OIAF Announces 2023 Official Shorts Selections

Out of 2,165 entries from 85 countries, 40 films will compete in the Commissioned, Narrative, Non-Narrative, and Student categories; the festival runs September 20-24.

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) has announced its 2023 Official Selections for animated shorts, including the Commissioned, Narrative, Non-Narrative, and Student categories. This year the festival received 2,165 entries representing 85 countries, with 40 selected to compete in the shorts competition. The festival runs September 20-24.

The jurors judging and awarding the selected works include Alla Gadassik (Canada), Parissa Mohit (Canada), and Xi Chen (China).

“This year's competition will take you through a roller coaster of emotions,” commented OIAF Artistic Director Chris Robinson. “We’re exploring all sorts of fun topics: sexuality and identity (27, Electra), grief (Eeva, A Crab in the Pool), parenting (World to Roam), fractured families (Return to Hairy Hill), colonization (Bear Named Jesus), and mortality (Her Dress for the Final). But it's not all so dark; we also have The Beatles, Werner Herzog musing about chickens, an inside look at the sex lives of furries, some baby superheroes (Baby Force), a silly song about the Montréal metro system (Girl with the Red Beret), and another one about how grand life is (Living the Dream).”

This year marks the addition of the Hélène Tanguay Award for Humor, celebrating the late National Film Board employee whose sense of humor had a lasting impact on the animation community. In addition, Bento Box will present the Bento Box Award for Best Student Animation, with the winner receiving a $1000 CAD prize, and the XPPen Craft Award Prize for Best Animation Technique will receive a product prize from XPPen.

All winners will receive an award statue designed by Ottawa-based scrap metal artist Tick Tock Tom. The statues are working phénakisticopes featuring an animation by New York artist George Griffin.

The Commissioned category includes:

14th Anibar Animation Festival Trailer Love – directed by Sander Joon (Estonia, Kosovo)
Ride on Joyfulness The Afternoon Tea – directed by Lei Lei (China)
Silent Labs Launch – directors Winston Hacking and Michael Enzbrunner (Canada, United States)
Starlight Nightcrash – directed by Patrick Buhr (Germany)
The Beatles I'm Only Sleeping – directed by Em Cooper (United Kingdom)

The Narrative category includes:

27 – directed by Flóra Anna Buda (France, Hungary)
A Bear Named Jesus – directed by Terril Calder (Canada)
Antipolis – directed by Kaspar Jancis (Estonia)
Box Cutters – directed by Naomi van Niekerk (France, Netherlands, South Africa)
Eeva – directors Morten Tšinakov and Lucija Mrzljak (Estonia, Croatia)
Etoimoi (Ready) - (directed by Eirini Vianelli (Greece, Belgium)
Haljina za finale (Her Dress for the Final) – directed by Martina Mestrovic (Croatia)
Herzog's Chicken - directed by Lukas Conway (Canada)
Ikimono-san: Turtle – directed by Atsushi Wada (Japan)
La fille au béret rouge (The Girl with the Red Beret) – directed by Janet Perlman (Canada)
Living The Dream - directed by Ben Meinhardt (Canada)
Misérable Miracle (Miserable Miracle) – directed by Ryo Orikasa (Canada)
Obok (Outside) – directed by Izabela Plucinska (Poland, Germany)
Retour à Hairy Hill (Return to Hairy Hill) – directed by Daniel Gies (Canada)
The Miracle - directed by Nienke Deutz (Belgium, Netherlands, France)
Un trou dans la poitrine (A Crab in the Pool) - directors Alexandra Myotte and Jean-Sébastien Hamel (Canada)
Vanlav (Oneluv) – directed by Varya Yakovleva (Russia)
Via Dolorosa - directed by Rachel Gutgarts (France)
World to Roam – directed by Stephen Irwin (United Kingdom)
Zima - directors Tomek Popakul and Kasumi Ozeki (Poland)

The Non-Narrative category includes:

Albums de famille (Family Albums) – directed by Moïa Jobin-Paré (Canada)
Aleph - directed by Slobodan Tomić (Croatia)
BABY FORCE – directed by Yuki Kubo (Japan)
Foot Print Shop - directed by Gina Kamentsky, (United States)
Forår (Spring) – directed by Pernille Kjaer (Denmark)
Our Pain - directed by Shunsaku Hayashi (Japan)
Vitanuova – directed by Niles Atallah (Chile, Mexico, Spain)
나는 말이다 (I Am a Horse) – directed by Chaerin Im (South Korea, Denmark)

The Student category includes:

Cyclepaths – directed by Anton Cla (Belgium)
Electra - directed by Daria Kashcheeva (Czech Republic)
Fur – directed by Zhen Li (United States)
Furrie - directed by Lucie Grannec (France)
Pipes - directors Kilian Feusi, Jessica Meier, and Sujanth Ravichandran (Switzerland)
Sewing Love - directed by Yuan Xu (Japan)
The Eastern Rain – directed by Milly Yencken (Estonia)