THE AURA OF UPSTATE (2025)

The Birthday Party

Mickey's friends throw him a surprise birthday party at Minnie's house. The chef brings out the cake (with 2 candles); Mickey manages to blow all the cake onto the chef's face, while the candles stay lit. He unwraps his present: a miniature piano. He plays a duet of I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby with Minnie, followed by an instrumental version of The Darktown Strutter's Ball, which everyone dances to (including Mickey and Minnie, while the piano stools keep playing). Mickey then plays There's No Place Like Home on the xylophone, then accompanies Minnie on another piece, after which the xylophone gets frisky and eventually dumps Mickey in the fish bowl.

The Number of Completion

Short documentary about Twin Peaks: The Return.

Moonwalk

This short documentary film captures the natural movement of the moon mixed with an experimental musical track that accompanies the rhythm of the "walk" on the stage that the protagonist occupies, the sky.

El Materdor

Mater is a matador fighting a herd of bulldozers in Spain. When Lightning McQueen enters the story, the bulldozers begin to chase him due to his red paint.

Night

The moon and two owls sing to the Blue Danube Waltz, celebrating the night. Moths dance around a candle flame, fireflies glow, frogs chorus, and so forth.

The Cactus Kid

Mickey walks into the tavern where Minnie is dancing, and begins to dance and play piano himself. Pegleg Pete comes in and treats Minnie badly. Mickey tries to defend her, but Pete steals her away. Mickey, riding Horace Horsecollar, gives chase. He manages to throw Pete off a cliff.

The Daily Dweebs

The Daily Dweebs is a pilot episode of an animated series revolving around the pet Dixey and his shenanigans in 1950's American suburbia.

Under Milk Wood

A poet's tale of a day in the lives of the villagers of a Welsh fishing town of Llareggub.

Nutag – Homeland

A non-narrative hand-painted visual poem about diaspora, homeland, and the tragic mass-deportations of the Kalmyk people during WWII.

The Sun Like a Big Dark Animal

A computer and a woman fall in love only to be torn apart because of their inappropriate feelings for each other.

The Two Mouseketeers

Tom, a castle soldier in 16th century France, is assigned to guard the food laid out on a banquet table. Jerry and a smaller mouse companion, two wandering "mouseketeers", make the situation miserable for Tom as they abscond with (and occasionally eat) all the food they can.

Smitten Kitten

Tom's in love again, and Jerry's devil conscience reminds him of times this has happened in the past (which, of course, we see, in the form of clips from earlier shorts), and how that's been nothing but trouble for Jerry.

A Viral Spiral

Climate change seems like a problem of a far distant future. We just go on with business as usual. But climate change, just like the loss of biodiversity and the current pandemic, is a consequence of how we treat nature. Corona is a wake-up call that has disrupted all of our lives. All attention goes towards solving the current problem: controlling the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But prevention is better than cure. To do this, we have to look at how infectious diseases emerge and spread. World-renowned artist Steve Cutts created an animated film for the Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation, in which he not only visualizes the factors that cause pandemics, but also points at the urgent measures that are needed to reduce the risk of future pandemics.

Crusoe

This sci-fi action-comedy follows the adventures of Crusoe, an astronaut stranded on an alien planet teeming with hostile life.

Ursa Minor Blue

This adventurous story of a boy named Uri and an old man takes place in the cosmic Milky Way where the starfish live. This is the tale of their fantasy journey in search of the mysterious monster fish.

Pan Tadeusz. Księga I. Gospodarstwo

Plot unavailable

Pinocchio

Pinocchio, an animated wooden puppet tries to escape from his father, Gepetto in a creepy and dark toy factory.

The Legend of Johnny Appleseed

Dennis Day tells the story of Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman), narrated by The Old Settler. He's an apple farmer who sees people going west and thinks he can't join them, until an angel appears to him and sings the virtues of apples, convincing Johnny he has a mission. He sets off without a knife or gun; at first, the animals mistrust him, but when he even treats a skunk kindly, they all take to him.

Red Hot Riding Hood

Tired of always playing the same roles, Little Red Riding Hood, her grandmother and the Wolf demand a new version of the tale. The story then plays out in a more contemporary urban environment, with Little Red Riding Hood working as a pin-up girl in a night club.

Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi

A propaganda film during World War II about a boy who grows up to become a Nazi soldier.

