The 23rd Animation Show of Shows

2/29/24: International Short Film Festival Screening

“The 23rd Animation Show of Shows”

7:00pm, Emery Performance Space

Free and open to the public

The ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS returns to theaters and campuses across North America this
fall. This 23rd edition comprises 11 films – three recent productions and eight classic gems –
that deal with a wide variety of themes and employ an equally broad number of techniques.
Ranging from the whimsical to the profound, they all highlight the craftsmanship and
inventiveness that characterize the best animated films.

“Animation is a natural medium for dealing with abstract ideas and deeply felt concerns – as
well as the absurdity of the human condition – and the ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS has
always strived to scour the world for the most affecting and engaging films,” says founder and
curator Ron Diamond.

In addition to their diversity of styles and subject matter, the 11 films also represent a range of
countries, including Croatia, Germany, the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Mexico, the UK, and
Switzerland. Notably, among the classic films being screened, both Hillary (1994) and Hasta los
huesos (2001) will be presented in newly restored 4K digital remastered versions.

The 11 animated short films, in alphabetical order are:
11 – Vuk Jevremovic (Croatia/Germany)
Cameras Take Five – Steven Woloshen (USA)
The Centrifuge Brain Project – Till Nowak (Germany)
Father and Daughter – Michaël Dudok de Wit (Netherlands)
Hasta los huesos (Down to the Bone) – René Castillo (Mexico)
Hillary – Anthony Hodgson (UK)
I'm Hip – John Musker (USA)
John and Karen – Matthew Walker (UK)
The Record – Jonathan Laskar (Switzerland)
Santa, The Fascist Years – Bill Plympton (USA)
When the Day Breaks – Wendy Tilby & Amanda Forbis (Canada)

Funny, moving, engaging, and thought-provoking, the ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS not only
has something for everyone, but is a remarkable and insightful microcosm of our world.
For 25 years, the ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS has been presenting new and innovative short
films to appreciative audiences at animation studios, schools and, since 2015, theaters around
the world. Over the years, 41 of the films showcased in the ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS went
on to receive Academy Award® nominations, with 11 films winning the Oscar®. Founded and
curated by producer Ron Diamond, the ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS is funded by major
studios, companies, schools and hundreds of animation lovers around the world.

 

Program Details:

