Since the dawn of cinema puppet animation has provided some of the most mesmerising films ever made and puppet animators have been among the most revered. Breathing a kind of life into inanimate puppets is a very special form of magic and this programme showcases the continuing vibrancy of this technique.
Puppet films should always look like they were handmade. The movements are not always clean, super smooth and flawless. The characters in the films should ‘feel’ real…. because they are! It is these quirks and wonderful little imperfections that make these films so special and define some of the most important elements of a puppet film.
These 9 thought-provoking, moving and downright loopy short puppet films have been made by some of the most talented independent animators in the last few years from their different bunkers around the world proving that tangible and physical stop-motion and puppet animation is alive and well and in rude health in the 21st century. Long may it prosper!
Several filmmakers will be in attendance to introduce their films at the start of the screening.
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Two Black Boys in Paradise – Baz Sells, UK
Eden (19) and Dula (18) are two Black boys on a journey of self-acceptance. Their love for each other, and their refusal to hide it, lands them in a paradise free from shame and judgement. Based on the poem by Dean Atta.
2025 8’50 min
Eating Time – Mari Kivi, Estonia
Eating her way through time, a woman triggers a time shift and is plunged into a journey through a labyrinth of floors.
2025 16’20 min
Psychonauts – Niko Radas, Croatia
Leaving their human hosts, mental disorders take on anthropomorphic forms and find new refuges.
2025 8’00 min
Double or Nothing – Tokay Sirin, Switzerland
Akio Kashiwagi is a real estate shark in Tokyo in the 1980s. His great passion is illegal gambling in the underworld. An American is on his trail and tries to track down stolen money.
2025 9’40 min
Atomik Tour – Bruno Collet, Czech Republic / France
For Hugo, visiting Chernobyl’s forbidden area is not a commemorative trip. If this young tourist wanders through radioactive ruins, it is mainly to feed his Instagram account. This absurd quest will lead him to discover a population he never knew existed.
2025 13’00 min
On Weary Wings Go By – Anu-Laura Tuttelberg, Estonia / Lthuania
A wintry poem of Nordic nature. The sun is low, days shorten. Birds fly South, porcelain animals and insects hide from the freezing wind and snow.
2024 10’35 min
This film is not included in our online programme
The Wickywock and the JubJub Berry – Cat Johnston & Joseph Wallace, UK
In a woodland glade, an exhausted mythical creature is suffering from insomnia. When a small forest sprite appears and offers a sedative, it sounds like a perfect solution, but the fatigued Wickywock is too impatient to heed the Sprite’s terms.
2025 5’25 min
Tethered – Alessandro Cino Zolfaneli, UK
After a chance encounter with a girl, a boy’s longing to be with her is threatened by a mysterious pull from the Moon.
2025 9’45 min
Murmuration – Janneke Swinkels & Tim Frijsinger, Netherlands / Belgium
Trapped in a nursing home – a place of bingo, pills, dentures and dementia – an elderly man starts to wish he were one of the birds outside.
2025 12’25 min
This film is not included in our online programme
Our Funding Partners
With Special Thanks to The Elf Factory, official sponsor of LIAF 2025.
Event supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery.
Venue
The Horse Hospital is a three tiered progressive arts venue in London providing an encompassing umbrella for the related media of film fashion, music and art. For more information about The Horse Hospital and how to get there, find out more.
Online, Puppet Theatre Barge
