Sébastien Laudenbach Designs the 2017 BIAF Poster
Bucheon International Animation Festival has transformed itself in recent years from a student-only animation festival to a festival that takes artistic independent animation seriously.
After its 2016 Sarah Saidan poster asssignemnt, the festival moves steadily to French animation territory and enlists Sébastien Laudenbach, who completed the ethereal (but cruel) tale based on a Brothers Grimm story, The Girl Without Hands.
Laudenbach competed in prestigious festivals through his past achievements with the films Journal (1998, Youth award in Clermont-Ferrand), Des Calins Dans Les Cuisines( 2004, pre-selection Césars 2005), Regarder Oana (2009, Selections Annecy, Clermont-Ferrand), Vasco (2010, Critics'Week Cannes 2010, pre-selection Césars 2012) and Daphné Ou La Belle Plante (co-directed with Sylvain Derosne (2015 Prix Emile Reynaud).
Yet, it is his first feature that brought the French director to the international attention of animation festivalgoers.
For the 2017 BIAF poster, Laudenbach says:
I wanted to portray a character leaning forward with her hands clenched into tight fists, while being suspended mid-action somewhere between martial arts and dance. In the background, the tree and the autumn colours represent eternal nature.
This young girl, dancing and struggling against hardships, has been living freely in the world of animation for the past few years.
Download the poster here and here.
The 19th Bucheon International Animation Festival takes place 20-24 October 2017 (Bucheon, South Korea).
FRENCH STATEMENT
S.L: L'animation, c'est le mouvement. Pour le poster de BIAF 2017, j'ai voulu donner à mon personnage une pose en suspens, entre danse et art martial, avec un coup de poing incisif, qui va de l'avant.
Mais cela dans un environnement naturel, et éternel. D'où la présence de l'arbre, dans des couleurs automnales. La jeune fille qui danse et se bat, c'est la jeunesse libre que vit l'animation depuis quelques années.