As the Academy Awards nominations race heats up, award-winning and critically acclaimed films from the 15-title shortlist are launching free online streaming releases — to the delight of animation fans everywhere! Today, we are treated to Sara Gunnarsdóttir’s coming-of-age comedy My Year of Dicks, based on Pamela Ribon’s celebrated memoir.
Created in semi-real stylized 2D built on reference footage shot by Gunnarsdóttir and brought to life with the help of team of seven animators, My Year of Dicks follows an imaginative 15-year-old girl through the year she resolves to lose her virginity — despite the very slim partner pickings in the outskirts of 1990s Houston. Her misadventures are presented in five titled chapters within the 25-minute film.
“Pam had written all the different genres into the script, and when I read it I immediately linked the genres with some of my favorite animation artists and they all agreed to work with me on this,” Gunnarsdóttir explained in an interview with Animation Magazine (read it here). “It was so much fun being able to give each of them some parts of this film to lend it their personal style.
My Year of Dicks is created and written by Ribon, based on her book Notes to Boys (And Other Things I Shouldn’t Share in Public), directed by Gunnarsdóttir (The Pirate of Love, A Good Dream) and produced by Jeanette Jeanenne. The piece has picked up awards at Annecy (Cristal for Best TV Production), Ottawa (Best Animated Series), SXSW (Unique Vision), Chicago (Silver Hugo for Animated Short) and Brooklyn Film Festival (Best Animated Short).
Watch My Year of Dicks in full below and on Vimeo here (age restricted) and check out the FYC Making-Of here.
