Maximum Boost
With inventive use of sound, including crackly original audio from the Apollo 13 space mission, Remo and his grandmother blast off from a rainy playground in Switzerland on a journey to the moon.
Age Range: 7
The Little Boy and the Beast
When your mother turns into a beast, a lot of things change.
Ernesto
Seven-year-old Ernesto feels left out when he realizes he’s the only kid in school who hasn’t lost any baby teeth. Ernesto resorts to drastic measures to get rid of them; his teeth however, have other plans…
Night Island
Shop Tales
The streets and squares of a small town are lined with shops, each with its own specialty. There’s the word-sprinkling shop, the shop of memories, the shop of angels, and even the shop of secrets, filled with things that cannot be discovered. With lovely decoupage sets and the poetic insight of The Little Prince tucked neatly into a folk-tale formula, this film is wise beyond its years.
B/W Races
A quirky, black and white paper cut-out animation about a car race — in which a rogue black driver who runs others off the track gets his comeuppance. Homemade sound-effects add to the lo-fi fun. Vroooom.
Don’t Go
Awesome, thumpy, electronic disco music propels this non-stop chase scene of a movie — as a cute, pink-bellied, one-eyed CGI bunny gets chased around an apartment by a live action black cat.
Little Postman
Gravity
Falling objects are synchronized to produce rhythms and patterns.
The Deep
Metallic objects come to life in the depths of the sea, in the newest film from New York’s brilliant stop-motion artist PES — whose past NYICFF selections include Western Spaghetti, Dogs of War, and Game Over.
Hello, I Like You
Created by Brooklyn’s Mixtape Club, this quick-cut musical montage plays with texture, shape, pattern, and movement — with rope, leaves, nuts and bolts, and eye hooks twisting, dancing and popping to a soothing electronica beat.
Fluffy McCloud
A short film about man’s mixed relationship with Mother Nature. Fluffy McCloud uses his powers of precipitation mostly to annoy. But when one of his pranks causes near calamity, he decides to use his meteorological skills to make people happy.
Foosball
Oscar®-winner Juan José Campanella’s first animated film obliterated box office records in his home country of Argentina and puts Hollywood on notice that high-end CGI is not the exclusive purview of the major US studios. Amadeo spends his time ruling the foosball table in the back room of his parents’ café, where he has customized the tiny footballers with little uniforms and hairstyles, and individualized personalities to match. What he lacks in social skills, he more than makes up for in foosball chops — an early gameplay sequence where he humiliates local bully Grosso is a tour-de-force of animation art direction and a teaser for more to come. Flash forward several years, Amadeo is still languishing in his parents’ bar while Grosso has gone on to soccer super-stardom — and now returns with bulldozers and wrecking crews to exact his revenge by demolishing the little town that was the scene of his only defeat. With all seemingly lost and his beloved foosball table turned to rubble, Amadeo sheds a single teardrop — rendered in amazing detail — and brings to life the tiny captain, who then sets off to reunite the rest of the team. Voiced by Argentine comedians who improvised much of the dialogue, the players’ rapid fire banter provides non-stop amusement as they join together in a showdown match to save the town.
Welcome to the Space Show
NYICFF favorite Welcome to the Space Show returns in a brand new English-language version! With an intergalactic cast of thousands, Koji Masunari’s colorfully explosive debut feature sets a new high for visual spectacle and sheer inventiveness, in what has to be one of the most gleefully surreal depictions of alien life forms ever portrayed in cinema. It seems like just another lazy summer is in store for Amane and her older cousin Natsuki. Lolling about the Japanese countryside, the days are blithe and boundless. But boredom quickly vanishes when they find an injured dog in the woods and bring him back to the cabin — only to discover that he is not a dog at all, but Pochi, an alien botanist sent to Earth to track down a rare and powerful plant called Zughaan (better known to Earthlings as wasabi root). Before long, Pochi has whisked the kids away to a space colony on the dark side of the moon, an interstellar melting pot where we experience a non-stop parade of humorous alien creatures, jellyfish spaceships, dragon trains, and — if that weren’t enough — a theme song from UK pop anomaly Susan Boyle. (Really? Yes, really.) The plot twists come fast and furious, and with such a glorious barrage of color and invention washing across the screen, you just want to hit pause and gawk at the wonder of what you are seeing.
