MONSTRA Festival

Short Films

Short Films

Short Film Competition 1
Short Film Competition 2
Short Film Competition 3
Short Film Competition 4
Short Film Competition 5
Short Film Competition 1

Kafka's Doll

Country: Portugal Year: 2021 Duration: 11 mins.
Sinopsys:
After finding a girl crying in the park for losing her doll, Kafka decides to write her a letter everyday to tell her about her doll's fictional journeys. Despite being sick and weak, Kafka visits the park every day to read the letters to the girl, and it is in this obsession to help her deal with loss that he ends up finding himself again.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D & 3D Computer Animation Director: Bruno Simões Writers: Bruno Simões Animation: Emanuele Pavarotti Music: Aurélien Vieira Lino

32513a11b300c

Country: Austria Year: 2021 Duration: 8 mins.
Sinopsys:
Experimental animated film without a story, just text and images.
Credits:
Animation Technique: Photography, special effects Director: Holger Lang Writers: Holger Lang Producer: Holger Lang Animation: Holger Lang Music: Holger Lang

Oldboy's Apples

Country: United States Year: 2020 Duration: 7 mins.
Sinopsys:
Beyond the hedge, beneath the well, ancient spirits sing their song to reawaken the mystery of the hidden apple.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation Director: Brad Hock Producer: Bardo Bread Picturs Prod. Animation: Brad Hock, Ri Crawford, David Lauer, Arne Hain Music: Zachary Johnston, Matteo Roberts

What Resonates in Silence

Country: France Year: 2020 Duration: 8 mins.
Sinopsys:
Hiding death does not make it disappear. A little girl who suffered from the silence of adults felt dispossessed of her right to mourn. As an adult, she recounts the tender gestures that bind her to the dead.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation, painting Director: Marine Blin Writers: Marine Blin Producer: Papy3D Productions Animation: Nancy Bens, Kris Van Alphen Music: Beo Brockhausen

Mom's Button

Country: Russia Year: 2021 Duration: 6 mins.
Sinopsys:
For your whole life, you try to run ahead of time, conquer mountains, earn recognition. But if you stumble... All you really want is a voice from your childhood to ask you to go back home.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation Director: Anna Kritskaya Writers: Anna Kritskaya Producer: Studio A-Film Animation: Ludmila Skotnikova, Dilyara Silnitskaya, Semen Smolin, Natalya Kuzminykh

The Fourth Wall

Country: Iran Year: 2021 Duration: 9 mins.
Sinopsys:
Home, family, relationships, desires, wishes: everything is summarized in a kitchen. The stuttering boy is alone there, playing with his imagination.
Credits:
Animation Technique: Engraving on film, 2D computer animation Director: Mahboobeh Kalaee Writers: Mahboobeh Kalaee Producer: Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) Animation: Mahboobeh Kalaee Music: Hossein Ghoorchian

Life’s a Bitch

Country: Russia Year: 2021 Duration: 6 mins.
Sinopsys:
One day in the life of a man whose home was a bench of a railway platform.
Credits:
Animation Technique: Drawing on paper, 2D computer animation Director: Varya Yakovleva Writers: Varya Yakovleva Animation: Stepan Biryukov, Tatiana Yatsina, Daria Vyatkina, Konstantin Brilliantov, Elizaveta Khlomova, Alexandra Ryazanova

The Night Watch

Country: France Year: 2020 Duration: 12 mins.
Sinopsys:

A couple rushes out of a glamorous party. On their way home, an argument leads to a brutal car accident. When George regains consciousness, Christina has disappeared. He will then experience a real descent into hell.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D & 3D Computer Animation Director: Julien Regnard Animation: Lison Sabiols, Éloïse Rauzier, Lucie Marchais, Léa Bouffier Music: Ali Helnwein
Short Film Competition 2

Oh, No!

Country: Russia Year: 2021 Duration: 6 mins.
Sinopsys:
Sometimes something suddenly seems annoyingly unacceptable. A failure comes and a bummer happens.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation Director: Ivan Maximov Writers: Ivan Maximov Producer: Master-Film Animation: Ivan Maximov, Tanya Yatsyna, Sveta Razgulyaeva, Dasha Dementieva Music: Artem Fadeev

Coalescence

Country: Portugal Year: 2021 Duration: 11 mins.
Sinopsys:

Coalescence is the process of joining or merging elements to form one mass or whole. In this piece, both visual materials and music join and separate themselves in distinct units, forming shapes and sounds that are the combination of elements put together.

