There is nothing that I like better than sitting in a dark theatre watching film. Usually it is animation but during my 2 days at the Festival International Du Court Metrage (International Short Film Festival) in Lille, France I got to catch up on some live action and documentary shorts as well as the 3 excellent programs of animation. As the name implies, no film was over 30 minutes. The majority of the works were 15 minutes or under, so even though I was only at the festival on Friday and Saturday, I got to watch a wide variety of work.
The high points of the animation programs for me were Oh Willy by Emma De Swaef and Marc Roels, Tram from the extremely talented Michaela Pavlatova, and Hisko Hulsing’s Junkyard. These 3 films have been garnering honors at festivals worldwide and it was no surprise that Hisko and Junkyard took the Best Animation award back to the Netherlands. It was very impressive that Oh Willy walked away with the International Grand Prix, beating out hundreds of short films, documentaries, and animations.
Animation was not limited to the 3 competition programs but was also screened in many different categories. Carlo Vogele’s Una Furtiva Lagrima (A Furtive Teardrop) was selected for the Very Shorts Award which is selected by the audience from films in all of the categories that are 5 minutes or less. Vogele has a real knack for bringing inanimate objects to life. After entertaining us in previous films with such every day items as socks and Barbie Dolls, he has now turned his hand to giving life to dead fish. Una Furtiva Lagrima is a requiem for a black bass who laments his pathetic fate from his sale at the fish market to his final destination in a frying pan. The 3 minute 8 second trip is played out to Enrico Caruso singing Una Furtiva Lagrima. Carlo, a former Gobelins School of Animation student, now works at Pixar as a CG animator but he says that “Stop motion remains my favourite form of expression, which I do in my spare time.”
Chase, the latest 3D abstract animation by Adriaan Lokman, won the National Grand Prix. Using various sizes and numbers of triangles, Lokman has taken this simple form and created an intense, fast paced chase. As the images fly by the viewer is challenged to try to separate what is really on the screen as opposed to what we see in our mind. Adriaan, who won the 2002 Annecy Grand Prix for Barcode, is a Dutch animator who now lives in France.
I had already seen many of the animations but there were some very pleasant surprises. Palmipedarium grabbed my attention immediately and although I was sure I had never seen it there was something familiar about it. When the credits rolled at the end of the film and I saw that the director was Jeremy Clapin, the feeling of familiarity made sense. Jeremy’s 2 previous films, Vertebrale History and Skhizein were quirky, full of offbeat humor tinged with pathos in a very distinctive style. They both won numerous well deserved awards.
The story is about a boy and the freaky creature with a big beak that he finds in the woods on his way home from a duck hunting trip. I film is very recent and will be screened at numerous festivals so I don’t want to give the story away. I can’t put my finger on exactly what drew me to the 12 minute film but I am looking forward to watching it again.Polish animator Tytus Majerski’s Once There Was a King is based on a Polish lullaby written by Janina Perazinska. The film is very strange and dark and Majerski gives the bleak tale a delightful twist and a sweet ending. The stop motion/CG film was Tytus’ graduation work at the Polish National Film School.
On 5 Thursdays prior to the festival diverse programs of short films were screened at L’Hybride, one of the festival’s 4 venues. All of the different shorts categories (fiction, animation, experimental, video clips, and documentary) are represented in the programs of films that were submitted but not chosen for the official competitions. This year the audience selected Being Bradford Dillman as the L’Hybride winner.
British animator Emma Burch used cut out stop motion in dark colors and earthy textures to intensify the sinister undertones of this quirky story of a little girl and her journey of self-discovery. Emma deals with how much harm a parent’s words and actions can do to a child without meaning to do so with deep understanding and honesty. Emma told me that the story is largely autobiographical which made the film all the more poignant to me.
Because I was only in Lille for 2 days I didn’t get to see too many live action films but I did see one fiction and one documentary program. I especially enjoyed Les Dernieres Pieces (The Last Pieces), a documentary about the once renowned pottery factory Royal Boch. Founded in 1841 in La Louviere which is the Walloon area of Belgium, the pottery closed in 2011. I see pieces of the blue and white dishes in my local flea market and even own a few but didn’t know the history of the factory. The film explores the now abandoned factory accompanied by interviews with former employees and local residents to explore the effects the closure had on the community. This film is representative of what is taking place in small communities worldwide.
The 4 programs making up Thema Fantasy were described in the catalogue as “Uncanny fabrications and dreams coming straight out of the maze of the imagination”. They certainly did that. The screenings included all film techniques and spanned from George Melies’ 1903 Le Cake Walk Infernal and Raoul Servais’ classic 1997 animation Harpya to the 2010 experimental film Western Movie by Lee Hyung-Suk from South Korea. The opening night screening was Best of Fantastic, combining films from all Fantasy programs.
Interactive films have become readily available on the Internet, giving viewers the opportunity to choose their own version of a film. During the festival the interactive works exhibition gave festival goers an opportunity to try their hand at an interactive experience on 6 computer terminals at the Gare Saint Sauveur screening site.
The interactive experience concluded with a Saturday afternoon conference. Directors, producers, and developers exchanged their experiences about the latest in interactive techniques for the Internet and smart phones.
