Animation Calling

Canadian Animators Shine Again at the OIAF

Ottawa International Animation Festival Competition Selections Announced

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF), North America’s leading animation film festival, is pleased to announce the Official Competition for 2017.

Several films are standouts with highly creative

technique and strong storytelling.

“Each year, the OIAF seeks to unearth a diverse array of animated films that challenge and expand the borders of the animation medium,” says Chris Robinson, Artistic Director at OIAF. “Canada, led by the National Film Board of Canada, and assorted independent producers and schools, continues to break new ground with inspiring and eclectic works that are the envy of the international animation community.”

The National Film Board of Canada, employing various filmmaking techniques, has a number of shorts vying for a jury prize. These films subtly make bold social statements that resonate with a variety of audiences. Some highlights include:

Matthew Rankin (Mynarski Death Plummet) returning with Tesla World Light, a bold and intriguing, experimental reimagining of the famous inventor.

Chintis Lundgren’s Manivald serving up a light comic portrait of an overbearing mother and her feckless adult son.
Oscar nominees

Eva Cvijanović’s Hedgehog’s Home, a sumptuous and delicately choreographed stop-motion fable—made entirely of needled felt—revives the timeless notion of cultivating our own place of safety and comfort.

Other Canadian animation highlights include:

Amanda Strong’s bold stop-motion film Four Faces of the Moon fuses Canada’s colonial past with Strong’s own family story.

Vladimir Kanic’s Only Lovers Leave to Die and OIAF 17 poster designer Elise Simard’s Beautiful Like Elsewhere, create mesmerizing non-linear experiences that are hauntingly poetic, and achingly beautiful.

OIAF favourite Steven Woloshen returns with Casino, an abstract, cameraless musical about his father and gambling.

Once again Canadian artists are well represented. Out of the 94 films selected

for Competition, 14 are Canadian.

Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Madame Tutli Putli)

returning to Ottawa with a trio of short, sharp societal jabs as part of the NFB’s

provocative Naked Island series.