Aunt Hilda!
Jacques-Rémy Girerd, creator of A Cat in Paris and Mia and the Migoo, returns to NYICFF with his latest hand-drawn gem, Aunt Hilda!, a glorious throwback to the flower power classics like Yellow Submarine and The Point. Hilda lives high above the city, happily at home with tens of thousands of rare and luscious plants in her palace of a greenhouse. But down below, a new, genetically modified super-grain threatens to disrupt the delicate natural harmony. Distributed by the diabolical, money-and-honey-hungry Dolores, head of the DOLO Corporation, the bio-engineered monstrosity is promoted as the solution to world hunger — but only Hilda can see the inevitable danger and destruction it will cause. There’s a controlled chaos to the loosely-drawn, watercolor-dripped animation style that mirrors the characters’ over-the-top personalities. The corpulent Dolores is depicted in all her fleshy glory teetering on high heels, or barely contained in her overflowing hot tub office — while Hilda swooshes across the screen, color trailing behind, Lucy In the Sky-like, as she tends to her flowerpots or does battle with the agents of power and greed. The film’s not-so-subtle eco-message (no nuanced arguments here!) builds to a suitably cataclysmic, technology-gone-haywire finale, as the destructive power of the Frankenplant is unleashed and Hilda must help the Earth save itself from a very colorful biological mayhem.
Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants
Humorously bug-eyed animated insects battle it out within lush live action backgrounds in this enormously inventive comic adventure from award-winning animators Thomas Szabo and Hélène Giraud. The unique combination of real life landscapes — a micro-world shot in extreme and stunning close-up — and wonderfully animated creepy-crawlies engaging in playful antics, will leave the viewer both dazzled and amused. As the film opens, a montage of breathtaking forest landscapes zooms in on an abandoned picnic just as a gang of black ants is moving in to steal a coveted treasure: a tin box filled with sugar cubes. But before they can get away with the loot, a newly-born ladybug gets trapped inside the box, and is soon spirited away as the ants try to transport their prize across the woods toward their colony. When a rival clan of powerful red warrior ants appears on the scene, the resourceful ladybug comes to the aid of the black ants, and a furious chase ensues where everyday objects become creative tools in the battle. The audience is treated to Q-tips javelins, dollar bill paper airplanes, and a high-speed river race on an old soda can…along with humorous references to Star Wars, Close Encounters and even a shot-for-shot recreation of a scene from Hitchcock’s Psycho (not scary, we promise!). Based on the popular short animated series, Minuscule opened #1 at the French box office and is making its North American premiere at NYICFF.
Zip & Zap and the Marble Gang
Fresh from premieres at Sundance and Toronto, Zip & Zap is one of the most talked about family films on the festival circuit — a classic mystery adventure in the vein of Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and The Goonies. As if school during summer vacation wasn’t punishment enough, brothers Zip and Zap find themselves under the watchful eye-patch of Headmaster Falconetti, a toy-loathing, no-nonsense disciplinarian intent on transforming his unruly students into productive members of society. Unwilling to waste their summer following rules, they recruit some fellow students to form the secretive Marble Gang, whose members are committed to making life miserable for their totalitarian headmaster and his staff. What starts out as a series of innocent pranks leads them to a dark discovery — and a cryptic map that promises abundant treasure. With Falconetti’s Doberman nipping at their heels, the Marble Gang dashes through secret passageways, dark caverns and trap doors as they solve riddles, uncover secrets and indulge in a few too many bonbons.
