Festival Year: 2012

films

The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Aaargh! NYICFF is extremely proud to present the epic new claymation adventure from four-time Academy Award®-winning stop-motion masters, Aardman Animations. Directed by Aardman founder (and former NYICFF jury member) Peter Lord, Pirates is the high seas saga of hapless Pirate Captain and his crew of extremely silly and witless pirate fools. With his rag-tag crew at his side, and seemingly blind to the impossible odds stacked against him, the boundlessly enthusiastic Captain embarks on a quest to be named Pirate of the Year — a voyage that takes us from the shores of exotic Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London and encounters with Queen Elizabeth, a young Charles Darwin, and a colorful assortment of ruthless pirate adversaries. But in his increasingly desperate drive for greatness, our gung-ho Captain risks alienating his only true friends and losing what is most dear to him.
films

Cinderella Moon

Based on the earliest known version of Cinderella, the Chinese tale “Ye Xian” from 768 A.D., cinematographer Richard Bowen’s wonder-filled feature debut is a gorgeous and enchanting fairytale, with exquisitely ornate costumes, dazzling scenery shot in Yunnan Province, and an underlying message that is as timely today as it was thirteen centuries ago. In a mythical kingdom, a girl is born. The village shaman had foretold a boy and Mei Mei’s father is sorely disappointed. Years later with her mother gone, Mei Mei is left with nothing but a pair of bejeweled slippers and the hope that one day she will get to dance at the Festival of the Full Moon. Meanwhile, the kingdom has been thrown out of balance — the moon is stuck in the sky — and the handsome young king is commanded by his mother to take a wife to restore the celestial harmony. But the king refuses to have a child with a woman he does not truly love. One day, peering through a telescope from his island home, the king spies Mei Mei floating on air in her magical slippers. Convinced that he’s seen an angel, he sets out in search for her— but she runs off, losing one bejeweled slipper along the way.
films

A Letter to Momo

The last time Momo saw her father they had a fight — and now all she has left to remember him by is an incomplete letter that he had started to write her, a blank piece of paper penned with the words “Dear Momo” but nothing more. Moving with her mother from bustling Tokyo to the remote Japanese island of Shio, she soon discovers three goblins living in her attic, a trio of mischievous spirit-creatures who have been assigned to watch over her and that only she can see. The goblins are also perpetually famished and they begin to wreak havoc on the formerly tranquil island, ransacking pantries and ravaging orchards — acts for which Momo often has to take the blame. But these funny monsters also have a serious side, and may hold the key to helping Momo understand what her father had been trying to tell her. A Letter to Momo is a wonderfully expressive and beautifully hand drawn tale that combines bursts of whimsy and kinetic humor with deep felt emotion and drama. The animation is superb throughout, from the painstakingly rendered serenity of the island’s Shinto shrines to the climactic finale — a frantic chase featuring thousands of squirming, morphing ghosts and goblins that is the best flight of supernatural fancy since Spirited Away.
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Chimpanzee

NYICFF is thrilled to present the first New York screening of the new Disneynature film from the award-winning directors of Earth. Sumptuously shot in the rain forests of Africa, Chimpanzee tells the true-life story of an adorable young chimp named Oscar. Oscar’s playful curiosity and zest for discovery showcase the intelligence and ingenuity of some of the most extraordinary personalities in the animal kingdom. The world is a playground for little Oscar and his fellow young chimps, who’d rather make mayhem than join their parents for an afternoon nap. Working together, Oscar’s chimpanzee family — including his mom, Isha, and the group’s savvy leader, Freddy — navigates the complex territory of the forest. But when Oscar’s family is confronted by a rival community of chimps, he is left to fend for himself until a surprising ally steps in and changes his life forever. As with the groundbreaking earlier Disneynature films, Chimpanzee boasts unparalleled nature photography and gives us an intimate first-hand look into the life of our closest relatives, while telling a truly remarkable story of family bonds and individual triumph.
films

Child’s Play

Leon is lurking in the bushes of a lush upper class neighborhood. At just the right moment, he silently sneaks into one of the houses, and lifting a sleeping child out of bed, he leaves behind only a hand-written note telling the parents how they can retrieve their stolen son.
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The Monster of Nix

From Dutch filmmaker and graphic novelist Rosto comes a Pan’s Labyrinthian animated opera featuring Terry Gilliam and Tom Waits, a dark fairytale filled with odd creatures and odder songs. Willy awakes one morning to find his village destroyed by an all-devouring creature named Virgil and sets out on a quest to destroy the monster.
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Rose & Violet

