sfumato (2021)

Bearpuncher

Bearpuncher, a mountaineer with a monstrous curse, aims her ursine fist towards all that may threaten the safety of the Smoky Mountains. But when she discovers a destroyed lab while tracking a mysterious wildfire, she stumbles into a conflict she can’t punch her way out of.

Corto Maltese: The Secret Court of the Arcane

At the end of 1918 while civil war is raging on in Russia, antagonism is slowly spreading to the East, between the Oral mountains and Shanghai. Stuck between a desire to save what's left of the great Imperial Russia, and starting from a clean slate, old generals, secret organizations, and mercenaries attracted by gold, struggle to take advantage of the events. As Corto Maltese returns to Shanghai, he barely gets time to cross paths with his old friend/nemesis Rasputin, and escape a murder attempt before being contacted by members of a Chinese secret organization called "The Red Lanterns". In the heart of violent Manchurian horizons, Corto and Rasputin launch themselves into a fabulous treasure hunt, following the tracks of the mysterious armor-plated train of Kolchak. A steel monster spiked with canons and machine guns, this trains protects the counter-revolutionaries gold...

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.

Kalikangiaroi

“Kalikangiaroi” (also called Skalapountari) are Cypriot fantasy creatures. Mischievous, funny-looking, thin, hunchbacked creatures, sometimes wearing a long pointy hat or even having big bat-like wings, Cypriots were terrified of Kalikangiaroi. Kalikangiaroi hide in the depths of the earth all year long and rarely come above the ground. However, come Christmas day they surface and their crazy reign begins for 12 long days and nights. Their favorite pastime is to play pranks, tease and cause trouble to humans and create mayhem with the sole purpose of having fun! They playfully tease people by tugging at their clothes, scare them with their screeching voices or frighten domestic animals. One thing Kalikangiaroi loves more than teasing is a piece of “loukaniko” traditional sausage.

Gift

Plot unavailable

Late Afternoon

Emily finds herself disconnected from the world around her. She goes on a journey through her memories and relives different moments from her life. Emily must look to her past so that she may fully embrace the present.

Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life

Jennie the terrier has everything a dog could ever wish for, but still feels that something is missing. She leaves home to discover what that is.

Achilles

With the loss of Patroclus (his undeclared male lover), Greek warrior Achilles returns to the Trojan War.

Balance

The setting is on a floating platform where a group of evenly and carefully placed men live. Each man is aware that the platform is not stable and in order not to fall to their deaths, they maintain a careful balance of weight to prevent the platform from tipping too far and cause them all to fall.

The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation

An animated documentary that explores the terrain of father/son relationships, as seen through Canemaker's own turbulent relationship with his father.

Model Citizen

A dystopian world where everyone is born and raised to become a "model citizen".

Presto

Dignity. Poise. Mystery. We expect nothing less from the great turn-of-the-century magician, Presto. But when Presto neglects to feed his rabbit one too many times, the magician finds he isn't the only one with a few tricks up his sleeve!

Lifted

When an overconfident teen alien gets behind the controls of a spaceship, he must attempt to abduct a slumbering farmer under the watchful eye of a critical instructor. But abducting humans requires precision and a gentle touch, and within a few missteps it's painfully clear why more humans don't go missing every year.

Your Friend the Rat

Let's face it, rats are not the most beloved creatures on earth. However, maybe this little tale about the history of human and rat interaction will change the world's tune. At least that is the hope of Remy, the star of Ratatouille, and his reluctant brother Emile as they guide us through world history from a rat's perspective. Why can't we all just get along?

Boundin'

On a high mountain plain lives a lamb with wool of such remarkable sheen that he breaks into high-steppin' dance. But there comes a day when he loses his lustrous coat and, along with it, his pride. It takes a wise jackalope - a horn-adorned rabbit - to teach the moping lamb that wooly or not, it's what's inside that'll help him rebound from life's troubles.

Serlasanha

Plot unavailable

To Be

Blending fantasy and reality, this animated short is a bold inquiry into an as yet unresolved problem - the nature of human identity. When a scientist creates a machine that can make copies of physical objects, including humans, a number of ethical questions arise. Is the technique moral? What of its safety? A film by Oscar-winning filmmaker John Weldon (who also wrote the catchy banjo tune that punctuates the story's changing moods).

Éiru

Éiru is the smallest child of an Iron-Age clan. All she wants is to be a mighty warrior who is taken seriously by her kinfolk. But when the village’s well mysteriously dries up, only she is small enough to descend into the belly of the earth to investigate and bring the water of life back to her people. Éiru is the story of a child in search of a quest, and a goddess in search of a champion.

Fire Craft

In a city of a parallel world. A boy finds a pair of broken scissors from his father's belongings after he passed away. And a boy's mother tells him that his father had been a gardener in the past. Then he figures out the scissors were made by Sasuke, who is an artisan living in a foreign country. The boy travels all the way to a place where Sasuke lives in order to get his scissors fixed.

Down the Mine

Gordon is in disgrace, and Thomas enjoys teasing him about it – until his foolishness sinks him into his own hole. An adaptation of the story by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry.

Lucky Luke 12 - Calamity Jane

Plot unavailable

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.

