Animation (Features)
Alongside our Animated Shorts, this collection of animated feature films introduces a selection of international filmmakers working across diverse animation styles, from the minimalist watercolor compositions of Jean-Francois Laguionie’s Louise by the Shore to the intricate stop motion animation of Kihachiro Kawamoto’s The Book of the Dead.
Historical narratives are brought to life by animation in features such as the Spanish Civil War drama Josep, 1980s Czech chronicle Alois Nebel, and imperialist satire This Magnificent Cake. Jan Švankmajer’s Faust and Alice follow inventive retellings of classic literary fables. Additional selections including the celebrated French comedy A Town Called Panic, West African-set coming-of-age tales Adama and Aya of Yop City, and acclaimed Japanese biographical drama Tatsumi give a uniquely global perspective on contemporary independent animation.
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Vicenta
Directed by Dario Doria • Animation • 2020 • 69 minutes
A film as necessary as it is beautiful, Vicenta explores the struggle for the right to a legal, safe, and free abortion.
Through small clay figurines and live-action news clips, the documentary narrates the real human rights story of Vicen...
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Louise By the Shore
Directed by Jean-Francois Laguionie • Animation • With Rance Castel • 2016 • 75 minutes
On the last day of summer in a small seaside resort town, an older woman named Louise realizes that the last train has departed without her. She finds herself alone in the town, abandoned by everyone. As the ...
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Sita Sings the Blues
Directed by Nina Paley • Animation • 2008 • 82 minutes
Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully ...
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Josep
Directed by Aurel • Animation • 2021 • 74 minutes
During the Spanish civil war, Republican fighters fleeing Franco's dictatorship are imprisoned in concentration camps once they arrive in France. Forced to live in appalling conditions, these refugees barely have access to hygiene, water and food...
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A Town Called Panic
Directed by Vincent Patar & Stéphane Aubier • Animation • 2009 • 75 minutes
Hilarious and frequently surreal, the stop-motion extravaganza A Town Called Panic has endless charms and raucous laughs for children from eight to eighty. Based on the Belgian animated cult TV series (which was released...
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The Rabbi's Cat
Directed by Joann Sfar & Antoine Delesvaux • Animation • With Mathieu Amalric, Hafsia Herzi, François Damiens, Eric Elmosnino • 2011 • 80 minutes
Set in Algeria in the 1930s, THE RABBI'S CAT adapts Joann Sfar's best-selling graphic tale of a sharp-tongued feline philosopher. When a cat belonging...
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Adama
Directed by Simon Rouby • Animation • 2020 • 82 minutes
ADAMA is a modern and universal story, the coming-of-age tale of a young African boy searching for his brother, just as a new world is about to emerge from the chaos of war.
12-year-old Adama lives in a remote West African village. Beyond ...
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This Magnificent Cake!
Directed by Marc James Roels, Emma De Swaef • Animation • With Gaston Motambo, Jan Decleir, Wilm Willaert • 2018 • 44 minutes
In the late 19th century, keen to compete with other European imperial powers on the continent, King Leopold II of Belgium proclaimed, “I do not want to miss a good chanc...
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Wrinkles
Directed by Ignacio Ferreras • Animation • With Tacho Gonzalez, Álvaro Guevara, Mabel Rivera • 2014 • 90 minutes
A wonderfully animated and poignant comedy for adults. The story opens with former bank manager Emilio being dispatched to a retirement home by his family. His new roommate is a wily ...
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Tales of the Night
Directed by Michel Ocelot • Animation • With Julien Béramis, Marine Griset, Michel Elias, Olivier Claverie • 2011 • 84 minutes
Every night, a girl, a boy and an elderly technician meet in a little cinema, sharing tales that capture their fancy. Together, they act out magnificent fables from arou...
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Aya of Yop City
Directed by Marguerite Abouet, Clément Oubrerie • Animation • With Aissa Maiga, Eriq Ebouaney, Jacky Ido, Pascal N'Zonzi, Jean-Baptiste Anoumon • 2012 • 88 minutes
Set against the vibrant backdrop of the Ivory Coast in the 1970s, AYA OF YOP CITY is a spirited and hilarious adaptation of the best...
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The Girl Without Hands
Directed by Sébastian Laudenbach • Animation • With Anaïs Demoustier, Jérémie Elkaïm, Philippe Laudenbach, Sacha Bourdo, Olivier Broche, Françoise Lebrun • 2016 • 76 minutes
In this audacious feature debut, acclaimed short filmmaker Sébastien Laudenbach renders a classic Brothers Grimm story wit...
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The Adventures of Prince Achmed
Directed by Lotte Reiniger • Animation • 1926 • 80 minutes
When The Adventures of Prince Achmed premiered to German audiences in 1926, it was hailed as the first full-length animated film. Taken from the tales known as the Arabian Nights, the film tells the story of a young prince tricked by a w...
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Faust
Directed by Jan Svankmajer • Documentary • With Petr Cepek
Jan Kraus
Vladimír Kudla
Antonin Zacpal
Jirí Suchý • 1994 • 97 minutesJan Svankmajer’s Faust is a rendering of the infamous Dr. Faustus fable of temptation and damnation. Borrowing freely from both Marlowe and Goethe and ancient folktal...
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Tatsumi
Directed by Eric Khoo • Animation • 2014 • 98 minutes
TATSUMI celebrates the life and work of Japanese comics artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi-a manga pioneer who elevated the genre to a new level of creative expression and adult realism. A comics-crazed teenager, Tatsumi began to get published and was ...
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Alois Nebel
Directed by Tomas Lunak • Animation • 2014 • 84 minutes
It is the end of summer, 1989. Alois Nebel works as a train dispatcher at a small railway station in the Sudetenland, a mountainous region on the Czechoslovak border. He is a loner who prefers old timetables to people, and he finds the lone...
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The Book of the Dead
Directed by Kihachiro Kawamoto • Animation • 2014 • 70 minutes
Master animator Kihachiro Kawamoto's tour de force adventure tale of a young noble girl in 8th-century Japan who leaves her home to follow the apparition of an executed prince in this ravishing film of beauty and mysticism.
As Buddh...
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Alice
Directed by Jan Švankmajer • Animation • 1989 • 84 minutes
When Alice follows the White Rabbit into Wonderland, so begins this dream expedition into the astonishing landscape of childhood, through many dangerous adventures, and ultimately to Alice's trial before the King and Queen of Hearts.
Cz...