Siamese twins joined at the hand, Rose and Violet are star aerialists in a traveling circus. However, their perfect synchronization is thrown into chaos when a masked Strong Man joins the troop, pulling the sisters apart and resulting in a disastrous accident.
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The Gruffalo’s Child

One wild and windy night, the Gruffalo’s child ignores her father’s warning and tiptoes out into the snow in search of the Big Bad Mouse. This follow-up to the Oscar-nominated original is adapted from the enormously popular Gruffalo picture books by British author Julia Donaldson.
films

Shadow of a Midsummer Night

It’s Midsummer’s Eve in Norway, the brightest night of the year. During the celebrations, Jon and Line escape to their secret hideout in the forest. However, the idyll passes as Line has to leave, and this is the last time Jon sees her. A gentle and beautifully made story about grief and acceptance, and finding a way back.
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Grandma Grasshopper

When Abuela Grillo sings, rain falls and the crops grow. But when flooding brings hardship to the farmers, she decides to leave and only then do the villagers realize how much they needed her. Meanwhile in the big city, industrious minds have put her talents to a more profitable use precipitating a clash between the water haves and have-nots. iViva la Revoluciån!
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Capturing Santa

Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) narrates this riotous comedy based on his own childhood aversion to Santa Claus. Parents: No nasty emails! The word is “feck” and it’s all in good fun!
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The Storyteller

Nirmala lives in a seaside village with her grandpa, who recited her favorite story about a fisher boy. Yet lately he’s been forgetting some of the details.
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Polo’s Robot

In a strange land, an inventor builds a robot that will bring his nightmares to life.
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Chernokids

In this utterly creepy dystopian nightmare, a family of deformed mutant children leave their orphanage and trek through the ruined landscape of a crumbling nuclear power plant to bring a gift of fish to their “mother.”
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Balloon Moon

With sumptuous colors and artful stop motion animation, a cardboard boy and his ladybug friend set sail into a deep blue moonlit sea and have a dream adventure.
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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.
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The Maker

In a dark room, a glass-eyed puppet is constructing a look-alike companion, while the sands drain away in an hourglass and violin music plays in a minor key. He completes the puppet but she doesn’t come alive. At last her eyes open and they share a few brief moments of togetherness before the sand runs out.
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Wilis

In eerie, Svankmajer-style puppet animation, a boy is lured deep into the forest by a trio of ethereal enchantresses.
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The Sandpit

Intricately “re-animated” with over 35,000 individual photos, the filmmaker presents a day in the life of New York City as you’ve never seen it before. The city seems shrunk down to the size of a Playmobil set, with water taxi’s bobbing, toy-like steam shovels moving jerkily on miniature construction sites and car taillights streaming together in streaks of red and white as they head up the FDR.
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Dr. Breakfast

The newest film from NYICFF alum Stephen Neary (Let’s Make Out, Chicken Cowboy) manages to exceed both his previous entries in its twisted lovability. One day at breakfast, a man’s soul bursts out of his eyeball. While the soul roams the Earth in search of delicious things to eat, two neighborly deer care for the man’s catatonic body, showing him the meaning of friendship.
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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…
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Luminaris

From the director of past NYICFF favorites Lapsus and Journey to Mars comes a brilliantly executed, visually unique and immensely amusing stop motion short that took home the audience award at the prestigious Annecy Animation Festival. In a world controlled and timed by light, one man has a plan that could change destiny.
films

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.
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Pl.ink!

A hyper-imaginative little toddler forces his artist father to lighten up as he takes him on a color-splattered roller-coaster ride inside his own paintings.
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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.
films

Behind

After a trying and scary day, a little girl feels all alone — until she realizes that her best friend has been with her and taking care of her the whole time.
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Paint Showers

Out of a swirling cosmos of paint, comes a downpour of color and texture washing over all.
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Twist & Shout

Two cute-as-buttons Japanese puppets travel to Abbey Road to find inspiration and shoot the video for their ukulele cover version of “Twist and Shout.”
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Escape His Stare

While selecting a chicken at the marketplace, Mr. Wang notices a rooster looking at him. As the hatchet comes down on his dinner, the man cannot escape the bird’s reproachful stare and he becomes overcome by feelings of guilt. At home the scene replays in his mind, haunting his waking and sleeping life — but what can he do? His wife is demanding chicken for dinner again!
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