"This is the insane selection of the festival," OIAF organizer Chris Robinson said when introducing the Shorts Competition 3 on October 16th.
He wasn't kidding: most of the shorts dealt with some form of insanity or obsession. Despite the bizarre subject matter, there were some impressive animation on display. Here are some of the highlights, and lowlights, of the night.
The Good
- 'I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight' (David O'Reilly, UK & Ireland): A music video for the U2 single of the same name, O'Reilly's touching animation showed 4 lives in transition. Beautifully done, and it didn't hurt that the song is catchy as hell, too.
- 'The Baader-Meinhof-Komplett (The Baader-Meinhof Kit)' (Till Penzek & Jon Frickey, Germany): Using footage from Uli Edel's live-action film Der Baader Meinhof Komplex, this absolutely stinging satire shows how your kids can play at being psychotic Marxist terrorists. The fact that this is all based on the real-life events of the 1977 'German Autumn' by the über-violent Red Army Faction gives this short extra ouch.
- 'Cottonballs' (Igor Coric & Sheldon Leiberman, Australia): "I like the look of this one," a professional animator whispered to his neighbor during the screening. A wonderfully paced, funny sequence featuring dancing Mexican cottonballs.
- 'Shot in the Dark' (Dustin Lincoln, USA): This undergraduate short features rough animation, but redeems it all with a sweet, imaginative love story. Lincoln hits all the right notes here.
- 'Bellows March' (Eric Dye, USA): While not normally a fan of abstract animation, this short deserves credit simply because it offers the viewer solid pacing and an actual storyline, something many abstract shorts fail to do. You gotta know the rules before you can break them, kids.
- 'Must Drink More Milk' (Rob Shaw, Solomon Burbridge, Paul Harrod, Randy Wakerlin & Jun seo Hahm, USA): These series of commercial shorts encouraging people to drink more . . . you know . . . are bizarre, brilliant and freakin' hilarious. Proof that advertising can be avant-garde and entertaining.
- 'The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9!' (Jake Armstrong, USA): A hard-bitten intergalactic bounty hunter lands on a remote planet to hunt down a horrible space monster. Problem is, the monster ain't exactly playing by the script. Armstrong's undergraduate piece is brilliantly conceived, and funny as hell. Nice use of credits as well.
- 'Son of Dino-Orange' (Lansing Bruce Robertson, Canada): Using voice recordings from the 1933 movie King Kong, Robertson's stop-motion piece was witty and imaginative.
The Bad
Once again, there were no bad shorts (don't worry, they're coming), but a few pieces stood out for being less than impressive.
- 'Myth Labs' (Martha Colburn, Netherlands): This abstract weaving of folk, religious and allegorical illustration with the horrors of Methamphetamine addiction was imaginative but, at 7 minutes and 30 seconds, needed ye olde 1/4" trim.
- 'Please Say Something' (David O'Reilly, Ireland & Germany): O'Reilly's 2nd offering of the night was an imaginative, dark and funny look at a toxic relationship between a cat and mouse, but needed at least 3 minutes trimmed from its running time.
The Ugly (Choosing a Winner)
While there were no shortage of worthy contenders (see above), the winner of the night was Jake Armstrong's 'The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9!' Yeah, the fact that it's an undergraduate piece didn't hurt, but this was a solidly entertaining short that brilliantly turned the Alien/Predator mythos on its head. Awesome job.
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