View all 2022 Animation films here: To purchase tickets or CONTACT heather @ portlandfilm.org for Media pass.

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ASSETS:

ANIMATION IMAGES
An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It
Children of the Siege: VR Sketches
Pancake Panic!
Wolf & Cub
A Night at the Cemetery
For Tigray
Safety First
Bird’s Eye View
Seven Grams
Something Fishy
Tehura
7 LBS 8 OZ
A Forest Haunt
Break Bug
JOY
Laika & Nemo
Lockdown
Lusea
MIRIAM
Molly’s Light
The Social Chameleon
A Book by its Cover
When Pigs Fly
Build Me Up
Buildings
Five Cents
Graph Your Story
Look, There’s Something on the Moon
Miracle
More
Ruff and Buff
The Leaf of Light
Trojan Horace

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ANIMATION SUMMARIES

An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It – When a young telemarketer is confronted by a mysterious talking ostrich, he learns that the universe is stop motion animation. He must put aside his dwindling toaster sales and focus on convincing his colleagues of his terrifying discovery.  Animation Short. Directed by Lachlan Pendragon. 11.18 min. Australia. Portland Premiere

Children of the Siege: VR Sketches – “Every war is a war against children”, reads the epilogue quote to the film. This VR-animated documentary short is dedicated to the children trapped in the city of Leningrad during the siege by Nazi forces (considered to be the deadliest in history). The film was created to mark the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the siege and tells the story of children’s sufferings through original child drawings and photos recreated in VR animation by a team of global XR artists. Animation Short. Directed by Denis Semionov. 8.32 min. Russian Federation. US Premiere

Pancake Panic! – An errant pancake toss unleashes a whirlwind of unforeseen comedic consequences. Murder, mayhem, and maple syrup wreaks havoc for a group of strangers in a series of interconnected stories. Animation Short. Directed by David Filmore. 8.15 min. USA. Portland Premiere

Wolf & Cub – The friends and colleagues of Marvin Bynoe have organized and put this film together based off of Marvin’s thesis film script; a script he wrote days before he passed. Animation Short. Directed by Marvin Bynoe. 8 min. USA. World Premiere

A Night at the Cemetery – In the Mediterranean island of Crete, Maria heads to the cemetery every Friday to tend her beloved husband’s grave. When the bus that picks her up breaks down, she will be forced to spend the night among the tombstones. Animation Short. Directed by Stelios Polychronakis. 11.20 min. Greece. Portland Premiere

For Tigray – Through a conflict so saturated in political debates, For Tigray looks through the lenses of the people; from life before the war, and the collective future on the horizon. Narrative Short. Directed by John Robson. 4.10 min. USA. West Coast Premiere

Bird’s Eye View – In a dingy factory we find an army of robots banging out bird cages on an assembly line all under the eye of a soulless security camera, until a one-eyed red finch flies in with the power of love and an ass that won’t quit. Animation Short. Directed by Matthew B.W Sheehan. 5 min. USA. Portland Premiere

Safety First – A satirical journey through the first year and a half of the Covid-19 Pandemic told through metaphors of human sexuality, isolation, and self-acceptance. Animation Short. Directed by John Robson. 5 min. USA. West Coast Premiere

Seven Grams – In 2008, at age 12, Chance was abducted by the NDC, an active guerrilla group in Eastern Congo, while visiting his older sister in Mubi in the province of North Kivu. After a long night of walking in the bush, Chance learned that he and the other 60 captives were now under the order of Tcheka, a notorious warlord and leader of the NDC. Despite his tender age Chance was taught how to fight and train to kill. Animation short. Directed by Karim Ben Khelifa & TT Hernandez. 7.48 min. France. West Coast Premiere

Something Fishy – Sara is getting ready to go on a date with her new boyfriend, but Jessica, Sara’s pet goldfish, notices something not quite right about him. Animation Short. Directed by  Christina Woo. 3.30 min. USA. Oregon Premiere

