Short Film Competition: Merry-go-round

Life follows its (often chaotic) course in this animation programme full of ups, downs, and red herrings.

Nosy neighbours cross paths in the streets of Athens in the cheeky From the Balcony. A family camping trip takes a surreal turn in The Clearing. And in Sander Joon's story of filial love and car racing, a boy turns himself into... a tyre (Sierra).

On a more philosophical note, meditative Trait Calme and the thought-provoking C'est la vie invite us into the inner monologues of two men struggling with the instability of life, before up-and-coming animator Jack Gray takes us full circle through our humdrum existence with his hypnotic loop Menagerie.

Films

From the Balcony
(Dir: Aris Kaplanidis, Greece 2021, 12 mins)
UK premiere

C’est la vie
(Dir: Jacek Olejnik, Rafał Sankiewicz, Wojciech Sankiewicz, Bartosz Terlicki, Poland 2021, 13 mins)
UK premiere

The Hork
(Dir: Nicole Stafford, US 2021, 4 mins)
UK premiere

The Clearing
(Dir: Daniel Hope, UK 2021, 13 mins)

Trait Calme
(Dir: Gabrielle Mouret, France 2021, 6 mins)
UK premiere

Soft Tissue
(Dir: Cliona Noonan, Ireland 2021, 8 mins)

Sierra
(Dir: Sander Joon, Estonia 2022, 16 mins)

Menagerie
(Dir: Jack Gray, US 2022, 4 mins)
UK premiere