Eye For Film >> Festivals >> EIFF >> 2010 >> Animation
Some of the best contemporary animation from around the world, including bizarre experimental work and fresh retellings of classic stories.
View other Edinburgh International Film Festival Films by strand: After The Wave, Black Box, British Gala, Director's Showcase, Document, Gala, Night Moves, Rosebud, Shorts, Special Screenings, Under The Radar
Welcome To Twister and Prayers For Peace
The Astronomer's Sun
(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: Simon Cartwright, Jessica Ami Cope; Writer: Simon Cartwright, Jessica Ami Cope; Stars: David Bunting, James Caroll), Official Site
A man and a mechanical bear head to an observatory to confront his past.
McLaren Animation 1
Atomic Hubbub
(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Stephen Irwin)
Helpful advice on what to do to survive a nuclear attack.
McLaren Animation 2
The Art Of Drowning
(Country: Canada; Year: 2009; Director: Diego Maclean; Writer: Billy Collins; Stars: Winston Rekert), Official Site, Trailer
International Animation 1
Pondering the possibilities of what awaits us at the end of our lives.
Battenberg
(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: Stewart Comrie; Writer: Stewart Comrie), Official Site, Trailer
Colliding with the dusty window of an abandoned guest-house, an unwitting bird fails to realise the curious horror lurking within.
McLaren Animation 2
Bruce
(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Tom Judd; Writer: Tom Judd), Official Site, Trailer
Using synthetic biological technology, a young man grows his own action hero.
McLaren Animation 2
The Henhouse and Savage Mountain
Cages (Jaulas)
(Country: Mexico; Year: 2009; Director: Juan José Medina; Writer: Juan José Medina; Stars: Angel Lopez, Alfredo Sanchez)
An old man walks through the desert checking his traps for food, but something else is stalking him.
International Animation 2
Catzilla (Catzilla: King Of The Monsters)
(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: tokyoplastic), Official Site
A fluffy kitten dreams of rampaging through a city.
McLaren Animation 1
Cooked
(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: Jens Blank; Writer: Caroline Bruckner, Jens Blank; Stars: Stephen Mangan, David Morrissey, Katherine Parkinson), Trailer
The complicated story of a love triangle between a walrus, a seal and a lobster who visit the same sauna.
McLaren Animation 1
The Cow Who Wanted To Be A Hamburger
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Bill Plympton; Writer: Bill Plympton)
International Animation 1
Children's fable about the meaning of life.
Danny Boy
(Country: Switzerland, Poland; Year: 2010; Director: Marek Skrobecki; Writer: Marek Skrobecki)
International Animation 1
A young poet falls in love.
The Rhythm Of The Story: The Quest and Sky-Caper
Ego Sum Petrus
(Country: France; Year: 2010; Director: Julien Dexant; Writer: Julien Dexant, Alexis Ragougneau)
International Animation 1
A bitter old poet lives in a closed poetry shop and struggles to find inspiration.
Escape (Põgenemine)
(Country: Estonia; Year: 2009; Director: Kristjan Holm), Trailer
International Animation 1
Trouble brews in an infant school class.
A Family Portrait
(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Joseph Pierce), Official Site
A family portrait session reveals underlying jealousies.
McLaren Animation 2
Fatal Danger
(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: tokyoplastic)
A kitten dreams itself into an action movie.
McLaren Animation 1
Fly On The Window
(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Nikita Diakur), Official Site
A moody animation from the perspective of a fly observing someone's home.
McLaren Animation 2
Cages and A Not Sad Story
The Henhouse
(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: Elena Pomares), Official Site
A hungry fox finds shelter from the city and the rain in the Hen House Cafe.
McLaren Animation 1
Lebensader
(Country: Germany; Year: 2009; Director: Angela Steffen; Writer: Angela Steffen), Official Site
An animation about a small girl who discovers a whole world inside a leaf.