11 (2022) Dir. Vuk Jevremovic, Croatia/Germany, 5:00
Taking football (i.e., soccer) as a jumping-off point into politics, history, and culture, 11 uses a
flurry of ink-on-paper, pastel, watercolor, and oil-on-canvas tools to take us inside the head of a
football player as he stands alone on a field for a penalty kick facing a goalie, a net, a ball, and
thousands of fans. Flashes of archival footage dash across the screen, reflecting the outside
world, and the many external pressures and influences that are an inescapable part of
competitive sports. As he confronts the goalie across the 11 meters that separate them, the
shooter knows that whatever he does next will have repercussions beyond a simple kick and a
single game.
Director’s Statement: My two big passions are soccer and art. Both of my parents were architects, but my father was
also a passionate soccer lover who took me to games, even pulling me out of school to see Pele
play in an exhibition game. I always admired the movement of the players – they’re almost like
the best dancers, controlling the ball with their legs – and I enjoyed drawing them. The idea in
11 is: the best players can do the miracles, but if they miss a penalty kick (especially in a very
important game), everybody remembers them as losers, and forgets about all the mastery and
miracles which came before.
As for the technique, from my first film, my idea was that animation is an art of its own with its
own language – a language of 24 frames – and that you can create drama or emotion using
different graphic styles, and combining them to create tension. The same with colors. Music has
also always been an important part of my films because there are never any "straight"
narratives; but through music and animation, I hope to make people "feel" what they are
about.
Awards: Best Film in Croatian Competition, Animafest, Zagreb
Jury’s Special Mention, Animateka International Animated Film Festival
Best of the Fest, Melbourne International Animation Festival
“A blistering, breathtaking beauty of a work, 11 is a dizzyingly brilliant piece of improv. It’s not
just about a goal or a game, but about life.”
– Chris Robinson, AWN
“The film feels liberated and completely untethered from audience expectations… Each frame
on its own could be completely abstract, [but] the motion unlocks the images, and the eye is …
always rewarded. This separates this animation … in a way that is rarely seen in filmmaking
(animation or otherwise).”
– Judges’ comment, Melbourne International Animation Festival
Bio: Vuk Jevremovic was born 1959 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, but spent his childhood in the
former Yugoslavia. Following the family tradition, he studied Architecture at The Technical
University Belgrade, graduating in 1984, and went on to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in
Munich. He became involved with animation through a casual encounter with the renowned
Croatian animator Nedeljko Dragic, later joining the animation course Dragic was teaching, and
falling in love forever with moving images. His first animation, the multiple-award-winning The
Wind Subsides (1997), was shown all over the world, and his next film, Panther (1998) was also
highly successful, including being short-listed for an Oscar. His other films include Diary (2000),
Faces (2002), Close Your Eyes and Do Not Breathe (2006), Patience of the Memory (2009), and
Sailor’s Grave (2016).
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Cameras Take Five (2003) Dir. Steven Woloshen, Canada, 3:00
Using as a soundtrack the Dave Brubeck Quartet version of Paul Desmond’s jazz classic “Take
Five,” Steve Woloshen has produced a festive explosion of graphics that reflect and punctuate
the musical score. Woloshen created the work by painting the thousands of individual frames
on a three-hundred-feet-long piece of negative film. The abstract shapes, undulating lines,
curves, stars, waves, spots, and points continuously evolve as the music plays.
“This is an experience thrown down (on film). It is the marriage of motion and music, the tender
goodnight kiss of animation in its simplest form.”
– Gregory Singer, AWN
“Always abstract, never abstruse, his films are very beautiful visual illustrations of jazz or rock
standards.”
– Stephane Dreyfus, La Croix magazine
Bio: Born in Montreal, Quebec, Steven Woloshen attended Vanier College and Concordia University
in Montreal. He initially made documentaries and collage films, but the freedom and
accessibility of scratch animation won him over. He has since created animated and
experimental films, which have been shown at screenings and festivals around the world,
including the Montreal World Film Festival, Tampere International Short Film Festival, Annecy
International Animated Film Festival, Ottawa International Animation Festival, and I Castelli
Animati in Rome.
•
The Centrifuge Brain Project (2011) Dir. Till Nowak, Germany, 6:35
Based on his childhood fascination with amusement parks, Till Nowak created this
mockumentary fantasy film. The film incorporates computer-generated imagery to create seven
real-seeming fictional amusement park rides used in a faux documentary film about the construction of physics-defying rides intended for use in research efforts to improve human
cognitive function.
Awards: Best Short Film, 34th Moscow International Film Festival
Best Short Short, Aspen Shortsfest
Audience Award, Hamburg International Short Film Festival
“The Centrifuge Brain Project toys with science in such a deadpan way that some commenters
asked if the crazy amusement park rides were real or not. Yet, in the end, it's not a simplistic
joke, but a short meditation on how we humans try to fight gravity – and nature in general –
both in the lab and at amusement parks.”
– Carl Zimmer, National Geographic
Bio: Till Nowak is an artist and filmmaker born in Germany in 1980. In 1999, he founded the
animation studio frameboX and gained international attention through several award-winning
projects, including The Centrifuge Brain Project. In addition to animation, Nowak's work
includes cultural projects such as his art installation at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg,
collaborations with pop stars such as Katie Perry, and serving as a concept artist for Marvel
Studios’ Black Panther.
•
Father and Daughter (2000) Dir. Michaël Dudok de Wit, Netherlands, 8:00
A father says goodbye to his young daughter. Time passes and the daughter moves through life,
age by age. She becomes a young woman, has a family, and in time she grows old. Yet within
her, there is always a deep longing for her father, with whom, in the end, she is – or appears to
be – reunited.
Awards: Best Short Animated Film, Academy Awards
Grand Prix, Annecy International Animated Film Festival
Best Short Animation, BAFTA Awards
“For anyone who has experienced a last moment like this, and many of us have, the film strikes
a chord. How often does one travel back to that spot, even if it is only in one's mind?”
– Maureen Furniss, AWN
Bio: Michael Dudok de Wit was born in 1953 and educated in Holland. In 1978, he graduated from
the West Surrey College of Art in England with his first film, The Interview. After working for a
year in Barcelona, he settled in London where he directs and animates award-winning
