The backbone of the whole LIAF mission. We’ve emerged from under the pile of 2,600 entries to put together a series of screenings that showcase the best 117 new films from every corner of the world. The one thing they have in common is that we think they’re the pick of the crop. This is your annual window into the international indie animation universe.
Persuasive, illustrative and able to get over abstract details in attractive and compelling ways, animation is the perfect tool to document someone’s vision of the truth. We have noticed an upwards trend in this genre over the last 12 months and to highlight this there are two Animated Documentaries programmes in competition this year – also see Animated Documentaries 1 screening on Saturday 1 December at 20:45.
These films feature subjects as diverse as two sisters struggling with infertility and an unexpected pregnancy, the possibilities of gene editing and body augmentation, a young child coming to terms with face blindness, a moving account from one of the last survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bomb explosion and a compilation of traumatic, but amusing confessions from former music school students.
At Barbican book tickets
One After the Other (Nicolas Pegon, France)
Wandering around his house, Grant, a young American musician, looks for inspiration in his memories, foraging through things from the past scattered here and there.
2018, 13min
Carlotta’s Face (Valentin Riedl & Frédéric Schuld, Germany)
When Carlotta looks in the mirror, she doesn’t recognise the image reflected back at her. A moving exploration of the confusion that face blindness causes for a young child trying to make sense of her world.
2018, 5min
Conception: Catie and Jen (Moth Collective, 2018)
Two sisters struggle with infertility, an unexpected pregnancy and difficult life decisions. Sisterhood and motherhood meet in this powerful story of love, fear and trust.
UK, 4min
Letting Go (Ulo Pikkov, Estonia)
A layered, complex film channelling the elegant, brittle austerity that sits at the heart of what it can mean to be an orphan.
2017, 11min
Better Humans (Moth Collective, UK)
Sexy yetis, scientists and neon colours collide in a kaleidoscopic romp through the possibilities of gene editing and body augmentation.
2018, 3min
Sinking of the Truth (Tobias Gundorff Boesen, Denis Chapon, Marie-Jose Saint-Pierre, Tynesha Foreman, Wiep Teeuwisse, Sander Joon & Philip Piaget, Denmark)
A remake of ‘The Sinking Of The Lusitania’ (1918) the world’s first animated documentary, made by 7 animators setting out to unearth the truth in this age of fake news.
2017, 7min
Obon (Anna Bergmann (Samo) & Andre Hormann, Germany)
Akiko Takakura, one of the last remaining survivors of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima, tells how amidst the terror, she found a moment of rare closeness with her father.
2018, 15min
Travelogue Tel Aviv (Samuel Pathey, Switzerland)
A young Swiss art student arrives for six months in Tel Aviv. Through drawing he learns to analyse, understand and free himself from this environment and its contradictions.
2017, 6min
Musical Traumas (Milos Tomic, Croatia)
A rhythmic compilation of traumatic, but amusing, confessions of former music students and an attempt to visualise music with scrumptious, hand-drawn, psychedelic animation.
2018, 10min
