International Competition Program #9: Character Studies

The International Competition Programs are the backbone of the entire MIAF mission. Drawn from more than 2,450 submissions they showcase the best, most imaginative animating talent on the planet. For Programs 1 to 5 the only rule is diversity: you’ll get a bit of everything! For Programs 6 to 10 we take the opportunity to highlight interesting themes and styles that felt prominent in the year’s submissions.

This screening focuses entirely on films that centre around one very strongly defined and utterly unusual character – the kind of character that could ONLY find a home and a raison d’être in an animated film. Some of these characters channel menace, some the humorous impossibilities that can only make sense within the realm of an animated world, and some a beguiling charm that no live-action avatar could hope to emulate.

The Long Legged Man
Vitor Hugo Rocha
Portugal, 8’39, 2024
Freed by his own music, a barrel-organ player uses his liberated body to define the outlines of a better, more imaginative cityscape.

Kafka. In Love
Zane Oborenko
Latvia, 10’00, 2024
The mysterious ethereality of falling in love filtered through Franz Kafka’s letters to Milena Jesenská.

Mind Your Body
Anna Rybecka
Czech Republic, 8’35, 2025
Does a head really need a body to do its best work? Can a body be freed of the restraints imposed on it by a head?

Eye Jam
Julia Jolliffe
UK, 2’56, 2025
A lonely creature’s globulating struggle for connection in a desolate world, no matter the cost.

The Red Wool Pendelton
Tom Schroeder
USA, 3’12, 2025
The ghost of her dead mother still has a real world resonance for the daughter in the form of a Pendlelton jacket that now has another life and owner.

Dying Embers
Lea Pulini
France, 4’01, 2025
On a treacherous, freezing night, a mother and daughter take in a man close to death and must decide for themselves the limits of forgiveness and mercy.

Courage
Margot Jacquet, Nathan Baudry, Marion Choudin, Jeanne Desplanques, Lise Delcroix, Salomé Cognon
France, 5’21, 2024
Winning is everything in the Olympics; Anna reaches deep to push herself beyond limits she never knew existed.

Atomik Tour
Bruno Collet
France, 13’03, 2025
For Hugo, Chernobyl isn’t a tribute—it’s Instagram fodder. But his quest through radioactive ruins uncovers a haunting history.

Colourful Chicks
Li Zhuofe, Feng Shiyao
China, 8’17, 2025
One day, in a world without colour, one man encounters a blue chick that only he can see, and his life is changed forever.

Niccolò
Clémentine Di Prizio, David Florian, Axelle Granet, Sirui Liu, Hugo Michalet, Njolai Pachomius
France, 5’35, 2025
A gifted musician’s pursuit of fame traps him in the audience’s demands – until a broken violin forces him to choose between hollow applause and true artistic freedom.

This session is classified: Unclassified (M) Mature, not recommended for viewers under 15 years.
Please note that Backlot is NOT fully accessible. There are stairs with handrails, but no lift to the second floor where the cinema is located.