Shapes and Gestures

Begins as a whimsical piece with 'sheets' of lines running down the screen, progressing into more and more complex geometic patterns but without deviating from the basic precepts of 'dot and line' animation. Jazz piano on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and a spring color palette. -- Stephanie Sapienza. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2001.

Study No. 8

An experimental short from Oskar Fischinger

Perf Dance

A visual reinterpretation of dance and animated found footage.

Bootstrapping for the Boobied

Maxed out, burnt out, and sex-starved, Amber Su falls under the spell of glamorous self-help guru Coco Ging, whose mentorship turns desire and ambition into different kinds of debt. Repression evolves into possession as Amber molts into a new ego: a worksona.

Odds & Ends

Odds & Ends is a sly comment on the collage film and Beat culture. To discarded travel and advertising footage found at a local film laboratory, Belson Shimane added a mélange of animation—assemblages, cutouts, color fields, and line drawings—and faux hipster narration by Jacobs (credited via the anagram Rheny Bojacs) punctuated by a bongo backing. Strung together with doublespeak and non sequiturs, the monologue skirts the edge of nonsense as Jacobs waxes on about poetry, jazz, “reaching the public,” “having a good time,” and—although “money doesn’t count”—the “possibility of subsidy” through grants. Footage of champagne, tropical beaches, and exotic peoples intermingle with rhythmic drawings and stop-motion flights of fancy. The visuals race on through dazzling transformations, both amplifying and undercutting the patter. —National Film Preservation Foundation. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Iota Center Collection in 2006.

Extracorpus

Shearing Animation

An abstract animated film inspired by the work of jazz musician Chico Hamilton.

Heritage

Pan of the Landscape

Christopher Becks’s Pan of the Landscape uses gorgeous Brakhage-like painting on film to un-Brakhage-like ends: spectacular skies combine with the slow, mechanical movement of a silhouetted form to produce a biting melancholy, as if Becks is mourning the film’s removal from the world it glimpses.

Adelina

Adelina, going for the first time to a museum, discovers her artistic side.

World of Tomorrow

A little girl is taken on a mind-bending tour of her distant future.

Dilution

Dilution is an experimental short film that explores the transit between resistance and (di)ssolution, between holding and releasing and a path towards obsessive repetition. They are layers, exposed pores, matter that oscillates between remaining or disappearing. The sound is not a background, but a puncture: friction, tearing, water that drags what still persists. A sensorial testimony of what refuses to vanish completely.

Flim Flam

A visual and acoustic reflection about perception, deception, truth and the medium of film itself. Between visibility, irritation, structure and dissolution, a space arises for one’s own vision. An experimental film that wants to be experienced.

Artificial Intelligence, 2023

Composed entirely of AI-generated visuals and providing an abstract representation of the evolution of AI video, processed entirely through a VCR.

High Sugar

A police officer has a fever dream after having too much sugar.

Platos Vacíos por Gerser Gelly

A girl is faced with the feeling of losing someone she once loved and the need for this person to try to make amends for the mess that remains after severing a bond.

Porcelain

Two girls explore their relationship and what it means to be in the world and be vulnerable in this hand drawn graphite animation.

Wools

Senescence

Leaders

The House

Across different eras, a poor family, an anxious developer and a fed-up landlady become tied to the same mysterious house in this animated dark comedy.

Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters

Po and the Furious Five uncover the legend of three of kung fu's greatest heroes: Master Thundering Rhino, Master Storming Ox, and Master Croc.

Stopmotion

Ella Blake, a stop-motion animator struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother, embarks upon the creation of a film that becomes the battleground for her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her project take on a life of their own.

Welcome to the Club

Heart set on becoming a princess, Lisa Simpson is surprised to learn being bad might be more fun.

Arctic Dogs

Animals band together to save the day when the evil Otto Von Walrus hatches a sinister scheme to accelerate global warming and melt the Arctic Circle.

Thriller Night

A Shrek parody of Michael Jackson's Thriller song and music video, with Donkey singing.

Mad God

A silent figure known as The Assassin travels through a nightmare underworld of tortured souls, ruined cities and wretched monstrosities forged from the primordial horrors of the unconscious mind of Phil Tippett, the world's preeminent stop-motion animator.

Re-Cycling

This direct-to-draw animated film on 35 mm film features the imagery of 10 European directors in a collective project. Each produced 1 minute of animation on film, drawing directly onto it in his or her own style.

Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 2: When Nerds Collide

Cartoon worlds collide in this hourlong adventure starring whiz kid Jimmy Neutron and Timmy Turner from "The Fairly OddParents." When the boys duel over Cindy Vortex, it draws the attention of Jimmy's archenemy, Prof. Calamitous, who teams with Wanda and Cosmo, forcing Jimmy and Timmy to work together to save the world from the all-powerful villain.

The Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe Special

GrandPat travels through alternate dimensions and timelines to get home.

Hawaiian Vacation

The toys throw Ken and Barbie a Hawaiian vacation in Bonnie's room.

Killer Bean Forever

When things go bad in Beantown, top assassin Killer Bean is called to clean-up the mess. Detective Cromwell finds himself in the middle between Killer Bean and mob boss Cappuccino.

Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Scroll

As Po looks for his lost action figures, the story of how the panda inadvertently helped create the Furious Five is told.

The Maker

A strange creature races against time to make the most important and beautiful creation of his life.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines

A quirky, dysfunctional family's road trip is upended when they find themselves in the middle of the robot apocalypse and suddenly become humanity's unlikeliest last hope.

Who Are You, Charlie Brown?

Lupita Nyong'o narrates a documentary about Peanuts and its creator, Charles M. Schulz. Famous fans—including Drew Barrymore, Kevin Smith, and Al Roker—share its influence on them, and a new animated story finds Charlie Brown on a quest.

Beyond

While looking for her cat, a young woman and some kids find an abandoned building where strange things happen and the rules of physics don't always apply. Part of the Animatrix collection of animated shorts set in the Matrix universe.

Memoir of a Snail

Forcibly separated from her twin brother when they are orphaned, a melancholic misfit learns how to find confidence within herself amid the clutter of misfortunes and everyday life.

Fast Film

Bits of found film and different types of animation illustrate a classic chase scene scenario: A woman is abducted and a man comes to her rescue, but during their escape they find themselves in the enemy's secret headquarters.

The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow

When Brainy Smurf is favored to win the annual Smurfberry Hunt for the ninth year in a row, Gutsy Smurf sets out to discover how Brainy wins every year. Gutsy’s investigation takes him into spooky Smurfy Hollow–and right into Gargamel’s trap! Can Brainy and Gutsy, with the help of Smurfette, put aside their rivalry before Gargamel captures them–or worse, they come face-to-face with the legendary ghost, the Headless Horseman?