The backbone of the whole LIAF mission. We’ve emerged from under the pile of more than 2,600 entries to put together a series of screenings that showcase the best 85 new films from every corner of the world. They can be funny, dramatic, bizarre, subdued, scary or autobiographical. The one thing they have in common is that we think they’re the pick of the crop. Eight international competition programmes plus our ever-popular British showcase. Every technique, every genre, every style – this is your annual window into the international indie animation universe.
This programme ‘From Absurd to Zany’ celebrates some of the funniest, weirdest and eye-poppingly nutty films that were entered this year including the latest films from four of the brightest stars from the British independent animation scene – Jenny Jokela, Rory Waudby-Tolley, Peter Millard and Laura Jayne Hodkin.
Here you will encounter tales of two drunk girls in a chicken shop, an obsession with the Y2k bug, lovely piggies, and an extremely catchy cowboy song about a tiny pony called Tony amongst several other films of paranoia, hypochondria, death, absurdity and vegetarianism.
At Barbican book tickets
I’m Going Out For Cigarettes (Osman Cerfon, France)
Jonathan, twelve years old, lives with his sister, his mother and also some men. They all have the same face and nest in closets, drawers, TV set.
2018, 13min
I’m Not A Robot (Sean Buckelew, USA)
Should we fear technology or own morally challenged and violent behaviour?
2019, 2min
Live A Little (Jenny Jokela, UK/Germany/Finland)
Acting a fool convinced you’re a queen. A surreal depiction of the pressure and self-control that is necessary in being a ‘good woman’ in a patriarchal society.
2018, 4min
Don’t Know What (Thomas Renoldner, Austria)
How much entertainment is possible in avant-garde film and how much experimentation in animation?
2019, 8min
New Year (Rory Waudby-Tolley & Diana Gradinaru, UK)
In 1999 a boy becomes obsessed with the Y2K bug. In the future a girl is learning to be a priest in a religion based upon the artifacts left behind by the boy.
2019, 9min
Sh*t Happens (Michaela Mihályi & David Štumpf, Czech Republic/Slovakia/France)
An exhausted caretaker and his sexually frustrated wife, a widowed deer drowning his sorrows in loads of alcohol. An absurd triangle of events.
2019, 13min
Under the Ribcage (Bruno Tondeur, Belgium/France)
A profound and moving story about a neurotic guy who’s gonna’ die. Maybe.
2018, 13min
The Levers (Boyoung Kim, South Korea)
A man accepts a job offer from a stranger on the street. But where are those strange sounds coming from and what’s going on behind the curtains?
2018, 9min
Trauma Chameleon (Gina Kamentsky, USA)
An escaped laboratory rat navigates through a sea of punctuation.
2019, 3min
Hot and Tasty (Laura Jayne Hodkin, UK)
Two drunken girls accidentally stumble into a chicken shop crime-scene.
2019, 4min
This is Pig Meat (Peter Millard, Canada/UK)
Peter used to be a vegetarian. Pigs used to be his friends. Now he eats them quite a lot.
2019, 4min
Tony the Tiny Pony (Ned Wenlock, New Zealand)
Listen up cowboys, cowgirls and cow-everybody else too: gather round to hear the story of a tiny pony named Tony.
2019, 4min