commercials for television and cinema. In 1992, he created the short film Tom Sweep, followed by The Monk and the Fish (1994), which was nominated for an Oscar and has won numerous
prizes, including a César and the Cartoon d'Or. Dudok de Wit also illustrates books and teaches
animation at art colleges.
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Hasta Los huesos (Down to the Bone) (2001) Dir. René Castillo, Mexico, 10:00
In this exquisite stop-motion work, a newly dead man finds himself in an afterlife nightclub
populated by others who are no more. Unsure if he’s in purgatory or if this is his permanent
resting spot, he tries to make the best of it and, ultimately, he must accept his fate.
Awards: FIPRESCI Prize, Annecy International Animated Film Festival
First Prize, Havana Film Festival
Jury Award, Palm Springs International ShortFest
Bio: René Castillo is a pioneer animator in the stop-motion technique in Mexico. His short films Sin
sostén and Hasta los huesos won numerous awards in many of the most important film and
animation festivals. He served as Senior Animator on Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio and is
currently writing, directing and producing his first stop-motion-animation feature film.
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Hillary (1994) Dir. Anthony Hodgson, UK, 9:00
“Hilary worked in an office with a rubber plant and a man whose name she’d forgotten, and she
lived with her mother and her mother’s father, who was 76 and deaf and who secretly ate
dogfood, although it wasn’t much of a secret.” A man tells his daughter a bedtime story as they
meander through a series of strange locations, each one Illustrating a different chapter in the
humorous but ultimately tragic life of his wife, Hilary.
Director’s Statement: Hilary was my graduation film from the Royal College of Art. It took about a year to make, and
most of that time was spent building the puppets and sets. Filming took about nine weeks. The
college provided me with a studio, camera, lights, film stock and processing, as well as a small
materials budget. I thought it might well be the last opportunity I would have to make a film of
my own, so I included everything in it that I could think of. The look of the film was driven by
my need to make things as simple as possible, because of the number of locations, the time
restraints, and my own technical abilities.
I liked the idea of a parent telling a bedtime story as a cathartic experience, to a child who is not
paying the slightest attention. The narration itself was not motivated by any kind of plot or structure, more by the sounds of the words when I put them together, and whatever made me
laugh. Nobody except my tutors had seen Hilary before the graduation screening, so it was a
relief when people laughed in the right places.
Awards: Best Film, Fantoche International Animation Festival
Audience Award, Ottawa International Animation Festival
Jury Commendation, Montreal Animation Festival
Bio: Anthony Hodgson was born and raised in York, England. He moved to London to study
Illustration at the University of Westminster, and then Animation at the Royal College of Art. He
was Resident Animator at the Museum of the Moving Image, made a stop-motion short for
Channel 4, and wrote scripts for children’s television and the BBC. In the 1990s, he moved to
California to work at DreamWorks Animation.
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I'm Hip (2023) Dir. John Musker, USA, 4:00
A self-absorbed cat, in a jazzy song and dance, proudly and comically proclaims his "hipness" to
the world. The world is not impressed.
Director’s Statement: Although I have a great deal of experience with studio-based, feature-length animation, I had
long hoped to make a short animated film of my own. When I retired from Disney in 2018, I
thought the time had come at last to pursue that dream. I wanted to make something that was
me, undiluted, even if that meant my short might have quirky, oddball moments. I also wanted
to celebrate hand-drawn animation.
I had several ideas for short films, all of them built around pieces of music. Some of my favorite
moments in the films that Ron Clements and I directed at Disney were the songs, and I’ve loved
the song “I’m Hip” for a long time. I had an early choice whether to animate on paper, which
was the only way I ever had, or to embrace one of the available software options. After a few
early tests, I was sold on drawing it with a stylus, using TVPaint, a French animation software
program. However, this project would still be unfinished if not for the indefatigable work of my
partner on this, Talin Tanielian. She knew TVPaint very well, and even more so, After Effects,
which she used to composite everything. And she kept everything organized despite my best
efforts to sow chaos.
Bio: John Musker (born November 8, 1953) is an American animator, film director, screenwriter, and
film producer, who often collaborates with fellow director Ron Clements. Born in Chicago in
1953, Musker attended Loyola Academy and the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University. He obtained his Master of Fine Arts at the California Institute of the
Arts, where he served a two-year apprenticeship with famed Disney animator Frank Thomas.
Musker is best known for writing and directing the Disney films The Great Mouse Detective
(1986), The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), Hercules (1997), Treasure Planet (2002), The
Princess and the Frog (2009), and Moana (2016).
•
John and Karen (2007) Dir. Matthew Walker, UK, 5:00
An unlikely couple – John, a polar bear, and Karen, a penguin – try to resolve their problems in
this dryly humorous and surprisingly touching short.
Awards: Best Short Short, Aspen Shortsfest
Special Prize, Hiroshima International Animation Festival
Bio: Matthew Walker attended Falmouth University and the University of South Wales, where he
earned his BA in Animation. Since 2008, he has been a director, animator, writer, and
storyboard artist at Aardman Animation in Bristol, UK. In addition to John and Karen, he
directed the shorts Astronauts and Operator, and is the creator and series director of Lloyd of
the Flies.
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The Record (2022) Dir. Jonathan Laskar, Switzerland, 8:00
A traveler gives an antiques dealer a magic vinyl record, telling him, "It reads your mind and
plays your lost memories." Increasingly obsessed by this uncanny artifact, the dealer listens to it
again and again.
Awards: Jean-Luc Xiberras Award, Annecy International Animated Film Festival
Swiss Film Prize for Best Animation Film
Jury Award – Best Animation Short, Santa Fe International Film Festival
Bio: Jonathan Laskar received a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Université Aix-Marseille II, a diploma
in Architecture from the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, and a Master in Design from the
Hochschule Luzern, Switzerland. From 2008 to 2011, he worked as an architect in Basel,
Switzerland before turning his attention to animation. In addition to The Record, he directed
the short film From Earth and Ink (2013), and has worked as an animator and compositor for
works by Georges Schwizgebel and others.