The Day of the Crows
Deep in the woods, among towering trees and dense meadows, lives Pumpkin, a burly, ogre-like man, who towers like a giant over the tiny boy who is his only child. Raised like an animal since birth and knowing only the ways of the wild, the boy has been forbidden to venture beyond the edge of the forest to the place his father calls “The World Beyond.” So the nameless boy spends his days in isolation, honing his slingshot skills, eating small creatures, and confiding in his only friends: the half-human, half-animal spirits that occupy the strange forest that is his home. One day his father is injured, and the boy has no choice but to leave the woods in search of help. Entering a neighboring village, he befriends a young girl, Manon, and for the first time in his life begins to experience the wonders that human contact and civilization have to offer. Yet village life is not as harmonious as it first appears — and after discovering the truth about his family’s past, the boy gathers his courage and returns to the forest to confront his father. With tips of the hat to the enchanted forest worlds of Hayao Miyazaki and François Truffaut’s The Wild Child, this lushly animated film travels the blurred lines between animal and human, nature and civilization, and the realms of the living and of spirits. But underneath it all is a simple story of a father’s lost love and a boy’s brave struggle to recapture it.
Rio 2
Fly to Brazil ahead of the flock, with this special pre-release screening of Rio 2, the latest from Oscar-winning Blue Sky Animation Studio. It’s a jungle out there for Blu, Jewel, and their three kids, after they’re hurtled from the magical city of Rio de Janeiro to the wilds of the Amazon. As Blu tries to fit in, he goes beak-to-beak with the vengeful Nigel and meets the most fearsome adversary of all — his long-lost father-in-law, who has been hiding out with a group of other Macaws. The Rio characters are joined by Oscar® nominee Andy Garcia, Grammy® winner Bruno Mars, Tony® winner Kristin Chenoweth, and Oscar®/Emmy®/Tony® winner Rita Moreno — plus new Brazilian artists and original music by Janelle Monae and Wondaland.
Zarafa
Inspired by the true story of the first giraffe to visit France, Zarafa is a sumptuously-animated and stirring adventure — a throwback to a bygone era of hand-drawn animation and epic storytelling set among sweeping vistas of parched desert, wind-swept mountains and open skies. Under the cover of night a small boy, Maki, loosens the shackles that bind him and escapes into the desert night. Pursued by slavers across the moon-lit savannah, Maki meets Zarafa, a baby giraffe — and an orphan, just like him — as well as the turbaned nomad Hassan, Prince of the Desert. Hassan takes them to Alexandria for an audience with the Pasha of Egypt, who orders him to deliver the exotic animal as a gift to King Charles of France. And so Maki, Zarafa and Hassan take off in a hot-air balloon to cross the Mediterranean — an unbelievably beautiful and adventure-filled ride through the pink-skied, honey-hued expanses of Northern Africa, the bustling port of Marseilles, and over the snow-capped peaks of the Alps, arriving at last in Paris. There the unimpressed French monarch (portrayed as a laughable, semi-grotesque, pasty-faced, inbred by the same character designer as The Triplets of Belleville) indifferently accepts the gift, but Maki is determined to return Zarafa back to his rightful home in Africa.
Ernest & Celestine
Director Benjamin Renner is our guest for the theatrical premiere of the new English language version, featuring Forest Whitaker, Mackenzie Foy, Lauren Bacall, Paul Giamatti, William H. Macy, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, and Jeffrey Wright. Deep below snowy, cobblestone streets, tucked away in networks of winding subterranean tunnels, lives a civilization of hardworking mice, terrified of the bears who live above ground. Unlike her fellow mice, Celestine is an artist and a dreamer—and when she nearly ends up as breakfast for ursine troubadour Ernest, the two form an unlikely bond. But it isn’t long before their friendship is put on trial by their respective bear-fearing and mice-eating communities. Ernest & Celestine joyfully leaps across genres and influences to capture the kinetic, limitless possibilities of animated storytelling. Like a gorgeous watercolor painting brought to life, a constantly shifting pastel color palette bursts and drips across the screen, while wonderful storytelling and brilliant comic timing draw up influences as varied as Buster Keaton, Bugs Bunny, and the outlaw romanticism of Bonnie and Clyde.
