Competition films for Children and Student Films Competition 1

The children's programme started with a Little Matchgirl, sickly in every way and finished equally queasy with Dentist by Signe Baumane, a Latvian/US co-production, a violent film with a homoerotic ending, not an obvious choice for a younger audience. In between I enjoyed Greedy Pig by Mathieu Labaye and 19 children, beautifully lit and shot, I wonder how he kept their sticky hands off that lovely snake. The other films of note came from the Pilot Big Animation Studio, I've not heard of the studio before, but it seems like I'm alone in that. About Ram and Goat by Natalya Berezovaya was perfect and perfectly silly and Zlydni by Stepan Koval a good story about malevolent spirits in which the story and technique were well matched.

The programme of student films was pretty good. Death by Heart by Malin Erixon had a super and unexpected ending that brought tears to the eyes. The Possum by Chris Choy had great timing and characterisation. I didn't know that possums liked apples so much. Smile by Noam Abta was a mixed CG/live action that looked interesting (in 2006) but perhaps he ran out of time. The student programme was varied and of a high quality, only one of the films felt like a demo of technical flair that had been built into a too long short.