 
Credits:
Animation Technique: 3D Computer Animation Director: João Pedro Oliveira Producer: João Pedro Oliveira Animation: João Pedro Oliveira Music: João Pedro Oliveira

The Awakening of the Insects

Country: France Year: 2021 Duration: 14 mins.
Sinopsys:
Hong Kong. Mr. Lam is an old gentleman who has lost his memory since the death of his wife. On March 5, the day of "the awakening of the hibernating insects", he receives the unexpected visit of old Ms. Meng. This Taoist exorcist is determined to chase the demons lodging in the head of the old man.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Animation Director: Stephanie Lansaque, François Leroy Writers: Stephanie Lansaque, François Leroy Animation: Stéphanie Lansaque, François Leroy Music: Denis Vautrin

When We Fell

Country: United Kingdom Year: 2021 Duration: 4 mins.
Sinopsys:
Landscapes gave way, a bird flew by. A rolling canvas and one-take animation explore the wafer thin line between freedom and obliteration. Nothing can be taken for granted in this life. Everything changes, falls. The lived experience of this truth is captured by the journey of a bird through ever-shifting landscapes, on paper that also crumbles and rips before our very eyes.
Credits:
Animation Technique: Cut-outs, 2D Computer Animation Director: Ben Spooner, Morgan Twiston Davies Animation: Morgan Twiston Davies Music: Sponn

Fledge

Country: Israel Year: 2021 Duration: 15 mins.
Sinopsys:
A folkloristic fantasy that takes place during the Russian immigration to Israel in the 90's. Elina is a young immigrant who lives with her grandma in a small desert town, trying to fit in with her peers and overcome her mother's abandonment, until a strange genetic phenomena interrupts - her body starts to grow feathers. Elina is forced to choose between the need to belong and her own identity.
Credits:
Animation Technique: Puppets Director: Hani Dombe, Tom Kouris Writers: Hani Dombe Animation: Hani Domble, Nina Alon, Julian Clark, Eduard Puetras Anfruns

Menagerie

Country: United States Year: 2022 Duration: 4 mins.
Sinopsys:

Day after day, inhabitants of the Menagerie play out their daily lives like clockwork. Menagerie is a study on the daily motions and mundane tasks of contemporary city life. Featuring hundreds of looping animated characters, the film explores how the repetitive actions of our day-to-day lives quickly spiral into an endless kaleidoscope of abstraction.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation Director: Jack Gray Animation: Jack Gray Sound: Judy Kim

A Bite of Bone

Country: Japan Year: 2021 Duration: 10 mins.
Sinopsys:
A little girl reflects on her last summer with her father at his funeral.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation, Hand-drawn Director: Honami Yano Writers: Honami Yano Animation: Honami Yano

People and the Moon

Country: Iran Year: 2021 Duration: 5 mins.
Sinopsys:
The moon always has an important presence when one is in love.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation Director: Younes Kaffashian Writers: Younes Kaffashian Animation: Younes Kaffashian

Bad Seeds

Country: Canada Year: 2021 Duration: 6 mins.
Sinopsys:
Bad Seeds takes us to a bizarre world populated by carnivorous plants that can change shapes the way a chameleon changes colours. The veteran director of Carface deftly connects growth with rivalry and evolution with competition, crafting an increasingly shocking duel that’s peppered with allusions to the western, the Cold War, board games, and much more.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation Director: Claude Cloutier Writers: Claude Cloutier Producer: Galilé Marion-Gauvin, Julie Roy Animation: Mathieu Tremblay Music: Robert Marcel Lepage
Short Film Competition 3

LOOP

Country: Spain, Argentina Year: 2021 Duration: 8 mins.
Sinopsys:
In this society, each human being repeats the same action over and over again, in this society each human being repeats the same action over and over again, in this society each human being repeats the same action over and over again, in this society each human being repeats the same action over and over again.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation Director: Pablo Polledri Writers: Pablo Polledri Producer: Selected Films Animation: Arkaitz del Río, Mari Carmen Cambrills, Pablo Polledri Music: Joseba Beristain

Promised Land

Country: Italy Year: 2021 Duration: 9 mins.
Sinopsys:

Every day, legions of people risk their lives in the Mediterranean Sea to reach the southern coasts of Europe, the new Promised Land. But the sea that once parted to allow Moses' passage now closes with indifference over the stories and lives of countless victims. 

