The festival will open on Tuesday, January 21, with the East Coast premiere of Michel Hazanavicius’s The Most Precious of Cargoes (La Plus Précieuse Des Marchandises). This touching drama is based on the 2019 novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg, following a poor Polish couple whose rescue of a baby thrown from a train en route to Auschwitz changes their lives forever. Hazanavicius will participate in a Q&A following the film. The centerpiece feature on Friday, January 24, will be the US premiere of Claude Barras’s Savages (Sauvages). It’s an enchanting stop-motion ecological tale centered on Kéria, her adopted baby orangutan, Oshi, and her cousin Selaï, who must fight back against the planned destruction of Borneo’s ancestral forest. The closing night film on Sunday, January 26, will be the recently restored The Time Masters (Les Maîtres du temps), shown with the US premiere of the short The Machine-Men (Les Hommes Machines) both by visionary science-fiction animator René Laloux (Fantastic Planet). The Time Masters is a visual foray into an existentialist space adventure, and, in a similar vein, The Machine-Men serves as the pilot for the cult hit Gandahar, whose restored version was screened at last year’s Animation First.
Additional features include the US premiere of the restoration of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo’s classic The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (Les Douze travaux d'Astérix), the beloved family film My Life as a Zucchini (Ma vie de Courgette) by Claude Barras, the NY premiere of Bertrand Dezoteux’s Harmony (Harmonie), and the NY premiere of Yuku and the Himalayan Flower (Yuku et la fleur de l'Himalaya), by directors Rémi Durin and Arnaud Demuynck. Special to this year will be the US premiere of the first episode of an animated French TV series, The Legends of Paris (L’Armée des Romantiques), by Amélie Harrault. The festival’s five short film programs include The Best of Annecy 2024, New Francophone Shorts 1 and 2, Caught in the Moving Sand: The Films of Gisèle and Nag Ansorge, and Marina Rosset: The Enchanting Power of Animation. Both the Both Caught in Moving Sand and The Enchanting Power of Animation programs are part of this year’s focus on Swiss animation.
For the second year in a row, L’Alliance New York will present a limited-edition Animation First series poster. This year’s guest artist is Swiss animator and director Georges Schwizgebel. Keep an eye out for the poster reveal coming soon on social media! Like last year, Animation First will have a juried competition for its New Francophone Shorts program. The jury will be made up of industry professionals, including animators Bill Plympton and Noelle Melody, and artist Karlotta Freier.
L’Alliance New York is pleased to have Animation Speak/Easy back for a second year. The unique gathering will include guest artists who share an inspiring animated short, followed by a lively audience discussion. Returning again for the 2025 festival will be Animation Jam, the 48-hour student exercise to complete an animation sequence, and free VR experiences in L’Alliance New York Library, including the US premiere of Boris Labbé's Ito’s Meikyū. Don’t miss the many talks which will include a first look at Momoko Seto’s Dandelion’s Odyssey (France & Belgium), and discussions with animators Boris Labbé, Kristof Serrand, and Georges Schwizgebel, as well as a professional panel and countless Q&As following festival films.
Do you Tik Tok? https://www.tiktok.com/@paulnomad
Instagram it up! https://www.instagram.com/paulnomad/
All the VIDS! https://www.youtube.com/user/IdleHandsBlog
No comments :
Post a Comment