The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) today announced the seven animated feature films that have been selected for this year’s Official Competition. This year’s Features competition includes a strong showing of films that connect audiences through themes of personal growth and challenge.
“This year’s competition has seven under-the-radar features that will surely catch a few eyes and hearts”, says OIAF Artistic Director Chris Robinson. “From environmental dystopia (White Plastic Sky), immigration (No Dogs or Italians Allowed) and civil war (Nayola) to coming-of-age tales (When Adam Changes, Unicorn Boy, Chicken for Linda!) and some touching insight into the world of gaming environments (Knit’s Island), this year’s crop of feature competitors has something for everyone.”
The 2023 Features competition includes:
Adam change lentement (When Adam Changes) | dir. Joël Vaudreuil, Canada
Adam is a 15-year-old teenager who has the strange peculiarity of having a body that changes, depending on the teasing and negative comments he receives from those around him. The accumulation of his physical changes just adds a layer to his already complex life.
Interdit aux chiens et aux Italiens (No Dogs or Italians Allowed) | dir. Alain Ughetto; France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal
Luigi and his brothers set out from their native village in the Piedmont, off to discover “La Merica”, the fabulous land where dollars grow on trees. Finally, instead of crossing the Atlantic, Luigi puts his backpack down in southern France, with hands that could no longer work.
Knit’s Island | dirs. Quentin L’helgoualc’h, Ekiem Barbier & Guilhem Causse; France
Somewhere on the internet is a land where communities pretend to live out a survivalist fiction. The avatars of the directors of Knit’s Island spent 963 hours there, creating a fascinating film resulting from their encounter with these communities. The “players” reveal their fears and fantasies, in an at times unsettling blurring of the real and the virtual.
Linda Veut Du Poulet ! (Chicken for Linda!) | dirs. Chiara Malta & Sébastien Laudenbach; France, Italy
Paulette realizes she has unfairly punished her daughter Linda. To make up for it, she promises to cook her a chicken with peppers, even though she cannot cook at all. But where to find a chicken on a strike day, when all the shops are closed?
Müanyag Égbolt (White Plastic Sky) | dirs. Tibor Bánóczki & Sarolta Szabó; Hungary, Slovakia
In a not too distant future without animals and plants where the price of human survival is high, a young man breaks every rule to save his wife.
Nayola | dir. José Miguel Ribeiro; Portugal, France, Belgium, Netherlands
Angola. Three generations of women in a 25-year-long civil war: Lelena (the grandmother), Nayola (the daughter) and Yara (the granddaughter). Past and present interlace. Nayola goes in search of her missing husband at the height of the war. Decades later, the country is finally at peace but Nayola has not returned. Yara has become a rebellious teenager and a subversive rap singer. Lelena tries to contain her for fear of the police coming to arrest her. One night, a masked intruder breaks into their house, armed with a machete. An encounter like nothing they could have imagined.
Unicorn Boy (dir. Matt Kiel, United States)
Matty, a down-on-their-luck artist, distraught by a recent breakup, is magically sucked into a unicorn-run alternate dimension. Now, Matty must work with their new unicorn friends to conquer a dark force, bringing peace to their kingdom and emotional stability to their bleak Silver Lake life.
Malta and Luadenback’s Chicken for Linda! was recently acquired by GKIDS for North American distribution at this year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where it took home two of the Festival’s top prizes. At the time of their selection for the OIAF, When Adam Changes, Chicken for Linda! and White Plastic Sky will make their Canadian premieres.
The OIAF will continue to roll out its 2023 Official Competition over the coming week with its Student, Commissioned, Narrative and Non-Narrative shorts competitions.
The 2023 OIAF will be held September 20-24 in Ottawa. More information available at animationfestival.ca.
