Our annual survey of abstract and experimental animation. Animators working in this field employ every technique from hand-drawn ‘musical scores’ all the way across the scale to high definition, computer assisted image-making. These 14 short films share a pure love of animated movement and an artist’s eye for filling the screen, harnessing colour and creating non-narrative imagery.
ONLINE Pre-order tickets
Black Snot and Golden Squares (Irina Rubina, Germany)
A little something for all the worried souls. A stunning homage to Russian constructivism.
European premiere
2020, 1min
Everything is Going to be OK (Jon Dunleavy, UK)
A cosmic meditation on mental health as expressed by the battle between positive and negative forces.
UK premiere
2020, 4min
Firefly (Lee Yun, Hong Kong)
A vibrant watercolour dance, fireflies glowing in the darkness.
2019, 2min
Escape Velocity IV (Zai Tang & Simon Ball, Singapore)
Slowed down field recordings of wildlife from places under threat by development are the foundation of this visual soundscape.
European premiere
2019, 7min
Shinnin Kawaguchi (Jon Gillie, UK)
Developed from research into early Japanese autopsies, particularly the striking water colours of Aoki Shukuya. The abstract, celebratory depiction of the human figure and its place within physical space forms the basis of this animation.
World premiere
2020, 3min
(Invade) (Wong Man Sze, Hong Kong)
Majestic shards of charcoal collide and shatter to give the feeling of being stuck inside a dust storm.
2020, 5min
Xylem (Michael Hughes, UK)
Microscopic images of xylem, one of the two types of transport tissue in vascular plants.
2019, 5min
Marbles (Natalia Spychała, Poland)
A hypnotising pendulum sets a mechanism in motion forming a rhythmic system of interdependence. What is the cause and what is the effect?
UK premiere
2019, 5min
Heirarchy Glitch (Vessela Dantcheva, Bulgaria/Austria)
Visual patterns are tied up in hierarchical behaviour that restrains the full potential and mobility of each individual element until the matrix collapses.
2019, 6min
For Aoki Shukuya (Jon Gillie, UK)
Produced as an ancillary to Shinnin Kawaguchi, the animation focuses on the figures place within the surrounding environment, here depicted as the landscape, a common structure used in early anatomical books such as the Kaishihen.
World premiere
2020, 3min
Winter (Oerd Van Cuijlenborg, France)
Set to the first of Vivaldi’s 4 Seasons symphony, a shimmering, luminescent ode for our times.
World premiere
2019, 9min
Trunk Calls (Ross Stringer, UK)
An audiovisual interpretation of communication between humans and trees.
2020, 4min
Serial Parallels (Max Hattler, Hong Kong)
A dizzying portrait of Hong Kong’s urban environment. The city’s signature architecture of horizon-eclipsing housing estates is reimagined as parallel rows of film strips.
2019, 9min
The Wellspring and the Tower (Melinda Kadar, Hungary)
When the spring that sustains the ecosystem dries up, its cry for help triggers a process that uses all of the world’s resources to build a tower.
UK premiere
2020, 8min
