Under the beautiful Quebrada cliff in Acapulco, a group of mosquitoes crazy for tropical music desperately tries to bring happiness back into a rumba director’s life.
Tintico’s Afternoons
Age Range: 12
Rain in the Eyes
In this fantastical story set amidst hides tough and tender, seven-year-old Sofía recalls the day she fractured her arm while being chased through the forest.
Piñata Love
Mexican country craft meets-cute with NYC urban grit in this tale of a near-perfect mâche.
The Piñata King
Over 50 years ago, on the outskirts of Mexico City, a family began making and selling piñatas to the local community. Now the whole town takes part in the tradition, in this colorful documentary demonstrating the art and quirks of the craft.
Mateo and the Cinema
A young boy gets help from his family committed to seeing his artistic talents gloriously unfold.
Lucy vs. the Limits of Voice
Lucy wonders if each person is born with a fixed number of words to expend in their lifetime and if that could be the reason why her grandpa stopped talking.
A Hole
A little girl longs for a playmate in the garden. Her efforts go unnoticed—until they finally take root.
Far from Home
Risa is a Japanese teenager on a visit to Mexico. When she ends up lost in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, a local boy tries to help her find her way.
Elena and the Shadows
Elena’s old neighborhood is empty and lonely until Félix enters her orbit and shows her how to access other universes.
Creativity Does Not Recognize Walls
Art knows no boundaries, as this lovely animation commissioned by the Pixelatl Festival seeks to show us.
Bzzz
A little girl recognizes that buzz and hum are essential to all life in this cross-pollinating tale.
Two Snails Set Off
A star-studded French voice cast joins in on this witty walk, or rather creep, to the dark side, which takes as its starting point a classic poem by Jacques Prévert.
Totems
A lumberjack is working in the forest when a tree falls on him and traps him. In his plight, his inner animal is awakened…
Shock Therapy
Spiders, snakes, monsters…You name it, Jim’s afraid of it. One day, he bravely decides to try a kind of shock therapy—facing your fears directly—by inviting the whole load of them into his home.
Notes on Monstropedia
A monsterologist in Medieval Europe crafts an intricate, illuminated bestiary. The result is a comprehensive monster archive, searchable by artful turns of phrase and set to the slightly creepy if classical strains of a harpsichord.
Eternal Hunting Grounds
Two children play on an island. Their favorite game: to search under stones, on the beach, in the mud, and in the fields, hunting for creatures that have given up the ghost.
Ellee
What’s a monster—eerie, creepy, not a “normal” creature? Ellee challenges us to rethink difference and test our lenses.
The Dinner Party
A mysterious host invites guests to a dinner party. However, his strange friends have even stranger eating habits…
Dentures of Death
When Tommy’s parents go out, he’s forced to spend a nervous night in the company of his very old great-uncle. With Tommy losing his first tooth and Great Uncle losing his last, all signs point to a harrowing conclusion in this comically dark tale of youthful misunderstanding.
The Burden
Upbeat, downbeat, and quirky beyond belief, this unique stop-motion short is filled with the unexpected, including catchy post-apocalyptic tap dancing, telemarketing, and auto-tune numbers that rattle your norm to the core.
Scrap Dolls
On the east side of Detroit, an 11-year-old boy discovers the transformative power of art over loss when he happens upon a self-fashioned conjurer of abandoned objects.
Princess
Behind Ole’s harsh exterior is a kid who misses his mom and feels misfit. Fortunately, his schoolmate Davie is a lot tougher than she looks, and she uses all her strength to push back against his bullying to model another way for him.
Note: contains strong language and verbal/physical bullying
The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm
Mixing documentary footage and hand-painted animation, this gentle yet powerful family story centers on Elliott’s connection to his beloved great-grandfather Jack, an Auschwitz survivor. Jack relates his important history and forges an indelible, tender bond between generations.
The King of Twirl
This dance-documentary follows 11-year-old Janero as he pursues competitive twirling and faces down both physical challenges and stereotypes about what most consider a girls’ sport.
Hello Salaam
Two boys from Holland are headed on a big journey, traveling to a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos where their mothers volunteer. How will the boys bridge such big differences in language, culture, and experiences to make friends and build meaningful bonds?
The Day I Beat the Sky
One boy finds a creative way to tap into his anxieties and transform them into art.
Cat Days
Jiro feels sick. When his father takes him to the doctor, tests reveal it’s nothing serious, and yet make for surprising news about Jiro. But who says you can’t challenge the results?
Albert & Aidan Sykes
Aidan starts this poignant animated interview with his dad by asking: “Do you remember what was going through your head when you first saw me?”
Tough
A Chinese mother and her British-born daughter trade perspectives as they look back in order to move forward in this culturally-nuanced story.
Superperson
A citizen needs rescuing. Luckily, there’s a superhero on hand who just needs somewhere to get into costume…