French Digi: Next Gen

For some time, Supinfocom has been the dominant digital animation school in France. But there are some new kids on that block and here at MIAF we have been watching them go from strength to strength in recent years.

Schools such as Pole3D, Brassart, École des Nouvelles Images, ArtFX, ESMA and Georges Melies have been sending us showreels that include increasingly complex and fascinating films.

This program showcases the best of this work from the next generation of French digital artists and animators that are graduating from these schools. But beyond that, we’re looking –  as we always do – for that essential blend of great technique, the power of the animator’s vision and the most imaginative uses of animation.

Films

3 Murs & Un Toit
Mathilde Dugardin, Orane Laffra, Hugo de Magalhaes, Wassim El Hammami
France, 9’10, 2020
Deep into her dreams, Ava wanders through the mysterious walls of her childhood dollhouse.

149
Marie Armand, Theau Zonca, Nicolas Paret, Djan Sevdasiz, Guillaume Thomas
France, 5’19, 2020
A mature and astonishingly balletic interrogation of the passions and outcomes of 149 feminicides committed in France in 2019.

Molehill
Matthieu Chesneau, Brune Martin, Manon Poirier
France, 3’45, 2019
A factory dedicated to the manufacture of life itself begins provoking an evolutionary change in the workers who keep the machines running.

Arboretis
Maxime de la Monneraye, Matteo Yermia, Corentin Bescond, Quentin Hafizou, Antoine Poirine
France, 4’50, 2020
Arev discovers the secret hidden by the customs of his village when he breaks his tribe’s rules trying to rescue his sister in a place forbidden to him.

Opale
Marion Aknin, Basile Delille, Vincent Leclerc, Ilies Machou, Leopold Prengere
France, 4’05, 2019
A strange journey unfolds for a young women just arrived in an alternate version of Paris flooded by the Seine river.

Dernier Acte
Yohan Gantelet, Lucie Krencker, Clara Obeidi, Miguel Amendola-Borrallo, Antonin Geral-Aries, Geoffrey Rakotoarisoa
France, 7’30, 2019
Out on the savannah beware the man in the animal suit – especially if you are the man in the animal suit!

Coin Coin Final
Blandine Caravano, Julien Cassisa, Kenza Chehadi-Fonderflick, Emma Lafond, Gael Escaravage
France, 4’32, 2020
A beyond-loyal hunting hound will do anything to catch the duck his master has been looking for forever.

Hors Course
Nicolas Lopez, Martin Burnod, Aelis Ensergueix, Clement Masson, Julia Monti
France, 5’57, 2019
Until garbage turned up, life in the desert for your average lizardy reptile citizens was pretty straight forward.

Fauna
Quentin Vandecasteele, Clara Bolle
France, 3’04, 2019
In a housing commission neighbourhood a young boy is threatened by hostile people with an agenda he has no way to understand.

Under The Ice
Laurie Estampes, Milan Baulard, Ismail Berrahma, Flore Dupont, Quentin Nory, Hugo Potin
France, 6’47, 2019
Out in the frozen wilds, the lines that demarcate life and the great beyond can be so much finer than many creatures understand.

The Other Me
Theo Clenet, Clara Lorente, Cedric Malet, Alexandre Mazelly, Alexia Oylataguerre, Remi Portes Narrieu, Gregoire Soghomonian
France, 7’22, 2020

The Finger Of Death
Mazarine Miloudi, Melanie Levaux, Pauline Mahieu, Oriane Gros, Sebastien Pages
France, 5’00, 2020
The encounter between Hadja and a cursed creature moves an old Malagasy man to change his the way he has viewed the world his whole life.

Shi Yang
Elena Rocchini, Lua Lima, Olivia Nan Nguema, Pham Cyril-Lam Nguyen, Lucile Fouquet, Charlotte Stadnicki
France, 3’40, 2020
Undefeated for 20 years, the relentless pirate queen Cheng Shi Yang finds herself at the mercy of an enemy who forces her to reconsider her past choices.

Ennui
Timothey Delhaize, Alexis Maerten-Lammin
France, 4’59, 2020
Five strangers, stuck in a state of deep boredom, call upon their collective imagination to plot and escape path.