Five Features at this Year’s Ottawa
International Animation Festival
by Editorial Staff
(July 7, 2014 – Ottawa, Ontario) The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) has announced the selection of films competing in the Feature Film Category at this year’s Festival which kicks off on September 17 and runs until the 21st. “This year’s feature film competitors,” said OIAF Artistic Director, Chris Robinson, “are among the most diverse we’ve ever had in competition. Using an array of animation techniques (drawn, paint, puppet), the films address sensitive and mature topics (political oppression, wrongful prosecution, environment, love and loneliness) in highly original, engaging and sometimes hilarious and absurd ways.”
Films included in the feature competition:
Lisa Limone ja Maroc Orange: tormakas armulugu (Lisa Limone and Maroc Orange: a Rapid Love Story) by Mait Laas, Estonia, 2013, 72:00
Até que a Sbórnia nos separe (Until Sbornia do us part) by Otto Guerra & Ennio Torresan Jr., Brazil, 2013, 85:00
Truth Has Fallen by Sheila Sofian, USA, 2013, 60:00
Tante Hilda (Aunt Hilda) by Jacques-Remy Girerd & Benoît Chieux, France, 2013, 89:00
Seth’s Dominion by Luc Chamberlain, Canada, 2014, 42:09
Two of those films are animated documentaries: Seth’s Dominion (Luc Chamberlain, Canada) and Truth Has Fallen (Sheila Sofian, USA). NFB produced Seth’s Dominion (pictured above) is a nostalgic and inspiring look at the life of Canadian cartoonist and graphic novelist Gregory Gallant, who uses the pen name Seth. His work regularly appears in publications like The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The New York Times and elsewhere. He has exhibited throughout the world in a variety of group and solo shows and was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, which showcased the first public display of his model city Dominion, which is the focus of this film.
The other animated documentary is titlled Truth has Fallen and it uses both live action and animation to tell the story of three people wrongly accused of murder.
Tante Hilda (Aunt Hilda) is a complex, challenging, yet fun film geared to both adults and kids. For those who like surreal, dark musicals animated with fruit, Lisa Limone ja Maroc Orange: tormakas armulugu (Lisa Limone and Maroc Orange: a Rapid Love Story). Rounding out the selections is Até que a Sbórnia nos separe (Until Sbornia do us part). Based on the long running musical Tangos & Tragedies, the film examines corporate dominance and environmental issues through the story of Sbornia, an eccentric and poetic country which is introduced to the modern world when a wall collapses.
The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is one of the world’s leading animation events providing screenings, exhibits, workshops and entertainment since 1976. The annual five-day event brings art and industry together in a vibrant hub, with a total attendance of 28,000 artists, producers, students and animation fans from around the world.