International Animation 2
Mai Mai Miracle (Mai Mai Sinko to Sen-nen no Maho)
(Country: Japan; Year: 2009; Director: Sunao Katabuchi; Stars: Mayuko Fukuda, Nako Mizusawa, Ei Morisako, Manami Honjo)
Inspired by her grandfather's stories, a little girl has fantastic dreams about the town where she lives.
Maska
(Country: Poland, UK; Year: 2010; Director: Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay; Writer: Stephen Quay and Timothy Quay, based on the short story by Stanislaw Lem.)
International Animation 1
An automaton disguised as a beautiful woman develops unexpected feelings whilst on a mission to assassinate a prince.
Mother Of Many
(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Emma Lazenby)
An animated film about a midwife who helps to bring lots of babies into the world.
McLaren Animation 1
A Family Portrait and NASA: A Volta
Mondo’s Search For The Sun
(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: Jana Prchalova; Writer: Jana Prchalova), Trailer
When one day the sun fails to rise as expected, Mondo becomes determined to discover its fate.
McLaren Animation 1
The Moon Bird
(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: Myles McLeod, Greg McLeod; Writer: Myles McLeod, Greg McLeod; Stars: Ophelia Colver, Rachel Ferjani), Trailer
An orphan girl takes on a sorceress with the help of her magical feathered friend.
NASA: A Volta
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Logan with art by The Date Farmers; Stars: N.A.S.A. Music Project featuring voals by Sizzla, Amanda Blank and Love Foxxx)
A drug deal goes awry.
International Animation 2
The Newly Coming Seasons
(Country: South Korea; Year: 2009; Director: Ming Sun-ah)
Four seasons pass in the Demilitarized Zone in Korea.
International Animation 2
A Not Sad Story (Not A Sad Story)
(Country: Russia; Year: 2009; Director: Maria Mouat)
A man, a woman and a dog experience unexpected animated adventures.
McLaren Animation 2
Catzilla and The Astronomer's Sun
No Sleep Won't Kill You (Ne Spavanje Ne Ubija)
(Country: Croatia; Year: 2010; Director: Marko Meštrovic)
Haunted by strange dream figures since childhood, an isolated man undertakes a dangerous experiment, sleeping less and less, with unexpected results.
McLaren Animation 2
Pig In A Poke (Tragédie Grouick)
(Country: France; Year: 2009; Director: Matthieu Van Eeckhout, Mark Eacersall)
A ventriloquist butcher finds himself in conflict with his pig puppet.
International Animation 2
The Polish Language
(Country: Ireland; Year: 2010; Director: Alice Lyons, Orla McHardy; Writer: Alice Lyons, Orla McHardy), Official Site, Trailer
International Animation 1
Animated film-poem about the subversive force of art and the renewal of poetry in the whispery language of Polish.
Paraphernalia
(Year: 2009; Director: John Williams; Writer: John Williams; Stars: Elijah Muhammad, Nieema Muhammad, Alisha Muhammad, Kaylan Jeffrey)
Atari struggles with his useless robot, but his real struggle is more complex.
McLaren Animation 1
Prayers For Peace
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Dustin Grella; Writer: Dustin Grella; Stars: Devin Grella, Dustin Grella), Official Site
Stop-motion animation confronting the memory of the artist's younger brother killed in the Iraq conflict.
International Animation 2
What Light (Through Yonder Window Breaks) and Battenberg
The Rhythm Of The Story: The Quest
(Year: 2009; Director: Karn David)
Abstract film about story.
McLaren Animation 2
Savage Mountain
(Year: 2009; Director: Steve Warne), Official Site, Trailer
As food runs low and tensions run high on the slopes of Savage Mountain, something sinister is at hand.
McLaren Animation 2
Save Our Bacon
(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: Peter Baynton; Writer: Peter Baynton, Davey Spens; Stars: Simon Callow, Warren Clarke, Jim Johnson), Official Site
A farmer needs ten more pigs in a hurry, but the only one he has turns her snout up at prospective suitors.