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Santa, The Fascist Years (2008) Dir. Bill Plympton, USA, 3:00
While we all think of Santa as "Jolly old St. Nick,” it turns out that this beloved icon has a dark
past that has only recently come to light. This short film uncovers and explores Santa's flirtation
with politics and greed.
Bio: Among the best-known independent animators, Bill Plympton was born in Portland, Oregon,
whose rainy climate he credits for nurturing his drawing skills and imagination. Plympton
attended Portland State University, where, as a member of the film society, he made his first
animation – a yearbook promo that was accidentally shot upside-down, rendering it totally
useless. In 1968, Plympton moved to New York City, where he studied at the School of Visual
Arts and worked as an illustrator and cartoonist. One of his first animated shorts, Your Face
(1988), was nominated for an Academy Award, beginning an Illustrious career that has included
such high points as How to Kiss (1988), 25 Ways to Quit Smoking (1989), The Tune (1992), I
Married a Strange Person (1997), Mutant Aliens (2001), Hair High (2004), the Oscar-nominated
Guard Dog (2004), Idiots and Angels (2008), and Cheatin’ (2013). He shows no signs of slowing
down.
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When the Day Breaks (1999) Dirs. Wendy Tilby & Amanda Forbis, Canada, 10:00
After witnessing the accidental death of a humanoid rooster, Ruby, a humanoid pig, seeks
comfort from her everyday life in the city. Using pencil and paint on photocopies to achieve a
textured look suggestive of a lithograph or a newsreel, the directors of this Oscar-nominated
short create a tale at once whimsical and profound.
Awards: Grand Prix, Annecy International Animated Film Festival
Palme d'Or – Best Short Film, Cannes Film Festival
Grand Prize, Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films
Grand Prix, Hiroshima International Animation Festival
Bio: Canadian animation duo Wendy Tilby (b. 1960) and Amanda Forbis (b. 1963), partners in art
and in life, have been working together for more than 20 years. Originally from Alberta, they
first met in Vancouver at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design. Most of their work has been
undertaken in conjunction with the National Film Board of Canada, with which both have been
associated for much of their professional lives. All three of their short animated films (When the
Day Breaks, Wild Life (2011), and The Flying Sailor (2022)) have received Academy Award nominations. In 2018, they were recipients of ASIFA’s Winsor McCay Award for their
“exceptional contribution to the art of animation.”