The 2009 Ottawa International Animation Festival Shorts Competition 2, happening on October 15th, showcased some wonderful animation from around the world. The OIAF selection committee clearly upped their game this year, selecting a wide variety of high quality cartoons from around the world.
The Good
Once again, a great night of short animation, with no shortage of standouts:
- 'Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)' (Bastien Dubois & Guilaine Bergeret, France): "This is amazing!" gasped one audience member while watching this short. "Watercolour with 3-D? WTF?" 'Madagascar' (not to be confused with the DreamWorks Animation film of the same name) featured brilliant animation wedded to a compelling diary-style narrative. Despite its 11:30 running time, no one was looking at their watch during this short.
- 'The Astronomer's Dream' (Malcolm Sutherland, Canada): This surreal short was very clever, setting up some bizarre images for one hell of a payoff. Nicely done.
- 'Hot Seat' (Janet Perlman, USA): Office bunnies battle to avoid the worst seat in the house in this smart, funny 2-D computer animated short from Janet Perlman.
- 'Pellet Gun' (Tim Beckhardt, USA): Beckhardt's undergraduate piece was dark and very funny, featuring a cyclops, a dog and various other creatures killing time (and other things) with a convenient wormhole.
- 'Lies (Lögner)' (Jonas Odell, Sweden): Jonas Odell is an award-winning short filmmaker who has done music videos for Franz Ferdinand ('Take Me Out'), Goldfrapp, U2 and others. His short 'Lies' animates 3 real-life stories about lying, and turns it into a smart but harsh piece. It's no surprise Odell won the Jury Prize for International Short Filmmaking at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
- 'The Universe Cotton' (Ray Lei, China): "This is so cute!" an audience member gushed while watching this short. It's a sweet, imaginative piece about the pseudoscience of raising cotton on a plantation.
The Bad (or, the Not-So-Good)
Happily, there were no real stinkers in this evening's festivities: the worst criticism against any short in this selection (applied to Karen Aqua's 'Twist of Fate') was "it's all right."
The Ugly (Winner)
Despite the high quality of animation on display, unlike the first night, there was no doubt which short was the best of the bunch. Dubois & Bergeret's 'Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)' was a brilliantly conceived short, filled with eye-popping animation that inspired gasps of awe from the audience.
Thankfully, the judges agreed, awarding the short 3 prizes on the final night, including the National Film Board of Canada Public Prize, which was selected by the audience themselves.
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