International Competition Block 1 - SEAF 2023
Friday, October 6, 2023 - 7:00 PM - MICA Falvey Hall Theatre
Saturday, October 7, 2023 - 7:00 PM - The Charles Theatre
Sunday, October 8, 2023 - 6:00 PM - MICA Falvey Hall Theatre
Runtime = 80 minutes
Q&A with animators in attendance after the screening
​​​Go to 2023seaf.eventbrite.com to purchase tickets to this screening program or to buy an all-access pass!
$12 for individual tickets / $80 for all-access festival pass
​
International Competition Block 1 features amazing animated short films from 6 countries. An escape in paint, balloon animals in space, an old watchmaker unravels, a summer evening on the porch, feet make prints, visual music, training to do a backflip, silly bubble font, a nun with secrets, a creepy crush, a multitude of flowers, and Bean TOBO can't contribute to the cake.
Sweet Like Lemons
Director - Jenny Jokela
Country - United Kingdom
Time - 5:31
Sweet Like Lemons is a visual reflection on getting out of a harmful relationship and moving on. The title is a play on the saying “when life gives you lemons make lemonade”, only in this case there is no lemonade to be made but the lemons still taste sweeter than what you left behind.
Baloney Beacon
Director - Max Landman
Country - United States
Time - 5:13
The balloon gods are hungry. Peculiar appetites evoke vulnerable memories.
Life Is a Particle Time Is a Wave
Director - Daniel Zvereff
Country - United States
Time - 9:45
A widowed watchmaker spends his remaining days in solitude distracting himself with chores and pastimes. Like a prisoner, alone in his cell, he looks for meaning in the memories of his past life.
Going Going
Director - Lauren Allex
Country - United States
Time - 3:52
A young girl and her grandparent sit on a porch as a summer day ends. The girl asks a question.
Foot Print Shop
Director - Gina Kamentsky
Country - United States
Time - 3:50
"Pisces have big feet and big hands!" The filmmaker and her mom talk about feet, her mom does most of the talking.
Response
Director - Steven Subotnick
Country - United States
Time - 1:03
2022 Commission for The Response Project, Cincinnati, OH. A response to Durations 4, by Morton Feldman.
backflip
Director - Nikita Diakur
Country - Germany
Time - 12:30
Attempting a backflip is not safe. You can break your neck, or land on your head, or land badly on your wrists. None of that is nice, so my avatar does the trick. It practices on a 6-core processor with the help of Machine Learning. The processor is not the newest but still calculates 6 jumps per iteration. One iteration takes one minute, this is 360 jumps in an hour and 8,640 jumps in a day. I wouldn’t be able to jump so much myself.
Tight Pants Ultra Bold
Director - Dave Merson Hess, Justin Taber
Country - United States
Time - 2:00
Georgie discusses a bubble font he designed and released himself -- to no acclaim. A zero-budget multiplane cutout short inspired by my teenage exploration of digital spaces during the height of the Geocities era. Shot on a living room floor in Glendale, CA. Made for Hellavision Television's "The Earth Episode", 2023. 
Nun or Never!
Director - Heta Jäälinoja
Country - Finland
Time - 10:00
The nuns live in the monastery in contentment and harmony, fused together. One of the nuns finds a man underground while digging potatoes. The nun begins to dream of a man, goes mad and loses a common rhythm with others.
fur
Director - Zhen Li
Country - United States
Time - 6:36
A crush gone moldy...
Blumentanz
Director - Raito Low
Country - Taiwan
Time - 5:20
Experimental object animation based on "Frauenliebe und Leben, Op.42" from Robert Schumann, using about 60 plants as female symbols to symbolize the original state of love. The growth of leaves and flowers is likened to a woman's journey of love. Visualize the psychological changes of women in love, let us see the possibility of love, explore and find the love of a lifetime.
The TOBOS
Director - Tobias Rud
Country - Denmark
Time - 13:47
Something is wrong with Bean-TOBO’s insides. All set within a cute-silly world, The TOBOS is a short film taking on themes of vulnerability, feelings of unworthiness and the connection that we truly crave with each other.