Tehura – Tehura aims to explore the vastly different meanings our bodies can hold for ourselves as well as for others. For a tourist, the body of an exotic dancer lifts him into the fantasies of love. For Tehura, her body is a battlefield where she struggles to find herself.  Animation Short. Directed by Wei Li. 12 min. Canada. West Coast Premiere

 7LBS 8OZ – Change is coming to 8th street, Jersey City NJ. A place where the old timers are looking for a quick change of fortune by playing the lottery numbers and ‘up to no good’ neighbor, Anthony, roams the block terrorizing the dog and cat alike. A young Asian family moves in. A young mother named Yujin and her newborn Sky. Upon first glance, Yujin is not keen on her new neighborhood choice. But a single event will transpire change in her outlook and determine her experience. Animation Short. Directed by Yoo Lee. 7 min. USA. Portland Premiere

A Forest Haunt – The story of ‘A Forest Haunt’ was shaped by hundreds of people around the world. During CES 2022, Canon and HitRecord invited everyone into a hybrid writers’ room to come up with the short film together from scratch. Participants everywhere were able to seamlessly connect and share their ideas, using Canon’s new AMLOS system. Animation Short. Directed by Edward Jesse & Toff Mazery. 5 min. USA. Oregon Premiere

Break Bug – An old tinkerer spends hours and hours building a machine that helps him to revive his youth, after a lifetime of breakdancing. But the story takes a dramatic turn when he get’s distracted for a brief moment, and doesn’t watch his back.Animation Short. Directed by Michael Ralla. 3 min. USA. Portland  Premiere

Laika & Nemo – In his coastal village, Nemo is an outsider. With his diving suit and the huge helmet he looks different than everybody else and won’t fit in. But his life is about to change when he meets Laika, an astronaut. Animation Short. Directed by Jan Gadermann & Sebastian Gadow. 15 min. Germany. Portland Premiere

JOY – Joy is a four-minute 3D animated short about coping with losing a pet. The story follows a young photographer named Ann, who is grief-stricken after the loss of her beloved cat, Joy. Then she is transported into a magical world inside her camera, where she reunites with Joy and re-experiences the memories they shared. We hope this story will comfort those who have lost their pets and will provide hope that death is never the end of the memories. Animation short. Directed by Chongjia Zhang & Yining Dang, Shan Dora Huang. 4.44 min. USA. World Premiere

Lockdown – Moley and Dotty find themselves trapped inside Mishmosh’s lab when his state of the art security system is activated. Animation Short. Directed by Leon Joosen. 11 min. UK. Portland Premiere

Lusea – Lusea is a hungry sea lion on an eager quest for food. On the way, she tries to impress, but runs into hostility. Eventually she finds her place elsewhere. Animation Short. Directed by Carly Dessain. 3.37 min. USA. World Premiere

MIRIAM – Miriam, a 12 yr old tomboy, is sitting in the kitchen, with her mom. Their conversation reflects the difference between generations. While the mother tries to mold her into the ideal image of her generation of decades ago, wearing a skirt, speaking and behaving properly with the purpose of finding a husband (seemingly, the ideal for every girl), the 12 yr old Miriam is at ease knowing what SHE wants to do with her life, and, for the moment, that is to play soccer. Animation Short. Directed by Radu Nicolae. 5 min. Romania. Portland Premiere

Molly’s Light – This film celebrates the memory of Molly Steinsapir, a 12-year-old with a deep and creative spirit, who tragically lost her life in February 2021. Her extended friends and family came together to fund, produce and animate a poem she wrote for a school assignment – “Where I’m From” – as a surprise for her Mother, presented on the 1 year anniversary of Molly’s passing. Now the completed film is being used to bring awareness to the Molly Steinsapir Foundation and spread her light far and wide. Animation Short. Directed by Noah Pollack. 6.08 min. USA. Portland Premiere 

The Social Chameleon – Cosmo the Chameleon doesn’t fit in with the other animals. No matter how hard he tries, he just can’t seem to find his place in the jungle. Then, everything changes when he meets another chameleon who shows him how to live by his own true colors! Animation Short. Directed by Alex Ross. 10 min. USA. Oregon Premiere

