We’ve passed the halfway point of the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) 2024. I’ve gone to a dozen screenings so far and have recommendations for what you can see the last two days (Sept. 28 and Sept. 29) of the festival, as many of them are playing on one of these two days.
If they’re short films that are in competition, they may be in the winning compilation Sunday evening at the ByTowne. Check the OIAF’s website to see if there will be one or two compilations of winning short films, which depends on the cumulative length of the winning films.
So far, I’ve seen two short film competitions. Here are the films I liked in the first short film competition:
- Beautiful Men was my favourite. It’s about three brothers and their trip to Istanbul for hair transplants.
- I Died in Irpin is a memoir about the early weeks of the war in Ukraine.
- Stampfer Dreams is a tribute to one of the early 19th century founders of cinema.
Still from I Died in Irpin. Photo provided.
These are the films I liked in the third short film competition—the first two tied for my top recommendation in this competition:
- Notebook of Names commemorates the teenagers who “disappeared” during Pinochet’s reign in Chile.
- Maybe Elephants is from the great Norwegian/Canadian animator Torill Kove.
- Larry uses CGI to clever effect, creating extreme image manipulation of a basketball-playing dog.
- High Street Repeat illustrates the impact of immigration on Britain with rapid-fire closeups of store fronts.
- Entropic Memory uses time lapse photography to show the disintegration of family photo albums in the rain.
- Long Distance is an amusing illustration of a black fly’s lengthy journey.
- Keep Frozen! is set in a supermarket. But what happens when a customer takes off all of his clothes?
Still from High Street Repeat. Photo provided.
The Canadian Student Competition was chock full of good films. Here’s what I liked the best:
- Ronny: A Crocumentary is about a large crocodile looking for a friend to hug. The audience, including some small kids, loved it. So did I.
- 91 Thousand Unrelenting Stitches, which used a mechanical embroidery machine and a synchronized soundtrack, reminded me of a Norman McLaren film.
- Lunch Time begins with a sweet little girl playing with her toys on the floor of a beautiful castle’s drawing room. But lunch time approaches…
- Downfall is a chilling portrayal of a woman’s psychotic hallucination after a traumatic event. This film has 16(!) directors…some sort of record!
- Heartland has an old-timey feel and will delight all you romantics.
Still from Heartland. Photo provided.
So far I’ve seen four of the seven feature films that are in competition. My favourite is Flow—a dramatic story about five animals who eventually join together on a boat, despite their natural animosities, to escape drowning in a cataclysmic flood. The animals’ behaviours and movements are realistic (no Disney-ified talking animals here!). The animation is ravishingly beautiful. Flow may be my most memorable experience at this year’s OIAF.
I also very much liked Memoir of a Snail, in which a lonely middle-aged woman tells her sad life story to a garden snail named Sylvia.
I’ve also seen a lot of films that aren’t in competition. I was delighted that the OIAF got The Wild Robot before its general release date. Shipwrecked on an island, an intelligent service robot named Roz tries to bond with the island’s animals, most of whom think she’s a freakish monster. Roz adopts a gosling when she accidentally kills the gosling’s mother and siblings. With some coaching from a fox and an opossum, Roz learns that mothering is much more than following a set of instructions.
Poster from The Wild Robot. Photo provided.
The other out-of-competition feature film I enjoyed was Your Letter, one of the offerings in the Spotlight on South Korean Animation series. A young girl who has transferred to a new school finds a letter in her school desk from the desk’s previous occupant. The letter leads her on a search for more letters, each one introducing her to people and experiences that will help her in her new school, including a rather shy boy. They become friends. But the boy is the target of a bully. And who was the boy who left all those letters?
The South Korean series included a short film compilation. I was very impressed with Noodle Fish which uses pin screen animation, a technique which is rarely used because it’s quite difficult. The “pins” were ordinary noodles! And the ending had the audience laughing out loud. The other South Korean short I liked was Raccoon and the Light, a delightful treat about a raccoon who finds a flashlight.
Still from Your Letter. Photo provided.
These are three short films in the World Panorama that I liked:
- Three Birds is a beautiful film about a troubled young woman who visits a bird-like wise woman for advice.
- Tennis, Oranges has a rogue Roomba vacuum cleaner helping an old Chinese gentleman/rabbit to relive his past as a ballroom dancer.
- Wanda to Wonder is a dark tale of what happens to three old puppets after the children’s TV show they starred in is cancelled.
Still from Tennis, Oranges. Photo provided.
There are two parts to the collection “What Is It Good For? Experiences of War in Animation.” So far, I’ve seen Part Two, in which these were the films that impressed me:
- Through My Thick Glasses, tells a story in which a grandfather tells his grandson about his mostly failed attempts to join the French Resistance during WWII.
- Flowing Home tells the long term impact of family separation caused by the Vietnam War.
- A Day in the Tent is a very effective and impactful description of life in a Gaza refugee camp, mostly as told by children to the filmmakers.
- My Yiddish Papi relates a granddaughter’s regret at not capturing her grandfather’s experiences during WWII.
- Souvenir Souvenir, like the previous short film, deals with a grandson’s generally unsuccessful attempts to find out what his grandfather did in the French Army during the Algerian War.
Still from Through my Thick Glasses. Photo provided.
Depending on when you read this article, you may still be able to catch the second screening of most of these films. And I hope you do so because, sadly, many of these films will not be easily available after the OIAF ends Sunday night.
You can find more information on the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) website. The film catalogue can be found here, the daily festival schedule can be found here, and the young audiences info is found here. You can buy tickets and a variety of passes online.
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