The OIAF Short Film Competition Offers a Rollercoaster of Emotions

The Ottawa International Animation Festival announces the 40 animated shorts selected for Official Competition in the Commissioned, Narrative, Non-Narrative, and Student categories.

OTTAWA, 12 July 2023 - The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) announces the animated shorts included in its Official Selections for the Commissioned, Narrative, Non-Narrative, and Student categories. The OIAF received a total of 2165 entries for this year's edition, representing 85 countries; 40 of those submissions were selected for this year's Shorts competition. The selected animated works will be judged and awarded by a jury formed by the expertise of Alla Gadassik (Canada), Parissa Mohit (Canada) and Xi Chen (China).

“This year's competition will take you through a roller coaster of emotions”, says OIAF Artistic Director Chris Robinson. “We're exploring all sorts of fun topics: sexuality and identity (27, Electra), grief (Eeva, A Crab in the Pool), parenting (World to Roam), fractured families (Return to Hairy Hill), colonization (Bear Named Jesus), and mortality (Her Dress for the Final). “But it's not all so dark”, continues Robinson. “We also have The Beatles, Werner Herzog musing about chickens, an inside look at the sex lives of furries, some baby superheroes (Baby Force) a silly song about the Montréal metro system (Girl with the Red Beret), and another one about how grand life is (Living the Dream).”

New to the OIAF awards lineup this year is the Hélène Tanguay Award for Humour, which celebrates the late National Film Board employee whose sense of humour had a lasting impact on the animation community. Animation studio Bento Box returns to present the Bento Box Award for Best Student Animation, including a new cash prize of $1000 CAD for the winner. XPPen will be providing a product prize to the winner of the XPPen Craft Award Prize for Best Animation Technique.

All winners will receive an award statue designed by Ottawa-based, scrap metal artist, Tick Tock Tom. The statues are working phénakisticopes featuring an animation by New York artist George Griffin.

The Commissioned category includes:

*14th Anibar Animation Festival Trailer 'Love' (dir. Sander Joon, Estonia, Kosovo)
*Ride on Joyfulness 'The Afternoon Tea' (dir. Lei Lei, China)
*Silent Labs Launch (dirs. Winston Hacking, Michael Enzbrunner, Canada, United States)
*Starlight Nightcrash (dir. Patrick Buhr, Germany)
*The Beatles 'I'm Only Sleeping' (dir. Em Cooper, United Kingdom)

The Narrative category includes:

*27 (dir. Flóra Anna Buda, France, Hungary)
*A Bear Named Jesus (dir. Terril Calder, Canada)
*Antipolis (dir. Kaspar Jancis, Estonia)
*Box Cutters (dir. Naomi van Niekerk, France, Netherlands, South Africa)
*Eeva (dirs. Morten Tšinakov, Lucija Mrzljak, Estonia, Croatia)
*Etoimoi (Ready) (dir. Eirini Vianelli, Greece, Belgium)
*Haljina za finale (Her Dress for the Final) (dir. Martina Mestrovic, Croatia)
*Herzog's Chicken (dir. Lukas Conway, Canada)
*Ikimono-san: Turtle (dir. Atsushi Wada, Japan)
*La fille au béret rouge (The Girl with the Red Beret) (dir. Janet Perlman, Canada)
*Living The Dream (dir. Ben Meinhardt, Canada)
*Misérable Miracle (Miserable Miracle) (dir. Ryo Orikasa, Canada)
*Obok (Outside) (dir. Izabela Plucinska, Poland, Germany)
*Retour à Hairy Hill (Return to Hairy Hill) (dir. Daniel Gies, Canada)
*The Miracle (dir. Nienke Deutz, Belgium, Netherlands, France)
*Un trou dans la poitrine (A Crab in the Pool) (dirs. Alexandra Myotte, Jean-Sébastien Hamel, Canada)
*Vanlav (Oneluv) (dir. Varya Yakovleva, Russia)
*Via Dolorosa (dir. Rachel Gutgarts, France)
*World to Roam (dir. Stephen Irwin, United Kingdom)
*Zima (dirs. Tomek Popakul, Kasumi Ozeki, Poland)

The Non-Narrative category includes:

*Albums de famille (Family Albums) (dir. Moïa Jobin-Paré, Canada)
*Aleph (dir. Slobodan Tomić, Croatia)
*BABY FORCE (dir. Yuki Kubo, Japan)
*Foot Print Shop (dir. Gina Kamentsky, United States)
*Forår (Spring) (dir. Pernille Kjaer, Denmark)
*Our Pain (dir. Shunsaku Hayashi, Japan)
*Vitanuova (dir. Niles Atallah, Chile, Mexico, Spain)
*나는 말이다 (I Am a Horse) (dir. Chaerin Im, South Korea, Denmark)

The Student category includes:

*Cyclepaths (dir. Anton Cla, Belgium)
*Electra (dir. Daria Kashcheeva, Czech Republic)
*Fur (dir. Zhen Li, United States)
*Furrie (dir. Lucie Grannec, France)
*Pipes (dirs. Kilian Feusi, Jessica Meier, Sujanth Ravichandran, Switzerland)
*Sewing Love (dir. Yuan Xu, Japan)
*The Eastern Rain (dir. Milly Yencken, Estonia)