New Polish Animation Shorts: Animated in Poland
There is a delight to watch films in the making; you think you can actually be part of their own development. The Animated in Poland pitching event (its 9th edition) is a homey -and manageable- presentation and pitching of animation shorts in progress, both from professionals and students. This year it went online (1 June 2021), and opened up for people outside Krakow to hear about projects which have mostly finished production -looking for a post-production partner and funding.
There was a really vast choice of themes. The Sound Mind Studio Award went to a graphic novel-styled, black-and-white Hollywood mob story 'All My Effing Superheroes' by Piotr Kabat (prod: Letko). it is somehow refreshing to see animation directors tackle themes that go beyond the local and the very universal, and the look of the film suits its theme. The award gives 10 days of sound post-production to the film, which is expected to be released in May 2022.
The Fixafilm Animated in Poland Best Pitch Award (image post-production services) went to "Once there was a sea…” by Joanna Kożuch (prod. B-Film, Animapol). The Slovak/Polish film (in two versions, 16-minute theatrical and a 26-minute TV version) tells the stories of the Mo’ynoq people who remember the original shore of drying Aral Sea. The film has an archival footage feeling all over it, implemented with drawing and sand animation.
Once There Was A Sea
Crew United International Networking platform for filmmakers gave its special mention (and a a 5-years’ Premium membership) to the student puppet film 'Eyeshroom" by Małgorzata Wowczak, prod. Animated Film Studio – Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. An imaginative film about decay and strange mushrooms which occupy a person's brain.
All animation short choices were interesting to watch. "Dessert Dachshund" by Betina Bożek (pr.Krakow Animation Center) has a fluid animation style and a surreal story of a Dachshund enclosed in a cake wedding. "How to Be Loved" by Nawojka Wierzbowska (pr.Munk Studio) exploits the (also still contemporary) idea of wanting to get liked in the case of a kid who wants to become a doggy -so that his mother will like him. Animated by Natalia Krawczuk, its elliptical design, which looks a like a kid's own drawings, is disarmingly simple.
How to Be Loved
The same director had a second short film pitch at the event, "I Am Not Here Anymore"; a grandfather cannot even leave his own home after his death, in yet another metaphor of letting (sentimentally) go.
"Smell of the Ground" by Olivia Rosa (pr. Animated Film Studio- Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow) is another student film, and a post-apocalyptic one, in an environment where humans are no longer needed. The design of the 8-minute 2D animation short is geometrical, and its cold universe shows in its visuals.
The 9th Animated In Poland event took place online, 1 June 2021, as part of the 61st Krakow Film Festival
