Animated shorts with BIG personalities! A dependably depraved screening of animated specimens from the wrong side of the tracks. Every year connoisseurs of the strange make the pilgrimage to NZIFF’s annual altar of the outlandish and the outrageous. Fiery death by speed dating miscalculation, the cruel post-reality of growing up as a banana, life inside a dog, the vicious revenge of chickens wronged one time too many, goats on speed, hounds in cakes….this is a programme for those who can only handle a certain kind of truth.—MT
Alestorm–Shitboat (No Fans) – Simon Norton – Australia 2020 | 2 mins. Not your ordinary pirate ship…definitely not your ordinary pirate ship.
Honey Sweet – Inari Sirola – UK 2021 | 4 mins. A sticky, utterly lickable and mind-melting comment on a society dripping with nihilism and the addiction to capitalist baubles.
Speed – Ben Mitchell – UK 2021 | 2 mins. Speed dating is all about messaging and it’s easy to get burned if you’re not looking for the signals.
Little World Changers – Daniel Sweed – Israel 2021 | 4 mins. Three teens try to save the world from a giant butt who is threatening the world with a flood of pollution pouring from a huge magical pipe.
Krak – Stan Lievens – Belgium 2021 | 6 mins. A man crawls out of a banana and explains how he found himself inside this fruit in the first place—an unusual origin story (to say the least).
Juice – Mona Keil – Germany 2022 | 5 mins. In a musty, damp crevice a microcosm of fleshy creatures live in a dark, moist biome, exploring one another and continuously bathing in a seemingly nourishing viscous mucus.
The Dog Apartment – Priit Tender – Estonia 2022 | 14 mins. The strange life of a boozy ballet dancer living in a barking apartment trying to navigate the kind of world that could only be conjured up within the realm of animation.
Pussy Love – Linda Krauss – Germany 2023 | 4 mins. Cool Cat invites you to enjoy a show of lust and laziness. The claws are sharp, the soda is sparkling and the fur is getting wet.
Drunk – Nikita Meshcheryakov – Russia 2022 | 4 mins. An animated visual poem merging confessions of alcoholic remorse and the cubist art of Paul Klee.
Dessert Dachshund – Betina Bozek – Poland 2022| 7 mins. A special dachshund, encased entirely within a wedding cake, bursts forth as a good luck talisman for the happy couple.
A Goat’s Spell – Gerhard Funk – Germany 2022 | 9 mins. A conquest before breakfast, a clueless goat next to the house, a couple of promising airplanes far up in the sky…it’s going to be an interesting day!
Le Sourire de la Courgette – Lucas Ansart – France 2020 | 8 mins. An imaginative love story of a girl in the desert who falls in love with a“cloud being” all the while trying to grow courgettes in the sand.
Scoundrels – Colin Estey White – USA 2021 | 3 mins. Three unhoused weirdos attempt a desperate and perverse get-rich-quick scheme that ends in savagely unfortunate consequences.
The Dip – Simona Mehandzhieva – UK 2020 | 5 mins. A dip, a Shabnam, a death drop is when a dancer strikes a pose and dramatically falls on their back.
The Poultry Punisher – Matt Bottos – Australia 2022 | 5 mins. It was always going to happen—one day the chickens were just going to get to the point where they’ve had enough. It’s payback time.
