AWN’s latest survey highlights under-the-radar animated shorts that are currently making their way through the festival circuit - or are newly available for online viewing.
This month, we explore new films about fragile friendships, societal sensitivities, the joys of wandering, hide-and-seek commuters, and the illusions of retirement.
Out for Ice Cream by Rachel Samson
A wonderfully serene coming-of-age portrait about two friends enjoying ice cream in the waning days of summer before stepping into the anxieties and uncertainties of high school. Friendships that once felt unbreakable and eternal become fragile - and, like summer ice cream, can melt away before you even realize it. A charming, simply drawn film that many can relate to - after all, we’ve all had close friends in junior high who drifted away as new realities and relationships unfolded in the tricky halls of high school.
Samson explains:
“Many small observations and animation cravings came together in this film. I wanted to portray and explore a friendship that is not evenly felt, that is not mutual. They are ‘circumstance friends’ - we might imagine they live on the same street, that they’ve been friends for a long time. But as summer ends and the transition to high school approaches, something more assertive and ‘official’ has to be said about the relationship. In high school, you’re expected to claim your friends; you don’t want to hide them. And then comes the awkward question of the friendship breakup.
Also, I’ve always been terrible with ice cream. The way it melts too fast has always been an issue for me - I end up with sticky drips and goo all over myself and my seat. So, I guess I wanted to capture a moment when the heat and rhythm of summer stop feeling enjoyable, when something that’s supposed to be sweet and comforting becomes exhausting and curdled. That, to me, mirrors what happens between Chloe and Jenny.”
You can catch Out for Ice Cream at this year’s Annecy and Zagreb festivals in June.
Reading Between The Lines by Jochen Rall
It’s amusing how some people bemoan commuters glued to their phones, forgetting that, long before the internet, travelers lost themselves in books, newspapers, or the hum of a Walkman. This exquisitely crafted short shifts from a textured, brown-paper-inspired aesthetic to a bold, vibrant style evocative of pop art and vintage 1940s travel posters. We slip behind the scenes to observe a trio of newspaper-clutching commuters, their pages transforming in a mesmerizing interplay of sports, fashion, and trains - overlapping and blending in a rhythmic, ever-shifting visual symphony.
“Nowadays we isolate ourselves from other passengers in the subway by fixating on our phones, but in the past we used to hide behind newspapers,” says Rall. “I often wondered what stories, thoughts, and feelings were concealed behind those pages – and that inspired me to make this film.”
Hypersensitive by Martine Frossard
Maybe it’s my own hypersensitivities acting up, but I’ve found the use of plants and trees as metaphors in animated films a bit overused lately. That said, this moody, surrealist work does a beautiful job of capturing the struggles of a sensitive soul trying to find balance amid the everyday chaos of existence.
We get so lost in the noise of the outside world that we risk losing touch with our inner truths. We constantly try to feed ourselves with external distractions, chasing a sense of purpose, of activity - but sometimes, just sitting in a park, doing nothing, simply being and breathing, is all we really need.
At the same time, are we becoming too focused on our inner selves, on psychology labels (neurodivergent, social anxiety, etc.)? We are fundamentally okay. It’s the society - the system - around us that is the problem. It keeps trying to squeeze us into its mold, even when we don’t fit. And instead of acknowledging its shortcomings, it gaslights us into believing there’s something wrong with us. Trust me - turn it all off. Go for a walk. Stare at the clouds, the trees. Listen to the passing birds. That’s all we need.
Have I mastered that? Not even fucking close.
Frossard explains her own rational behind this poetic and deeply personal work:
“With this film, I wanted to talk about hypersensitivity and the experience of grief in a society that filters out emotions. Too often, heightened sensitivity is interpreted as resistance to social and relational norms - yet most of us will encounter hypersensitivity, in others or in ourselves, at some point in our lives. It stems from what is imprinted on us in childhood, from our representation of the world with all its demands. In children, everything enters and everything exits, with no filter. That sensitivity leads to suffering when it comes up against an unstable, uncertain world. In this crisis of sensitivity that our society seems to be going through, our hypersensitivity makes us feel – intensely - the absurdity of a world trapped in an impasse of logic and rationality.”
Follow the Hill by Kurumi Goan
A refreshingly mature and meditative work from a student at the Tokyo University of the Arts. Remember what I said earlier about simply going to the park or taking a walk? That’s exactly what Follow the Hill embodies.
“Follow The Hill depicts the feeling I get while going up and down the hill along my route to the university campus,” adds Kurumi Goan. “I got inspired by the unique terrain and the feeling of walking up and down hills in Yokohama.”
Echoing Jonathan Hodgson’s Feeling My Way and Skip Battaglia’s Crossing the Stream, Goan takes viewers on a bouncy wander across a local landscape, capturing its vibrations, colors, and fragmented sights with beautiful pencil drawings. Then, just as the film settles into its rhythm, daylight suddenly gives way to evening, shifting the mood in an instant. There’s no analysis or deep thinking - just an exhilarating sense of being, of letting each sensation come and go.
Retirement Plan by John Kelly
Sometimes - okay, many times - animators get lost in crafting intricate visuals. Often, it's just a way to disguise the fact that they have nothing interesting to say. John Kelly’s visually minimalist Retirement Plan is proof that you don’t need flashy, elaborate designs to tell a potent and layered story.
The concept is straightforward. A man (voiced by Domhnall Gleeson) prattles on about everything he’s going to do when he retires. Naturally, it’s a lot of self-delusion. The result is both hilarious and heartbreaking.
I had a relative like this. He had all these plans. He collected trains - I mean, seriously collected them. His dream was to build an intricate miniature train world once he retired. But it never happened. He always said he was somehow busier in retirement than he had ever been while working. Then one night, he died in his sleep. The unopened train car boxes and unfinished tracks still sit in his house, untouched.
In short, we only have now. So stop reading this and get on with it.
A well-known figure in the world of independent animation, writer, author & curator Chris Robinson is the Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
