care of her irresponsible daughter and her grandchild but after an incident, her daughter has to learn to become independent and take care of her child.
- Study in 3/4 / Σπουδή σε 3/4 04:50 Greece 2024
2nd Place - Greek Student Short Animation - JuryDirected: Anna Mastorou Screenplay: Anna Mastorou Dialogue Language: No Dialogue A girl is making a drawing of a couple in her sketchbook. The drawing comes alive and the two characters start exploring the pages of the book interacting with the sketches they come across, up until they reach a drawing of a landscape. There, they eventually resume their initial pose, this time as a finished drawing.
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