When Pigs Fly – Peggy the pig loves nothing more than her farmer, so it comes as a shock when she discovers his cruel intentions to eat her. Believing that she must take flight in order to save her own life, Peggy sets out to find her wings, but in ways that no one expected. Animation Short. Directed by Madeline McKenzie Bledsoe. 2.09 min. USA. West Coast Premiere 

A Book by its Cover – When Manny’s damaged page is replaced with the wrong kind of page, it leads to chaos in MoleTown as all the Moles are slowly transformed into worms and he takes over. Moley and Dotty must hatch a plan to remove the chaotic page and rescue both Manny and the whole of MoleTown. Animation Short. Directed by Leon Joosen. 23 min. UK. World Premiere

 

Build Me Up – 100 years in the future, amidst a perilous new ice age, two robots lose their father. Can Vera and Sprocket learn to work together to survive the oncoming storm? Animation Short. Directed by Steve Lawson. 13.26 min. UK. Portland Premiere 

Buildings – Buildings is a parody of the popular Pixar films like Cars and Toy Story based on inanimate objects coming to life. Animation Short. Directed by Sean Newman & Jesse VandenBergh. 1.23 min. USA. Portland Premiere 

Five Cents – After coming across a change purse, a passerby finds himself on a perilous journey toward economic turmoil. Drawn by hand on thousands of market data newspapers from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times with ink, white-out, gouache paint, gold leaf and other materials. Animation Short. Directed by Aaron Hughes. 5.07 min. USA. West Coast Premiere

Graph Your Story – “Graph Your Story” is a multifaceted short story built on the perseverance of a dream first explored in childhood with rudimentary toys and the support of our parents, through college to cutting-edge technologies and collaborations supported by NASA. The symbiosis of these experiences, symbolized by the connecting graphs, illustrates how the sum of ideas, people, and experiences, when connected effectively, can guide us from a paper plane to put a rover on Mars. Animation Short. Directed by Richard Koscher & Riccardo Vecchio. 2.31 min. USA. World Premiere

Grump in the Night – One stormy night, a man is awoken by strange noises downstairs and soon finds himself facing off with a TV-loving poltergeist. Animation Short. Directed by Kris Theorin. 4.48 min. USA. Oregon Premiere

Look, There’s Something on the Moon – A heartbroken lizard is wandering the moon in search of a beautiful secret that he was told about by a spirit fairy on planet earth in 4041AD. Animation Short. Directed by Josh Bair. 1.35 min. USA. Festival Premiere 

Miracle – Silkma, a curious and naughty boy and his adorable younger sister Lingmi are visiting their Grandma’s house. However, she’s no ordinary Grandmother. In fact, she is the world’s greatest inventor, and Grandma is close to finishing her top secret spaceship that can travel through time and space. Hoping to help, Silkma attempts to adjust Grandma’s spaceship and accidentally sets off a chain of events that transports the entire family through a wormhole. Animation short. Directed by Shaofu Zhang. 7.10 min. USA. World Premiere

More – As a human being we always want more and more new things in our life. We think they will give us more happiness. So we keep running behind the new things leaving the one which we have in our hand and at last we realize that it is not the things that give us happiness but the moment we cherish. So enjoy your “now moment” rather than running behind “more”. Animation Short. Directed by Vaibhav Madhukar Piwlatka. 3.55 min. India. World Premiere 

Ruff and Buff – A grandma, Harmony, wants to join the “Doggy Beauty” dog show with her little dog, Thor. Harmony has a big dream for her little dog, Thor, but the little dog has another plan in mind. Before the big dog show Harmony and Thor are emBARK on some serious doggie training.  Animation Short. Directed by Mee Huh. 2.22 min. USA. Portland Premiere

The Leaf of Light – A leaf brings light to the dark forces of the forest. Animation Short. Directed by Geoffrey Harold Hoskinson. 6.20 min. USA. Portland Premiere

Trojan Horace – A group of Greek warriors try to pass through the walls of the great city of Troy, but meet their match in a clueless Trojan guardsman. Animation Short. Directed by Scott Graham. 6.10 min. USA. Oregon Premiere

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