The Animation Show of Shows
Film

Animation Show of Shows

November 09, 2019

This event occurred as part of the 19/20 Hop Film season. This is an archived view.

The 21st annual Animation Show of Shows returns with an exciting array of clever, touching and funny animated short films from around the world.

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Come enjoy a curated selection of the "best of the best" animated short films created by students and professionals around the world. Featuring 10 films from seven countries, the 2019 edition of the program offers an array of highly imaginative, thought-provoking, and moving works that reflect the filmmakers' unique perspectives and their relationship to the world.

Personal relationships are at the heart of several of the films in this year's program, including Daria Kashcheeva's International Student Academy Award-winning puppet animation Daughter, a deeply moving exploration of the ties between a father and daughter. Charting a very different, but related, course, "The Fox and the Bird" by Sam & Fred Guillaume, is a beautifully observed fable about an unlikely friendship between the two eponymous characters. Filmmaker Michael Frei and game designer Mario von Rickenbach provide a more clinical view of human behavior in their mesmerizing KIDS, which explores the nature of group dynamics.

The question of individual identity informs both Hounds by Amit Cohen & Ido Shapira and (Self-Narrative) by Géraldine Charpentier. In the former, a highly domesticated dog undergoes a disturbing change when a pack of wild hounds gathers near his house, while the latter offers a clear-eyed and heartfelt look at a young girl's journey to self-realization as a transgender person.

Animation has often been the medium of choice for artists seeking to explore abstract ideas or philosophical issues, and these themes are well represented in the program. Joanna Lurie's mysterious and transcendent Flowing through Wonder chronicles an extraordinary ritual and celebrates the transformative mystery that underlies life and death. In Airship of Unknown Direction, Alexandra Galitskova creates a strange and beautiful alternate universe that both seduces and challenges the viewer with its opaque narrative. Natalia Mirzoyan's Five Minutes to Sea in which a young girl waits impatiently to go back in the sea, takes a more lighthearted approach, while playing with conundrums of time and perspective.

The program is rounded out by Gil Alkabetz's Rubicon, a frenetic and very funny hand-drawn animation based on the classic riddle about how to ferry a wolf, a sheep, and a cabbage across a river without something getting eaten. In addition to the slapstick, the film also serves as a parable about the convoluted nature of political negotiations, specifically those related to the Middle East.

The program also includes two mini-documentaries about the creative process featuring Alkabetz and Amit Cohen & Ido Shapira (Hounds).

2019 Program (1hr27m) * suitable for ages 8+

Kids - Michael Frei, Mario von Rickenbach, Austria 
Rubicon - Gil Alkabetz, Germany
Portrait of Gil Alkabetz (Rubicon) - Marta Trela, Germany
Five Minutes to Sea  - Natalia Mirzoyan, Russia
Récit de soi (Self-Narrative) - Géraldine Charpentier, Belgium
Le jour extraordinaire  (Flowing through Wonder) - Joanna Lurie, France
Hounds - Amit Cohen, Ido Shapira, Israel
Portrait of Amit Cohen and Ido Shapira (Hounds) - Shlomi Yosef
The Fox and the Bird (Le renard et l'oisille) - Sam & Fred Guillaume, Switzerland
Daughter  - Daria Kashcheeva, Czech Republic

For 21 years, the ASOS has presented a highly selective, "best of the best" program of new and innovative short films to appreciative audiences at animation studios, schools and—since 2015—theaters around the world. Over the years, 40 of the films showcased went on to receive Academy Award nominations, with 11 films winning the Oscar. Learn more at: www.animationshowofshows.com

4 for $24 package Pick any 4 Hop Films this fall and pay only $6 per film.
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“The annual “Animation Show of Shows” provides a welcome reminder that the art form can be used for more than CGI studio features.”

Los Angeles Times
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Black Family Visual Arts Center
22 Lebanon Street
Hanover, NH

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