Boy and the World
Brazilian artist Alê Abreu brings to screen a strikingly unique visual style to show the world through the eyes of a young boy. A child, Cuca, lives a life of quiet wonder, exploring all that the countryside has to offer. His cozy life is shattered when his father leaves for the city, prompting him to embark on a quest to reunite his family. The young boy’s journey unfolds like a tapestry, the animation taking on greater complexity and variety as his small world expands. Simple line drawings of the village give way to broad brushstrokes forming giant bushels of cotton lining country roads, and sweeps of pastel churned into roaring waves. Approaching civilization, industrial landscapes are inhabited by animal-machines and strange beings, with barrios of decoupage streets and shop windows, and flashing neon advertisements that illuminate the night like a giant Lite Brite. The story depicts a clash between village and city, indigenous and imperial, hand crafted and mechanized, rich and poor — and throughout the tumult, the heart and soul of the people beats on as a song, a simple plaintive refrain played on recorder. The film’s music is on equal footing with the stunning visuals, a soundscape of pan-flute, samba, and Brazilian hip-hop mixing with the whirling carnival colors and exploding fireworks.
Anina
There is an oddly comforting charm about Anina, a quirky, warm, simply-but-beautifully animated picture with a look that seems hand crafted from materials gently worn and loved. The title character is endearing, with her bright ruddy red hair, striped leggings, and big head. Her name is a palindrome — mean- ing it reads the same both backwards and forwards — and it causes her grief from taunting classmates. She in turn takes it out on another girl, Yisel, and an ensuing tussle lands the two of them in the principal’s office. There, they are each handed a black wax-sealed envelope and told they must carry it around for a full week, seal unbroken, before returning to discover the punishment inside. The curiosity and temptation become too much for Anina, and she begins having “Heffalumps and Woozles” type nightmare fantasies about the unknown punishment, complete with flying headmistresses and cackling teachers. Itching for an answer, she follows Yisel in hopes of sneaking a look at her envelope — only to discover that they have more in common than an uncommon punishment.
Amazonia 3D
Get ready to meet the cutest animal in the entire known universe — a baby capuchin monkey with impossibly huge eyes and impossibly human expressions — on a stunningly photographed 3D adventure into the heart of the Amazon rainforest. Meticulously captured over two years of filming, Amazonia reveals the deep mystery and beauty of the Amazon and features more exotic animals per minute of running time than any film we can recall. This is not a documentary, it is an adventure story about a monkey named Sai, born in captivity, who finds himself stranded in the jungle and must fend for himself. As he explores his new world, so do we — and his every step (and tumble, and fall) exposes the immense beauty and danger of his new environment. Amazonia follows a long line of French nature films, from Jacques Cousteau to Winged Migrations to March of the Penguins, but never before has an animal conveyed such incredible human-like expressiveness and emotions on the big screen. It is impossible not to get caught up in the ride as we respond to his curiosity, fear, hope, and affection, his shrinking shyness, or his wide-eyed wonder.
House of Magic
3D maestro Ben Stassen (NYICFF 2011’s Sammy’s Adventures) returns with a rollercoaster-ride of a film filled with jack-in- the-box surprises, inventive robotic contraptions, and plenty of swooping and swooshing z-axis movement to keep you gripping your seat. Seeking shelter from the storm, abandoned orange tabby Thunder sneaks into a mysterious mansion owned by retired magician Lawrence, formerly known as “The Illustrious Lorenzo.” The eccentric Lawrence shares his fairy-tale world with his pets as well as a dazzling array of automatons and gizmos of his own invention. He welcomes Thunder into this odd-ball family, but Jack, the curmudgeonly old jack-rabbit, and his fiercely loyal sidekick mouse, Maggie, are determined to kick him out. Meanwhile, bigger trouble is brewing when Lawrence ends up in the hospital and his greedy nephew decides to follow through on plans to sell the house and get rid of the animals. Using their combined ingenuity — and Thunder as a secret weapon — they craft a strategy to ward off potential buyers by turning the house into a haunted mansion.
