Synopsis
Shape of the Elephant
There is an elephant that lives in my house, but all the adults were avoiding it. The elephant kept changing its shape and grew up with me.
A nap in fluoroscopy buses
A fluoroscopy bus carries the crowd from the center to the edge of the city. In the fixed and crowded carriage, some passengers just boarding the bus collide with each other, and some passengers are taking a nap at the seat.
The Bee and The Fly
The innocent Bee came to live in a big city, blending himself with the scheming Fly into the local corrupt officialdom day and night, witnessing all kinds of strange things in this world. After encountering many absurd events, the Bee gradually turned into a parasite just like his friend.
Penglai
A young fisherman, dissatisfied with his life, embarks on a quest to find the mythological island of Penglai. Shipwrecked in a storm, he is rescued by a mysterious woman who seems to have otherworldly powers. He comes to believe that she is the manifestation of the Buddha. She leaves, promising to return, only then does the fisherman ultimately come to a shattering realization.
Ping-Pong
Within an unstable structure composed of women’s skulls, hands of will, a claw machine microcosm, and a ping-pong table, the “White Panda Man” at the top of the structure is manipulating the movement of the ping-pong ball. Accompanying the fall of the ping-pong ball, the “Pink Panda Man”, symbolizing the individual, begins to shed clothes, disintegrate, and reassemble in another illusion. The “Pink Panda Man” falls within the collective illusion, triggering a deeper collective collapse, and ultimately overlaps with the image of the ping-pong ball, becoming an eternally surveilled participant in a cycle of rebirth.
Perfect City: The Bravest Kid
A paper boy who is dreaming a big iron knife hand chasing him all the way realizes that his parents he depends on most are actually that knife hand.
Innermost
The background of the stop-motion animation short film INNERMOST is set in the future featured by highly advanced technologies but collapsed society and civilization system. The cyberpunk-style science fiction world coexists fantastically with the traditional oriental martial arts world. The story follows the emotional entanglement between a long-lost chivalrous couple and a person with regenerated organs starting from a fight for a mystic magic lyre. From the perspective of what regeneration technologies are able of, the short film will arouse the audience to think of how the value of emotions can be magnified or dissolved.
Sliver Cave
Stepping into a cave, the sight fluctuates by the firelight. Left to right, top to bottom. The same goes for the screen in front of you. It is a borderless tunnel, presenting domestication and desire.
Sam Kuwa
Born in 1996 in Chongqing, China. Graduated from Tokyo Polytechnic University. Currently studying at the Department of Animation at Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Film and New Media.
Su Xia
Su Xia is a professor at the College of Film and Animation, China Academy of Art. His circular-screen work CITY SQUARE was presented in the theme pavilion at Shanghai Expo and won many awards at both domestic and international festivals. His short fiction film DERAILMENT was selected for the 38thMontreal International Film Festival. His animated short film GOLD IS EATING PEOPLE was selected in Competition Unit, Annecy International Animation Film Festival. It is also selected in Competition Unit, World Festival of Animated Film Zagreb, Screening Unit of 24th Shanghai International Film Festival, Competition Unit of The Norwegian Short Film Festival, Competition Unit of Fajr International Film Festival, Animation Unit of CineCina Film Festival, Competition Unit of Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, Competition Unit of International Animated Film Festival ANIMATOR, and Competition Unit of 26th Lund International Fantastic Film Festival.
Cai Caibei
Cai Caibei (b.1992 Shenzhen, China) received her MA from Jiangnan University in 2017 and Royal College of Art in 2018. She always addresses her film in the tactile dimension and she would like the viewer to touch, caress, squeeze and scrape her film through their eyes.
Lei Lei
Lei Lei, graduated from the China Academy of Art with a master's degree, Her works has been nominated for the Annecy Animation Film Festival, the Chinese Women's Section of Stuttgart animation film festival, Raindance Film Festival, and won the Dunhuang Award, the Porto Women's Film Festival Best Animation, and the Special Award of the China Independent Animation Forum. Her work was collected in the China Contemporary Animation Archives and Art Museum of China Academy of Art.
Ding Ning
Ding Ning, born in 1992 in Henan, is an artist and independent animation director. He graduated with a master's degree from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2018. His animation, THE FALL, won the Jury's Choice Award at the China Independent Animation Film Festival in 2015. In 2020, he was selected for the Young Artist Discovery Award by the China Art Rights List. Ding Ning's work explores the fate and possibilities of the individual in the era.
Caochong Maing
Caochong Maing had been a lover of cartoon and animation from school days to work. When he made up his mind to try animation as his next career direction, he found he had missed the chance to study animation systematically in professional colleges and universities as he was no longer young. With no ability of creating 2D or 3D animation, Maing thought maybe he could make some stop-motion animations. Now, at his own professional stop-motion animation studio, he is producing stop-motion animations for a great number of clients including Disney as director and animator. At the same time, he has never forgotten the original aspiration of his foray into the animation world - presenting those original stories in his heart with his own hands.
Zhou Shengwei
Zhou Shengwei, born in 1991, is an award winning animator and director. He is enrolled in Expanded Animation: Research & Practice in USC. His represented work are SHE, ART IS DEAD, LET'S FALL IN LOVE, PERFECT CITY SERIES.
MOMO WANG
While earning her animation degree at the Communication University of China, Momo Wang created Tuzki, a lovable bunny character that has gone on to become one of the most recognized, branded characters worldwide. Tuzki has since been developed into branded restaurants, TV, and film. Momo is also the author of numerous cartoons, graphic novel and book series that have sold nearly one million copies worldwide. Momo moved to Los Angeles and earned her MFA in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Momo Wang is currently an animation and creative director for the entertainment studio Illumination. She is the first animator Inductee into the Asian Hall of Fame for her trailblazing art and creative work in the U.S. and China.