An old man slowly walks along a deserted beach, collecting the last possessions of women, men and children who have disappeared during their long journey to the Promised Land. A daily reality that bears upon all of us.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation, Rotoscoping Director: Andrea Pierri Writers: Andrea Pierri Animation: Andrea Pierri Music: Andrea Gattico

Impossible Figures and Other Stories I

Country: Poland Year: 2021 Duration: 16 mins.
Sinopsys:
After a huge explosion, only an old couple remains in an abandoned city. An old woman wanders tediously through empty streets. She passes by the statues of some now completely irrelevant and long-forgotten victories. In the shop windows, she sees some abandoned and dead mannequins. In short flashback, we get to see those who will never return to the city. Marta Pajek’s film is a post-apocalyptic portrait of the world where the human being and its existence means no more than a split second. The film is the missing part of the trilogy “Impossible Figures and other stories”.
Credits:
Animation Technique: Drawing on paper, 2D & 3D Computer animation Director: Marta Pajek Writers: Marta Pajek Animation: Marta Pajek, Alex Boya Music: Aleksandra Gryka

Can You See Them?

Country: Croatia Year: 2021 Duration: 10 mins.
Sinopsys:
This film is structured in such a way that its beginning also makes its end, creating a form of "endless day". After witnessing the killing of a deer in the woods, a schizophrenic boy flees home in panic. A myriad of strange occurrences along the way worsen his condition. The safety of his home is only an illusion, and a series of visual stimuli forces the boy to return to the forest, in the beginning of the story, in order to try and change the course of events.
Credits:
Animation Technique: Stop Motion, puppets Director: Bruno Razam Writers: Bruno Razum Animation: Bruno Razam Music: Hrvoje Štefotić

Skin to Skin

Country: Spain Year: 2021 Duration: 7 mins.
Sinopsys:
Between lines and shapes, hands touch; they explore
and experience each other, wanting to break down the
boundaries between their skin.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Animation Director: Mel Arranz Writers: Mel Arranz Producer: Kalaka Lab Animation: Mel Arranz

Bestia

Country: Chile Year: 2021 Duration: 15 mins.
Sinopsys:

Based on true events, the film explores the life of a secret police agent during the military dictatorship in Chile. Her relationship with her dog, her body, her fears and frustrations reveals a grim fracture of her mind and of the country.

 
Credits:
Animation Technique: Stop-Motion Director: Hugo Covarrubias Writers: Martín Erazo, Hugo Covarrubias Animation: Hugo Covarrubias, Matías Delgado Music: Ángela Acuña, Camilo Salinas

Melting

Country: Portugal Year: 2022 Duration: 12 mins.
Sinopsys:
They ignore each other in the hope of becoming each other’s object of desire, but both are oblivious to their match, profoundly ignorant of the symmetry. Evermore distant, they let their desire burn away, sedated by the frustration of seduction failure. One day, walking in opposite directions, their paths cross and, as they recognize each other’s presence, they merely exchange a cold nod.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation Director: Susana Miguel António, Filipa Gomes da Costa Writers: Susana Miguel António Producer: Sardinha em Lata Animation: Carina Beringuilho, João Lopes da Silva, Sara Naves, André Silva, Ismael Fati, Filipa Gomes da Costa Music: Linda Martini
Short Film Competition 4

Selection Process

Country: Spain Year: 2021 Duration: 4 mins.
Sinopsys:
A cat goes to a job interview where his aptitudes are assessed by three mice. As the interview progresses, the situation starts getting more and more awkward for everyone involved.
Credits:
Animation Technique: Puppets Director: Carla Pereira Producer: TV ON Producciones Animation: Carla Pereira