McLaren Animation 2
Seed
(Country: US, Czech Republic; Year: 2010; Director: Ben Richardson, Daniel Bird; Writer: Ben Richardson, Daniel Bird), Official Site
International Animation 1
Slamdance animation winner sees an egg and an apple build competing broadcast towers that vie for the attention of a transistor radio.
Shadow Play
(Year: 2010; Director: David Lea, John Williams)
A group of shadow characters embark on a strange adventure.
McLaren Animation 2
Paraphernalia and Bruce
The Silence Beneath The Bark (Le Silence Sous l'Ecorce)
(Country: France; Year: 2009; Director: Joanna Lurie; Writer: Joanna Lurie)
When a tree falls in a forest, two subteranean inhabits go on a journey of discovery.
International Animation 1
The Silence Of Sons (Zbigniev's Cupboard)
(Country: Poland; Year: 2010; Director: Magda Osinska; Writer: Duncan Barret, Magda Osinska), Trailer
A hoarder manages to obtain a precious cupboard in impoverished Eastern Europe, but the cost may be higher than he imagined.
Sky-Caper
(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Todd Setter, Dean Wright; Writer: Todd Setter, Dean Wright), Official Site
A window-washing duel.
McLaren Animation 2
Spin
(Country: France, UK; Year: 2010; Director: Max Hattler; Writer: Max Hattler), Official Site
Synchronised soldiering meets Busby Berkeley
McLaren Animation 2
Sauna Tango
(Country: Germany; Year: 2010; Director: Vera Lalyko; Writer: Vera Lalyko; Stars: Dabrowka Kolodziejski), Official Site, Trailer
A physiotherapist fixes up clients to the tune of the tango.
International Animation 1
Stanley Pickle and Sauna Tango
Stanley Pickle
(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: Victoria Mather)
A mysterious girl turns a man's carefully ordered life upside down.
McLaren Animation 1
Tad's Nest
(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Petra Freeman), Official Site
Animation inspired by a childhood tale of eels.
McLaren Animation 1
The Tail Gunner
(Year: 2010; Director: tokyoplastic), Official Site, Trailer
The first instalment of their "microEPIC kitty kitty series".
McLaren Animation 1
The Tannery
(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: Iain Gardner; Writer: Iain Gardner), Official Site
A fox has a life after death experience.
McLaren Animation 1
Tussilago
(Country: Sweden; Year: 2010; Director: Jonas Odell; Writer: Jonas Odell), Trailer
In 1977 West German terrorist Norbert Kröcher was arrested for having planned to kidnap the Swedish politician Anna-Greta Leijon. Among the people arrested during the following raids was Kröcher’s former girlfriend ‘A’. This is her story.
International Animation 2
Yellow Cake and Tussilago
Welcome To Twister
(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Owen Rixon; Writer: Owen Rixon), Official Site
An old man makes up a bed-time story for his three grandchildren... but things get wild in the Old West when they start to join in.
McLaren Animation 2
What Light (Through Yonder Window Breaks)
(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Sarah Wickens; Writer: Sarah Wickens), Official Site
Sunlight cast through a window breaks free and takes on a life of its own.
McLaren Animation 2
Yellow Cake
(Country: Canada; Year: 2009; Director: Nick Cross; Writer: Nick Cross), Official Site
Animated satire exploring oppression and rebellion.
International Animation 2
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
Eye For Film continues to support festivals both locally and across the world. At the moment, we're covering:
DOC NYC
New York's celebration of factual film
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
One of the largest film gatherings in northern Europe
French Film Festival
The UK's longest running celebration of Francophone cinema
Cannes Film Festival
Archive of festival coverage.
Sundance Film Festival
Daily diary and reviews from 2005-2018.
Berlin Film Festival
Coverage of the lynchpin German festival.
Search Movie Database
Browse our full archive
Browse our short film archive
Browse our media archive