Blow Job

Andy Warhol directs a single 35-minute shot of a man's face to capture his facial expressions as he receives the sexual act depicted in the title.

Yugo

A and N, a couple of peasants create an informal metallurgy workshop in the outskirts of Bogotá in the hope of a better life. The social, environmental and organic consequences they must endure in order to adapt to the industrial capitalism that storms Latin America affects dramatically their relationship and their history.

Avenida

A place with stairs, but that leads to walls. A place with lots of space, but no one fights for it. And a place with lots of owners, but so empty that no one wants to enter.

Pendulum

An intense short movie showing a turbulent marriage. The wife is always smiling. The man gets angry time and again.

Annie: Origins

Plot unavailable

Chant

Creates a reorientation of vision in a union of sights and sounds which suggest a different way of appreciating and understanding the fundamental integrity of experience.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Washington Irving's tale of Ichabod Crane and the headless horseman is brought to life, narrated by Bing Crosby.

Chimborazo

The people of the volcano Chimborazo hike for hours to gather nearby ice. This age-old tradition and the population’s livelihood is threatened by increasing climate change.

Animated Putty

Stop-motion animation of putty modeling itself into faces.

Nightwing and Robin

A 45 second short film set during the events of Justice League: Throne of Atlantis. The two main characters are called upon by Batman to find and capture the Scarecrow.

Norman Norman

A young woman grapples with the declining health of her beloved dog in this film about mortality, cloning, and Barbra Streisand.

Solarmax

Solarmax is a 40-minute giant-screen documentary that tells the story of humankind's struggle to understand the sun. The film will take audiences on an incredible voyage from pre-history to the leading edge of today's contemporary solar science.

Bath House

Six characters meet in a bath house. The pedant bath house manager, a couple with a strange way of communicating and a gang with shady intentions. Something goes wrong.

První sníh

During hibernation one sleeps and never leaves the warm bed. The little hedgehog initially wants to go on a very short expedition - to see the full moon and come right back - but he is surprised by the first snow. The search for the home where Dad and Mum stayed is not easy and gradually turns into an unexpected adventure.

The Seafarers

Stanley Kubrick’s first color film, commissioned by the Seafarers International Union to promote the benefits of union membership. Shot inside the union’s Atlantic and Gulf Coast District facilities, it features scenes of ships, machinery, cafeteria life, and meetings, highlighting the daily routines and camaraderie of seafarers. Thought lost for decades, the film was rediscovered in 1973 and preserved by the Library of Congress.

Isle of Flowers

A tomato is planted, harvested and sold at a supermarket, but it rots and ends up in the trash. But it doesn’t end there: Isle of Flowers follows it up until its real end, among animals, trash, women and children. And then the difference between tomatoes, pigs and human beings becomes clear.

Reruns

Everything is different but nothing has changed. A trip through a sunken maze of memories and dreams.

Solipsism

If a girl crosses the border between her internal and external reality and no one is around to see it, does this animated short really exist?

Weekends

Set in 1980s Toronto, a young boy shuffles between the homes of his recently divorced parents.

Eternity

Can heartbeats be “reactionary”? Yes, if they are the only sonic element on a montage-heavy documentary about the war dead. Made just before Enver Hoxha’s cultural purges in 1974, Dhimitër Anagnosti’s formalist, wonderfully edited affair will finally premiere in a restored version after its completion forty-two years ago.

Papo de Anjo

Plot unavailable

Bambini

A working day for a group of young open-pit miners by a quarry in Apulia, Italy.

Thunder

A woman’s face disappearing behind, and emerging from, a pair of hands. Flashing lights. An empty building full of dark hallways. Designs drawn in the air with light and long-exposure cinematography.

How the Lion Cub and the Turtle Sang a Song

The Tortoise composed a song and the Lion cub learnt it by heart and they sang it together.

Cedric

Death as a global service provider? Unthinkable! So far Death has thought that too. But then his nephew Cedric had the crazy idea of founding the company AFTER LIFE while his uncle was away. This company takes over the craft of death with the latest technology and markets it worldwide.

Rendezvous in Space

This documentary, the final film directed by Frank Capra, explores America's plans for the future of space exploration. It was produced by the Martin-Marietta Corporation for exhibition in the Hall of Science at the 1964 New York World's Fair.