The Landing

Country: Finland Year: 2021 Duration: 9 mins.
Sinopsys:
A family holiday in a zoo is interrupted when an unknown species tries to enter the zone.
Credits:
Animation Technique: Puppets Director: Kaisa Penttilä Writers: Kaisa Penttilä Animation: kaisa penttilä Music: Sakari Salli

Bear Hug

Country: France Year: 2021 Duration: 11 mins.
Sinopsys:
An eager little bear is waiting for his birthday guests to arrive. Slowly he realizes that he has been rejected. But the determination to celebrate his birthday is still strong, and, free as a bird, his hunt for company begins.
Credits:
Animation Technique: Puppets Director: Margrethe DANIELSEN Producer: JPL Films Animation: Gilles COIRIER, Souad WEDELL, Gilles Coirier, Souad Wedell, Marion Le Guillou, David Thomasse Music: Jon Erik KAADA

OUR 2

Country: Japan Year: 2021 Duration: 6 mins.
Sinopsys:

Commemorating the 700th anniversary of Dante's death, the film is a reinterpretation of Dante and Beatrice's reunion story, from "Vita Nova" to the three parts of the "Divine Comedy" (Hell, Purgatory and Heaven). Where are we, young people, now? Where should we go? Since 2020, it has become clear that young people are free to choose anything. We can even choose to live or die. The new world is coming. Let's jump into it with love for ourselves and for others. 
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation Director: Yungsung Song Animation: Yungsung Song Music: Sato Ayako

Two Sisters

Country: France Year: 2021 Duration: 14 mins.
Sinopsys:
Rouge and Blanche, two happy twin sisters, live in a plain on the edge of a hostile forest they are afraid to approach. The danger will come from elsewhere.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer animation Director: Anna Budanova Writers: Anna Budanova Producer: IMAKA Films Animation: Anastasia Melikhova, Svetlana Filippova, Anna Budanova

The Sausage Run

Country: Germany Year: 2021 Duration: 10 mins.
Sinopsys:
An animated short film which, with the help of multiple Zoetropes, tells the tragic story of a little lamb, loosely based on the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. Little Red Riding Hood’s family consists of the mother sheep, the lamb (Little Red Riding Hood) and a grandfather sheep. The forester and his wife are dogs with a soft spot for sausages. The wolf, a butcher, is a man with a serious problem – he has run out of meat.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D & 3D Computer Animation Director: Thomas Stellmach Writers: Paul Driessen, Thomas Stellmach Producer: Epeios Productions, Animation: Nancy Bens, Kris Van Alphen, Aike Arndt Music: Beo Brockhausen

Mr. Pete & the Iron Horse

Country: Switzerland Year: 2021 Duration: 8 mins.
Sinopsys:
The diligent soldier Mr. Pete does everything to meet the high standards of his baroness. To satisfy her insatiable lust for speed he shovels madly on her new iron horse's voyage.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation Director: Kilian Vilim Writers: Kilian Vilim Producer: YK Animation Studio Animation: Etienne Mory Music: Raffael Pochanke

The Garbage Man

Country: Portugal Year: 2022 Duration: 11 mins.
Sinopsys:
On a hot August afternoon, the family gathers at the table. The memories of each are crossed to tell the story of uncle Botão. From the dictatorship to the emigration to France, where he worked as a garbage man, and when he arrived with the van filled with “garbage” that transformed into treasures.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation Director: Laura Gonçalves Writers: Laura Gonçalves Producer: Bando À Parte Animation: Inês Teixeira, Marta Reis Andrade, Alexandra Ramires, Vitor Hugo Rocha, Maria Francisca Moura, Dimitrije Mihajlovic, Laura Gonçalves Music: Ricardo Santos Rocha
Short Film Competition 5

Creation

Country: Portugal Year: 2021 Duration: 7 mins.
Sinopsys:
Reading the Genesis has always surprised me. In fact, I don't a more eloquent description of the creation process than of the Old Testament. I took inspiration from these verses to create a film made of emotional states and sensory landscapes from drawn movements.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation Director: José Xavier Writers: José Xavier Producer: Oh Multimedia Animation: José Xavier Music: Haiden

