“Dream” screened three shorts — Jona/Tomberry (top left) by Rosto of Studio Rosto A.D., Amfraid (top right) by Supinfocom Valenciennes students Sophie Van De Velde, Thibault Debeurme, Pascal Verkindt and Anne Sophie Bertrand and La Derniere Minute (bottom left) by Nicolas Salis. Jona/Tomberry © Studio Rosto A.D. Amfraid © Supinfocom Valenciennes. La Derniere Minute © FORET BLEUE / LAZENNEC.

The animated offerings in “Discover” covered all media from feature film excerpts (the fire-ravaged “Hell L.A.” and the horrifically disturbing “Vermin Man” in Constantineby award-winning music video director Francis Lawrence for Tippet Studios) to architectural visualization (Transformations in Architectural Design by Pascal Mueller for Eidgenossesche Technische Hochschule Zurich). Especially fascinating and beautiful was Kazuo Takahashi’s use of animation to restore the monumental stone Chinese warriors to their original painted glory in Recapturing the Lost Colors of BASARA. Curious Pictures’ Noble Jones’ pointed commentary, Life in the Fast Lane (and the making of), revealed the how-they-did-it techniques behind the greenscreen assisted marvel that has a businessman forcefully transported on his office chair through traffic to dinner at home with his family. UVPHACTORY’s satirical music video for Pete Miser’s hip-hop single tells the story of a cubicle-dwelling everyman who discovers that he is a robot, while Baptiste Jaquemet uses hip-hop music to drive the animation in his streetwise The New Deal. Yasumi Matsuno of Square Enix Co. uses the striking graphic images of videogaming in Final Fantasy XII. Commercials were represented by the abstract Evolution by Takeshi Yoon and Koichi Iguchi of Omnibus Japan, the vegetable drama Nature Sweet “Triage” by Pierre Coffin and Darren Walsh of Passion Pictures and the monster morphing SUVs in Esuvee “Keep It on All Fours” by Daniel Kleinman of Framestore CFC.

“Dream” showed three shorts. A surreal abbreviated version of Jona/Tomberry by Rosto of Studio Rosto A.D., the nightmarish, horror-film-evoking Amfraid by Supinfocom Valenciennes students Sophie Van De Velde, Thibault Debeurme, Pascal Verkindt and Anne Sophie Bertrand and the 13-minute full version of La Derniere Minute by Nicolas Salis, projected in abbreviated form in the Electronic Theater.

“Escape” was limited to three shorts, but, at almost 13 minutes in length, the visually stunning Chohon transcended all cultural boundaries with its tragic legend of love. It is truly a creative triumph for Chung-Ang University students Eunju Kim, Jung Sun Choi, Junsang Yoon, Kinam Kim, Youngju Park and Youno Park. Felix Gonnert’s Lucia was a touching tale of a little girl’s stay in the hospital, created with a desaturated, almost black-and-white color scheme and brought to life by superior sound design. Dominic Halford, Sam Meisels and Guy Newberry from NCCA Bournemouth University presented their unique vision with Twisted City.