Ionian ContemporaryAnimation Festival ICONA December 5th - December 8th, 2024
Professional Competition 5
Saturday 07/12/2024 13:00 - 15:00, Sunday 08/12/2024 01:00 - 03:00
Total Duration: 1:51:49
- Sleepy 13:40 Russian Federation 2023
Directed: Igor Voloshin Screenplay: Igor Voloshin Production: Marianna Galstukhova-Smetankina, Anton Smetankin Dialogue Language: Russian Thirteen-year-old Varka lives in a shoemaker’s home where she performs the duties of nanny and housemaid. Varka’s only wish is to get some sleep.
- Mothership 13:50 Russian Federation 2024
Directed: Evgeniy Golovin Screenplay: Maria Parfenova Production: Elena Zamkova, Anton Smetankin, Evgeniy Golovin When the world is full of danger, and darkness inexorably advances, the only ray of hope is the distant light of a dream. But its price is incredibly high.
- A Different Goal 03:26 Canada 2023
Directed: Marco Joubert Screenplay: Marco Joubert Production: Marco Joubert Dialogue Language: English What would happen if intelligent machines started developing their own goals, different from those of humankind?
- chicken 08:03 Germany 2023
Directed: Anna Benner Screenplay: Anna Benner Production: Anna Benner Dialogue Language: English A woman who is escaping an abusive situation stumbles and finds herself eye to eye with a hen who is in the same situation. Even though they are separated by a fence as well as by species they develop a mutual understanding based on the outward shared symptoms of their pain: sore skin. In the moment of their connection we see flashbacks to the origin of their pain. As the woman smokes a cigarette to calm her nerves, she and the chicken come up with a plan: to set the world on fire to match their burning skin. The fire may be imaginary but nevertheless it soothes and provides catharsis.
- Memories in the Clouds / Prisiminimai Debesyse 07:00 Finland 2023
Directed: Kristina Laine, Albert Aleksanteri Laine Screenplay: Kristina Laine, Albert Aleksanteri Laine Production: Kristina Laine, Albert Aleksanteri Laine Dialogue Language: Lithuanian "Memories in the Clouds" visualizes Kristina (Žičkutė) Laine’s childhood memories in Soviet Lithuania. Thoughts blend with moods in a painterly experimental film, written in a structured form of a poetic narration. The film brings forth Kristina's worldview as a child, during the vast socio-political changes of the collapsing Soviet Union. Kristina's voice over leads the viewers though her fleeting memories, like a child dreams figures in the clouds. The film is produced with a combination of timelapse videos of a summer sky, shot in Lithuania, volumetric 3D simulation and digital 2D animation. The film utilizes specifically tuned AI algorithms as animators to visualize the narrated features to the moving clouds. The film displays how AI generated visual technology can be harnessed as a tool to produce a personal animated documentary film.
- IN-BETWEEN 04:35 China 2024
Directed: long qin Screenplay: jie chen The work is inspired by the letters of Mr. Zhong Shuhe and Mr. Zhou Zuoren, and uses the hidden torch in the darkness to reflect the ordinary people who once illuminated civilization. Everything is extraordinary. Just like those athletes who never stopped under the spotlight and failed to win medals, they are equally worthy of respect and commemoration as the baton that passes the light in the middle. Moreover, we are born ordinary, and our lives are long and short. Those who once nurtured extraordinary ordinary gave future generations the courage to fight for danger.
- Hey，Xiaozi 07:32 China 2023
Directed: Ming Zhang, Yixin Guo Production: Jiede Wu Dialogue Language: Chinese "Hey, Xiaozi" is an animated short film about how people with social anxiety overcome their social anxiety. It tells the story of a girl who runs away due to social anxiety and finally overcomes her fear and bravely faces herself. This film adopts a two-dimensional animation form and employs exaggerated and humorous methods to narrate the story, depicting it from multiple angles. Describe this common phenomenon in modern society in a relaxed storytelling style.
- And then they 08:15 United Kingdom 2024
Directed: Shaun Clark Screenplay: Leander Thom Production: Shaun Clark, Carrie Washington Dialogue Language: English In 'And Then They,' a collage of diverse voices emerge as people are interviewed about a character called Alex. Memories of Alex's swamp-dwelling aspirations, mud-rolling weekends quickly unfold as the film becomes a poignant exploration of identity, prompting viewers to question how well we truly know others and the intricacies that shape an enigmatic figure like Alex.
- Chronicity 03:17 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2024
Directed: Aleta Rajic Screenplay: Aleta Rajic Production: Sanja Rajic-Banjac A seemingly naive turn of events leads to a disastrous one. Flight of wings leading all the way to WW1.
- Pisces / מזל דגים 12:08 Israel 2023
Directed: Lee Dror Screenplay: Omar Hamawy Ernst Production: Amit Gicelter Dialogue Language: Hebrew, Japanese After Rona cut contact with her family in Israel and moved to Japan, a surprising phone call from her father, informing her that her sister had been killed in an accident, changes her world. The film follows the most difficult 24 hours of her life, during which she tries to continue her daily routine as a member of a family for rent. As she denies her sister's death she begins to be a stranger that trapped in her previous world.
- Return Home 06:35 Indonesia 2024
Directed: Aretha Jasmine Screenplay: Aretha Jasmine Production: Aretha Jasmine Dialogue Language: English A Fungus who is lost and discovered a missing shoe in the grass, which it uses as a home. One day, a heavy rainstorm flooded its settlement. This tragedy carried that creature to a place where all the mysteries surrounding the origin of its shoe home were finally answered. As the story unfolds, it reveals two perspectives of the shoes.
- Body-oddy-oddy-oddy: Destabilizing the Surveilling of Queer Bodies 09:23 United States 2024
Directed: Benjamin Rosenthal, Eric Souther Dialogue Language: No Dialogue "Body-oddy-oddy-oddy: Destabilizing the Surveilling of Queer Bodies" explores the nature of how we understand our bodies, the ways in which we “queer” the body, and performative nature of how we explore our identities in mediated space. The work challenges the supremacy of normative human body-to-body contact, by exploring the role that a hybrid human-object-virtual encounter might pose for alternative forms of intimacy and exchange. The use of self-surveillance as a strategy of making and being is critical to our understanding of contemporary bodily experiences in the piece. The lens, the camera, video as both electronic mirror and surveyor, the scanner, generative A.I., and motion capture technology construct the performance of identity—who we are as hybrids and how we exploit our self-awareness and positions. Through the act of making this work, we aim to disrupt the hegemony of stable bodies in search of what might be greater potential. “Breaking” the intentions of the software and hardware specifications, and revealing the tools of its making, we blast open possibility for new rules and new narratives. The future is undoubtedly queer, and it’s one hell of a party.
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