Some of the best contemporary animation from around the world, including bizarre experimental work and fresh retellings of classic stories.
The Rhythm Of The Story: The Quest and Pig In A Poke
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
Pondering the possibilities of what awaits us at the end of our lives.
International Animation 1
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
Welcome To Twister and Battenberg
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
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)
Children's fable about the meaning of life.
International Animation 1
Danny Boy
(Country: Switzerland, Poland; Year: 2010; Director: Marek Skrobecki; Writer: Marek Skrobecki)
A young poet falls in love.
International Animation 1
A Family Portrait and Spin
Ego Sum Petrus
(Country: France; Year: 2010; Director: Julien Dexant; Writer: Julien Dexant, Alexis Ragougneau)
A bitter old poet lives in a closed poetry shop and struggles to find inspiration.
International Animation 1
Escape (Põgenemine)
(Country: Estonia; Year: 2009; Director: Kristjan Holm),
Trailer
Trouble brews in an infant school class.
International Animation 1
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
The Silence Beneath The Bark and Fly On The Window
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.)
An automaton disguised as a beautiful woman develops unexpected feelings whilst on a mission to assassinate a prince.
International Animation 1
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
The Henhouse and Save Our Bacon
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
Tussilago and Paraphernalia
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
Animated film-poem about the subversive force of art and the renewal of poetry in the whispery language of Polish.
International Animation 1
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
Stanley Pickle and Bruce
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
Slamdance animation winner sees an egg and an apple build competing broadcast towers that vie for the attention of a transistor radio.
International Animation 1
Shadow Play
(Year: 2010; Director: David Lea, John Williams)
A group of shadow characters embark on a strange adventure.
McLaren Animation 2
The Tannery and The Astronomer's Sun
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
Tad's Nest and No Sleep Won't Kill You
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 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
The Newly Coming Seasons and Sky-Caper
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
Yellow Cake
(Country: Canada; Year: 2009; Director: Nick Cross; Writer: Nick Cross),
Official Site
Animated satire exploring oppression and rebellion.
International Animation 2