Music Box

Plot unavailable

Mortys

An emotional and generational conflict between mother and son in the twenty-first century, except for one detail: Mother is none other than death.

Hudson Geese

A goose remembers his last migration.

American Dad: The New CIA

The American Dad short film, which preceded the theatrical run of the 2005 feature Fever Pitch, is about Stan Smith touring his work days in the CIA and his "normal" everyday life.

The Snail and the Whale

A half hour animated film for all the family based on the much-loved book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. The Snail and the Whale is the much loved classic that shows us a restless young snail who has ambitions to travel the world. The other snails think she should stay put, but she puts out a call for a “Lift wanted around the world”. Eventually her call is answered by a great big grey-blue humpback whale! She sets off with him across the seas. On their journey the snail and the whale discover towering icebergs and far-off lands, fiery mountains and golden sands. The snail is delighted by the wonderful world around her, until she realises how small it makes her feel.

Clapotis

Plot unavailable

Who Corrupts Therein

The presence of corruptors is necessary. Every person has lusts. Just as Adam ate from the forbidden tree, and Cain killed Abel, their descendants fight with each other, nation against another, both want to achieve their interests and whims, thus human destroys the beauty on the earth.

Isabella

This film aims to capture the stories of the aging Isabella, but also captures her condition and loss of cohesiveness as she loses herself into dementia and Parkinson's. It is also a very personal film since the subject is the grandmother of one of the co- directors. The idea is interesting as it links one strong clear memory, told several times, to other fragments and truths of her condition. Animation is sparingly but cleverly used to complement the delivery and avoid it just being a talking head.

Tuk-Tuk and His Friend Zhuk

A boy named Tuk and his dog Zhuk have a vegetable garden, but their harvest is in danger from Pig and Fox who are looking for a quick profit.

Batman Beyond

This short celebrating 75 years of Batman from artist Darwyn Cooke returns fans to the world of Batman Beyond as Terry McGinnis' futuristic Dark Knight faces his most formidable foe of all - himself.

Irony

A reflection of academic life during the pandemic; the passing of the days for a student who must stay home to keep from catching covid-19; and how, after being overwhelmed by everyday life at school, he starts to feel liberated… until virtual classes make him appreciate his pre-pandemic reality.

Magnifica

1907. Magnifica, young Costa Rican harpist, is preparing for her concert at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels where she studies with her fiancé. Inspired by the life of Pacifica Zelaya.

Afternoon Class

Drowsiness washes over me during the afternoon class. My head gets heavier as I try to stay awake in an afternoon class.

A Grand Day Out

Wallace and Gromit have run out of cheese, and this provides an excellent excuse for the duo to take their holiday to the moon, where, as everyone knows, there is ample cheese. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

The Wrong Trousers

Wallace rents out Gromit's former bedroom to a penguin, who takes up an interest in the techno pants created by Wallace. However, Gromit later learns that the penguin is a wanted criminal. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

A Close Shave

Wallace's whirlwind romance with the proprietor of the local wool shop puts his head in a spin, and Gromit is framed for sheep-rustling in a fiendish criminal plot.

It's the Cat's

Neighborhood cats come to the tiny Ko-Ko Theatre to watch Ko-Ko and Fitz stage a variety of entertaining acts, from acrobatics to high-diving to statuelike tableaux vivants.

Gravedad

Animated short about the meaning of life.

The Sensational Cat-Man

A stylized cartoon inspired by 1940s comics, featuring a detective raised by a tiger who moonlights as a superhero.

Beat

In a bland, utilitarian world of order, one worker finds his inner jazz

Ninety-Five Senses

A heartfelt depiction of a man facing his own mortality while reflecting on the grave mistakes of his youth.

Dog Apartment

Bad fortune has deported a ballet dancer Sergei to a suburban kolkhoz. Here he's having his mundane fights against routine, domestic animals and alcohol.

The Man Who Slept

A young woman lives with her sleeping husband. Prisoner of her loneliness, she refuses to accept that this man is only a memory.

Toe

A stop-motion gothic folktale. A starving young boy eats a human toe that he finds in the ground. Later that night, something comes to his bedroom wanting it back.

In the Box

A character is inside a cubical room; there is a hole in the roof, which is too high to reach. But pushing on the walls distorts the room in various ways, always appearing to bring the hole closer while still leaving it tantalizingly inaccessible.

Death and the Winemaker

In a fairy tale world, a winemaker creates the most exquisite wine in the world. When Death herself wants to taste the wine, he discovers that his bride is next on Death list.

The Smortlybacks

On a tabletop mountain a mahout and his strange herd make a surprising and never-ending journey.

Solar Beats

Walking towards the fire. In a ceaseless stream of light, people, landscapes and objects lead us to mysterious regions. French filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski’s work is hard to classify - and all the richer for it. Together with his wife Michèle, whose musique concrète compositions form the basis of the sound design, Bokanowski offers a prolonged, dense and visually visceral experience of the kind that is rare in cinema today. Difficult to define and locate, its strangeness is quite unique.

Shackle

Three archetypal woodland spirits explore the conflicting human drives of creativity, possessiveness and our desire for status.

In a Heartbeat

A closeted boy runs the risk of being outed by his own heart after it pops out of his chest to chase down the boy of his dreams.