LIAF 2024: International Competition 1- Abstract Showcase (18)

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, LIAF have curated a selection of 83 outstanding new films from 31 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

This programme represents our yearly exploration of abstract and experimental animation. It features 17 short films where animators use a wide range of techniques, from hand-drawn "musical scores" to high-definition computer-assisted imagery. Each film reflects a deep passion for animated movement and showcases the artist's skill in using colour and crafting non-narrative visuals to captivate the screen.

Please visit liaf.org.uk for more details

SKRFF

A graffiti wall in Vienna becomes an archeological site and a sgraffito sculpture, as skrffologists activate traces of the past with stop motion animation. But can history ever be remembered clearly in all its complexity?

Austria 2024 Dir: Corrie Francis Parks, Daniel Nuderscher 7’00

Shapes

A psychedelic and mysterious galaxy composed of different shapes, textures, patterns and colours.

Hong Kong 2023 Dir: Tsz-wing Ho 5’20

Help Desk

A hypnotic hand drawn animation, providing a meditative and contemplative space, oscillating between flatness and depth, control and instability.

UK 2023 Dir: Edwin Rostron 3’10

Rekonstrukt

In 1923, Andor Weininger, a Hungarian-born artist, musician and leader of the Weimar Bauhaus group, put down on paper the first animated film script for a Hungarian animated film, but the abstract work would not be realised until exactly one hundred years later.

Hungary 2023 Dir: Gabor Ulrich 4’05

Entropic Memory

This photographic exploration of family photo albums ravaged by water evokes hazy and indistinct memories, poignant witnesses of a fragile past.

Canada 2024 Dir: Nicolas Brault 6’30

Flow

Lens based video and photography combine with digital geometric shapes to imitate the invisible flow in nature.

Hong Kong 2024 Dir: Alex Bai 3’00

Lines

An aggressive battle unfolds between red and dark blue. The borderlines between the colours vibrate with tension as they fight for their lives.

Germany 2024 Dir: Martin Schmidt 4’10

Tao

Chinese Taoism, the concepts of yin and yang, and the Five Elements. Dao generates one, one generates two, two generates three and three generates all things.

Hong Kong 2024 Dir: Shuxin Yan Wang, Simai Stella Huang, Haoran Yan Yang 2’15

Dawn & Dusk

The time between dawn and dusk reveals how the dual nature of light changes on a microscopic level, through the vibrations of photons, the oscillations of electromagnetic waves, and the properties of light refraction and reflection.

Spain 2023 Dir: Toni Mitjanit 5’10

0.1g

Fluids leak from the body, seeping through various orifices and beyond the boundary of the skin.

Switzerland 2023 Dir: Raymond Hoepflinger 1’55

To Hear to See

A fusion of abstract optical soundtracks from analogue 16mm and 35mm film expanding on the 1930’s Russian experiments of Nikolai Voinov which impacted electronic music.

Australia 2023 Dir: Dirk de Bruyn 4’35

Clash

Two geometric objects explore and challenge each other’s domains by switching tactics and transforming body forms.

Hong Kong 2024 Dir: Yuming Liao, Jingxian Zhan, Yingyue Zhuang 2’30

Electronic Insects

The connection between nature and abstraction characterised by the shapes and forms of a myriad of insects’ features.

USA 2023 Dir: Keum-Taek Jung 1’30

Grain Cloud Atmosphere

Many grains make a cloud. Many clouds form an atmosphere. An exploration of the perception of time through the eyes and ears.

Italy 2023 Dir: Martin Moolhuijsen 6’40

Geometric Symphony

A symphony of flapping and vibrating imagery set to a whirlwind of perfectly synchronised optical sounds.

Hong Kong 2024 Dir: Ka Yuet Chan, Yau Hing Lam 2’15

Fusion

Drawn directly onto 35mm motion picture film without the use of camera or musical instruments, a visual and aural feast for the senses.

Canada 2024 Dir: Richard Reeves 3’15

(S)

An immersive loop of organic forms, reflecting on the entangled nature of life and art.

UK 2024 Dir: Mario Radev 12’30