Sunday afternoon was devoted to a screening for young film enthusiasts and their parents. Prior to the festival on 1 to 19 October Festival International du Court Metrage presented a program for Lille school pupils. The content and length of the shows were arranged by age and more than 3,500 students saw the diverse programs of short films. Each teacher received material to enhance their classroom discussion after the screenings.
On Saturday evening the jury took to the stage of the beautiful Belle Époque era Theatre Sebastopol to announce their decisions. A complete list of award winning films follows at the end of the article. The 5 members of the 2012 jury were Belgian short film director Olivier Burlet, French director of photography Jean-Noel Ferragut, Jayne Pilling, British animation programmer and historian, Amsterdam based animator Monique Renault, and Jean-Paul Frenay, Belgian director and visual artist. With so many different categories of film and such diverse backgrounds of the jury members it must have been an interesting panel to sit on and I am sure there were some intense discussions. It would have been very interesting to be a fly on the jury room wall.
The awards ceremony was followed by drinks to toast the winners on the theatre mezzanine lobby. It was a nice surprise to see that Emma De Swaef, director of Oh Willy, Hisko Hulsing, creator of Junkyard, and Emma Burch from Being Bradford Dillman all arrived that afternoon to collect their awards on stage. I enjoyed hanging out with them that evening.
After the awards ceremony came the event I had been waiting for – Animation Night! 9 hours of animation that included shorts, 3 feature films, series, and even some unreleased animation. The range of films was staggering from the absurd to the sublime, Mice on Venus by Belgian director Nuno Alameda Romeiras was followed by Polish director Damion Nenow’s statement about the useless horrors of war and the rage that lies deep within the soul to create hate. His Paths of Hate was shortlisted for the 2012 Academy Award.
The 3 features were the commercially successful Rango,the Danish film Ronal the Barbare, and the marathon night ended with the premier of Berserk L’ Age D’Or from Japanese director Toshiyuki Kubooka. For the stout of heart who made it through the night breakfast was served at dawn.
Usually I dread the loud festival parties with music blaring at mega decimal volume as people try to shout above it at each other. The two festival parties took care of that problem with “silent DJ’s”. As we entered L’Hybride Theatre, converted into a disco for the evenings, we traded our ID’s for headphones. If I wanted to dance or listen to the music I put on the headphones, then remove them and carry on a conversation at normal volume or just watch the two sets of visuals being projected on the walls. On Friday night there were two dj’s playing different styles of music simultaneously, feeding two different channels in the headphones. It was great fun to watch people on the dance floor move in totally different styles depending upon what channel they were listening to.
My deep thanks go to festival coordinator Julie Charnay and especially to Jennifer Casadessus, in charge of guest services. They both went out of their way to do everything to make my visit to the festival very memorable. A big thank you goes out to all of the staff and the vast army of volunteers.
Unfortunately my two days in Lille were so jam-packed that I didn’t have any opportunity to see the sights of the beautiful historic city, but I hope to visit it and the festival again. For anyone wanting to totally immerse themselves in a wide genre of film styles, the Festival International Du Court Metrage is a must.
My next adventure takes me to Xiamen, China, a beautiful tropical setting in the South of China. More from there soon.
THE INTERNATIONAL JURY;
Olivier Burlet, Director and Producer – Belgium
Jean-Noel Ferragut, Director of Photography – France
Jayne Pilling, Animation Programer and Historian – Great Britian
Monique Renault, Animator – The Netherlands
Jean-Paul Frenay, Director and Visual Artist – Belgium
AWARD WINNING FILMS
GRAND PRIX INTERNATIONAL – Oh Willy, Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roels; France/Belgium 2012
-1.000 Euros
GRAND PRIX NATIONAL – Chase (Chasse) – Adriaan Lokman; France/The Netherlands 2011
-5.000 Euros of equipment rental provided by Papaye
MEILLEURE FICTION (BEST FICTION) – Compulsion – Andrew McVicar; Great Britian 2011
Making of a DCP (up to 40 minutes) and 2K conforming courtesy of Mikros Images
MEILLEURE ANIMATION (BEST ANIMATION) – Junkyard – Hisko Hulsing; The Netherlands/Belgium 2012
3 days of sound post production provided by Le Fresnoy
MEILLEURE DOCUMENTAIRE (BEST DOCUMENTARY) – Manque De Preuves (Lack of Evidence) –Hayoun
Kwon; France 2011
1,500 Euros credit for 2 days in a sound studio
PRIX DU JURY JEUNE (JUNIOR JURY AWARD) – Ligne Bleue (Blue Line) – Alain Sauma; Fance 2011
1.500 Euros in equipment provided by Key Grip Systems
MENTION DU JURY JEUNE (JUNIOR JURY MENTION) – Abgestempelt (Composte/Punched) –Michael
Rittmannsberger; Austrria 20123
PRIX DES TRES COURTS (BEST VERY SHORT FILM) – Una Furtiva Lagrima (A Furtive Teardrop) – Carlo
Vogele; United States 2011
PRIX DU PUBLIC (PUBLIC PRIZE) – La Femme Cotelette (The Woman-Rib) – Mariette Auvray; France 2011
Two weeks Final Cut Pro editing provided by Studio L’ Equipe
PRIX DU PUBLIC DE L’ HYBRIDE (PUBLIC HYBRIDE PRIZE) – Being Bradford Dillman (Dans La Peau de Bradford) – Emma Burch; United Kingdom 2011
