Shorts Animation Competition 4 (2021)

Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2021
Programme
Shorts Animation Competition

How do you navigate from the nuclear family to the end of the world? The short animation films in this year’s competition go all the way to show us both our smaller and larger world with a new pair of eyes (and eyeglasses). Sometimes they are too daring, talking about our post-survival world in just a few minutes and in black-and-white; at other times, they are too funny, reminding us that art and the artists themselves are not hidden behind a beautiful content, but they are people with flesh and blood – and they need themselves to survive. Curious, energetic, complex but relatable, aesthetically diverse, they may fall into coming-of-age stories, stories of relationships, social responsibility, politics and democracy, or simply the absurd and the unexpected. The interplay between reality and abstraction holds strong; also the quest for our own personal truth (never a conventional one), entails a lot of eccentric but well-targeted episodes along the way. Enjoy!

Vassilis Kroustallis

Films

Baltic premiere

The Fourth Wall

Local title
Neljas sein
Director
Mahboobeh Kalaee
Country
Iran
Year
2021
Programme
Shorts Animation Competition

Home and family, relationships, desires, wishes and everything is summarized in a kitchen. The stuttering boy is alone there,playing with his imagination.

Director
Mahboobeh Kalaee
Runtime
Language
Persian
Subtitles
English

Baltic premiere

Hide

Local title
Peitusemäng
Director
Daniel Benjamin Gray
Country
France, Hungary, Canada
Year
2020
Programme
Shorts Animation Competition

Two brothers entertain themselves with a joyous game of hide and seek while their parents cook dinner. As one boy counts, the other quickly hides in a small cabinet full of glasses, stubbornly determined to win. Seconds pass… then minutes… years… and decades. Every so often the boy peeks out of the sideboard. What he sees is strange and unfamiliar. With each glance, everything and everyone he once knew changes and fades, until he is left alone.

Director
Daniel Benjamin Gray
Runtime
Language
English

Easter Eggs

Local title
Pühademunad
Director
Nicolas Keppens
Country
Belgium, France, Netherlands
Programme
Shorts Animation Competition

The Chinese restaurant is empty. The exotic bird’s cage stands wide open. Two friends, Jason and Kevin, see this as an opportunity to catch and sell them. Catching the birds ain’t as simple as it seems.

Director
Nicolas Keppens
Runtime

Baltic premiere

The Expected

Local title
Oodatud
Director
Carolina Sandvik
Country
Sweden
Year
2021
Programme
Shorts Animation Competition

A pregnant woman is lying in a tub. A man is preparing breakfast in the kitchen. Suddenly the woman starts bleeding and moments later the man finds her drained of all her blood - her empty skin is floating in the tub. She is moved to the bedroom where she remains confined, unable to do anything but staring and blinking. The father-to-be anxiously moves around the flat until he decides to pour the blood from the tub into the couple’s aquarium. Hours, days or weeks pass. Something is moving in the aquarium. It seems to be growing larger every day, but without revealing its full shape.

Director
Carolina Sandvik
Runtime
Trailer

Bestia

Local title
Elajas
Director
Hugo Covarrubias
Country
Chile
Year
2021
Programme
Little Nightmares. Best International Short Films

Based on true events, "Bestia" explores the life of a secret police agent during the military dictatorship in Chile. Her relationship with her dog, her body, her fears and frustrations reveals a grim fracture of her mind and of the country.

Director
Hugo Covarrubias
Runtime

Baltic premiere

Dog's Field

Local title
Koerteväljak
Director
Michalina Musialik
Country
Poland
Year
2020
Programme
Shorts Animation Competition

Animals closed in a flat with a decomposing corpse of their owner try to survive. In this difficult situation one of the dogs finds out that love for its owner is stronger than animal instinct

Director
Michalina Musialik
Runtime
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