Contemporary Dutch Animation Highlights
The Netherlands has a long and firm tradition in animated cinema. For the most part, its splendid reputation was earned by the autonomous short film. It is internationally renowned and praised for its high standards, having experienced an unprecedented heyday in the 1970s. This was the reason for Gerrit van Dijk and Gerben Schermer to dedicate themselves to an animation film festival in this country at the time. Founded in 1985, the Holland Animation Film Festival (HAFF) takes place in springtime over a period of five days on several locations in the city of Utrecht in the heart of the Netherlands. HAFF closely monitors the developments within the medium and cherishes quality and innovation. HAFF is known for its passion for the continuation of animation as an independent art form and an idiosyncratic approach. This programme with Dutch highlights of recent festival editions offers an overview of contemporary Dutch animation. Films that often also receive acclaim elsewhere, or that bring a special talent into the limelight, like Hisko Hulsing or Mischa Rozema, who work on quite ambitious projects internationally.
In recent years, vivacious plans for the development of feature films, family films and cross-over productions have been blossoming in the Netherlands. Animation is expanding. Dutch artists in the fields of animation, game, media art and visual art successfully work on combining the best of those worlds. The programme covers a wide spectrum of genres, themes and techniques. It displays new developments and fresh ideas, narrative and non-narrative films, professional films and student films, funny films and committed films, bright and with a certain edge.
Enjoy!
And don’t miss the excellent Dutch films and artists in other programme sections, the truly unique, unparalleled works of Rosto of course, but also the brilliant documentary I Love Hooligans by Jan-Dirk Bouw and the 2015 Oscar-nominated short A Single Life by Job, Joris & Marieke
Anet ter Horst
Holland Animation Film Festival
A Flood Story
A city district is washed over by the tide. The houses are completely flooded, but the residents react very calmly. They are not surprised or scared. Gorgeous design, elaborated to the smallest details.
Fallin’ Floyd
High-octane comical drama in the recognizable, clear style of Paco Vink and Albert ’t Hooft. Jazz musician Floyd is dumped by his girlfriend, when he has just bought her a ring. Small demons proceed to disturb his life, and it takes a lot before he can pick up the thread again.
Junkyard
En route with his girlfriend, a man is stabbed by a junkie on the subway. Before he dies, childhood memories flash by of his best friend who ended up in a grim world of drugs and violence. Unusual combination of techniques and materials: oil paintings, drawings and 3D computer animation.
Stardust
A slow-motion journey across a shimmering cosmos that is constantly on the move, with violent explosions in fantastically stunning images, ends with gritty images on Earth.
Cruise Patrol
On a long and dusty road a routine cruise patrol spirals totally out of control.
Mute
In a world populated by people without a mouth, a gory accident leads to the discovery a mouth can be created by cutting yourself. This unleashes an enthusiastic chain reaction among the population.
Playground
De Ruijter collected images of American Football fields from Google Earth, and placed them in sequence with a fascinating result. From an abstract series of pictures of field lines, symbols of diverse sports clubs loom up that are unmistakably American.
Day of the Dutch
Events from the daily life of a modern (deceased) family in a Dutch home environment with traditional values of family and standards, like the Dutch genre paintings from the Golden Age. Until an event changes a young girl’s life.
The Black Room
Sixty animations based on charcoal drawings, with themes like perspective and space, abstraction and figuration and the transition from two- to three-dimensional. Robbie Cornelissen is known for his large format drawings, in which he allows the viewer to wander through complex architectural spaces. He also explores the boundaries of the medium of drawing.
Nobody Beats the Drum: Let it Go
A man leaves his stressful work life to go on an adventure through Planet Tropicana. Music video for Nobody Beats the Drum.