Kirikou and the Men and the Women
The pint-sized — or more like peanut-sized — child hero Kirikou returns in the new feature from world-renowned animator/director/storyteller Michel Ocelot, who NYICFF audiences should be well familiar with from Kirikou and the Sorceress, Azur & Asmar, and Tales of the Night. This third film in the Kirikou trilogy weaves together a collection of short-form fables, mixing traditional storytelling and mythology with bits of humor and wit, backed by an upbeat musical score from Malian, Togolese and French artists. Ocelot’s vibrant use of color is everywhere on display — a black panther creeps into the village at night against impossibly deep blue skies, firelight sets off shadows against thatched huts, a Bedouin boy wrapped from head to toe in azure robes blazes like a sapphire against the tawny desert sand — while a village elder introducing each story lends an Arabian Nights quality to the film. Throughout, Kirikou is called upon to save his village from perils both supernatural and human, which he does with a combination of speed, cunning and humor — as well as a certain naiveté about the way the world really works. It is precisely such innocence that makes Kirikou such an endearing and enduring character.
A Town Called Panic: The Christmas Log
Prepare for more zany stop-motion mayhem as Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar follow-up their award-winning 2009 debut feature the misadventures of Indian and Cowboy, who become over excited in anticipation of their Christmas gifts and have difficulty not being naughty.
Annie: It’s the Hard-Knock Life
In 2012, over 5,000 young girls traveled to New York City to vie for a part in the Broadway revival of Annie and a bed in Miss Hannigan’s infamous orphanage. Only eight got a part. Director Joshua Seftel takes us backstage for a behind-the-scenes look at the creative chaos that is putting on a Broadway show — from the first auditions and early choreography, to dress rehearsal calamities and opening night jitters. You don’t need to love musicals to be fascinated by the process — and thoroughly charmed by the young performers who are the focus of the film. We first meet the girls as they are finding out they got the part (to much gleeful shrieking and involuntary jumping up and down) and we follow them as they move to New York and begin to navigate the difficult divide between middle-schooler and Broadway star. Along the way there are inevitable bumps in the road, triumphs, and set-backs, as they learn to trust one another, work together, and become friends.
Pinocchio
Enzo D’Aló’s colorful and musical re-telling of this classic tale hews much closer to both the spirit and plot of Carlo Collodi’s original story than the Disney version, with Pinocchio remaining for most of the picture a rambunctious, easily-distracted, and unrepentant little scamp, who dances and trips from one strange adventure to the next in a surreal, Alice in Wonderland-like ride that never quite takes a pause. Mere moments after Geppetto has whittled a talking log into the son he never had, his newborn marionette offspring is already causing him grief. And though Cricket, Blue Fairy, and others point him on the right path, our anti-hero prefers to play hooky, and finds himself at the mercy of a host of outlandish — and strikingly animated — characters almost too numerous to recount: an evil marionette master and a lurid-green fishmonger, cat and fox con-artists, a pair of bowler-hatted bobby officers who look like something out of Yellow Submarine – landing at last in a phantasmagoric amusement park-turned-factory camp, where little boys are turned into donkeys and made to work from morning to night. In the end, after escaping from these and other predicaments, Pinocchio finds himself in the belly of a giant shark, where he is reunited with his dear papa and seems finally to have learned what it means to be good.
The Painting
In this wry parable, a kingdom is divided into the three castes: the impeccably painted Alldunns who reside in a majestic palace; the Halfies who the Painter has left incomplete; and the untouchable Sketchies, simple charcoal outlines who are banished to the cursed forest. Chastised for her forbidden love for an Alldunn and shamed by her unadorned face, Halfie Claire runs away into the forest. Her beloved Ramo and best friend Lola journey after her, passing between the forbidden Death Flowers that guard the boundaries of the forest (in one of the film’s most radiantly gorgeous scenes), and arriving finally at the very edge of the painting — where they tumble through the canvas and into the Painter’s studio. The abandoned workspace is strewn with paintings, each containing its own animated world — and in a feast for both the eyes and imagination, they explore first one picture and then another, attempting to discover just what the Painter has in mind for all his creations.