Tamgù

Country: Argentina, France Year: 2020 Duration: 4 mins.
Sinopsys:
A wild dance to free oneself from impeding fabrics, like so many ideas that bury and suffocate.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D & 3D Computer Animation, Rotoscoping Director: Isabel Loyer, Luis Paris Producer: Sol Rulloni Animation: Isabel Loyer, Luis Paris

Til We Meet Again

Country: Estonia Year: 2022 Duration: 14 mins.
Sinopsys:
The film tells the tragic story of the small Ruhnu Island. Fearing for their lives, its entire population abandoned their homes while escaping the war in 1944. Decades later, they had a chance to finally return, only to find out that strangers had settled in.
Credits:
Animation Technique: Sand, puppets, objects Director: Ülo Pikkov Writers: Ülo Pikkov Producer: Nukufilm Animation: Triin Sarapik-Kivi, Marili Sokk Music: Luiz Black, Karoliina Kreintaal, Natali Ponetajev, Allan Järve

O

Country: Austria, France Year: 2021 Duration: 5 mins.
Sinopsys:

A dancer as filmmaker refrains from superfluous movement in a villa in Brittany, giving way to an individual as well as social state described by the French philosopher Paul Virilio as “polar inertia”. Frame by frame by frame, Paul Wenninger makes the rounds standing still, in an initially completely empty salon, with his back perpetually turned to the walls – and above all, to the windows. A stormy time seems to fly by while the relationship between outside and inside gets shaken up. A hypnotic film about time, space, change and bodies in collectivity.
Credits:
Animation Technique: Pixilation Director: Paul Wenninger Producer: Kabinett ad Co , Villa Rohannec' - Département de Côtes d'Armor Animation: Paul Wenninger Music: Peter Jakober

Vadim on a Walk

Country: Russia Year: 2021 Duration: 8 mins.
Sinopsys:
Finally, Vadim goes out of a tight square space where he has been used to sitting. He embraces the brave new world and his renewed life.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D & 3D Computer Animation Director: Sasha Svirsky Writers: Sasha Svirsky Producer: School-Studio "SHAR" Animation: Sasha Svirsky Music: Alexey Prosvirnin

The Blind Writer

Country: Greece Year: 2021 Duration: 10 mins.
Sinopsys:
The drawings of this film were made blindfolded, that is, without looking at them while drawing, but using only tactile cues. This challenge reflects a blind writer’s dilemmas facing ideological questions and supposed universal certainties. Maybe his blindness is more metaphorical than real. After all, what does “see” mean? Does what we see, the appearance of things, reflect reality? In a world where visual communication has become especially significant, how can one discern what is substantial?
Credits:
Animation Technique: Drawing on paper Director: Georges Sifianos Writers: Georges Sifianos Producer: IMAKA Films Animation: Georges Sifianos Music: Gustave Carpène

Thing

Country: Germany Year: 2021 Duration: 5 mins.
Sinopsys:
​​Haunted by a little thing, a man gets driven to the edge.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Animation, hand-drawn Director: Malte Stein Writers: Malte Stein Animation: Malte Stein Music: Malte Stein

Hillocks

Country: Portugal Year: 2022 Duration: 3 mins.
Sinopsys:
Sometimes I think I have explored this entire garden, wandered through all its paths, roamed up all its hills and admired all the views. Lost in reverie, I suddenly detect another pathway…
Credits:
Animation Technique: Objects Director: Maria Constanza Ferreira Animation: Maria Constanza Ferreira

Affairs of the Art

Country: United Kingdom, Canada Year: 2021 Duration: 16 mins.
Sinopsys:

How many obsessions can one family have? In Joanna Quinn and Les Mills’ Affairs of the Art, we reconnect with Beryl, the working-class heroine who not only reveals her own obsession with drawing but exposes the addictions of her eccentric family, which include pickling, screw threads and pet taxidermy.
Credits:
Animation Technique: 2D Computer Animation Director: Joanna Quinn, Les Mills Writers: Les Mills Producer: Beryl Productions International Ltd , The National Film Board of Canada Animation: James Nutting, Joanna Quinn Music: Benjamin Talbott
Go Back