Czech director Daria Kashcheeva could make her second run at the Best Animated Short Film Academy Awards race in under five years, as her latest work Electra snagged the Oscar-qualifying Best Short Film award at the 48th Toronto International Film Festival this weekend. Following her Academy Award-nominated, stop-motion student short Daughter (2019), Electra pulls inspiration from Greek mythology to explore a young woman’s relationships with her parents, her body and her sexuality.
As Kashcheeva explained when announcing the film’s Cannes premiere, “I was inspired to structure the narrative this way by psychotherapy. During sessions, clients revolve around their memories of traumatic experiences. They jump from the past to the present, the images and memories change. By combining the pixilation animation technique together with live-action scenes, I was able to illustrate this narrative mosaic.” The film utilizes both pixilation-animated live actors and life-sized, “Barbie”-like puppets.
The TIFF jury stated on its honored selection:
“Singular and accomplished, this sickly sweet nightmare of a film packs a mighty final punch. Visceral and infinitely textured, it leads us down a contorted rabbit hole with thematic and visual prowess. With great pleasure, the jury presents the Short Cuts Award for Best Short Film to Electra, directed by Daria Kashcheeva. Electra resonates with under-the-skin discomfort long after the film is over.”
Following its debut at Cannes, Electra screened in competition at Annecy this summer. The film is produced by Zuzana Křivková and Martin Vandas from Czechia’s MAUR film and co-produced with FAMU, Artichoke (Slovakia) and Papy3D (France); Miyu is handling international distribution.
Daughter was selected for dozens of film and animation festivals, winning prizes at Annecy (Cristal for Best Graduation Film), Sundance (Short Film Jury Prize), Palm Springs ShortFest (Best Student Animation), Stuttgart (Student Award), Hiroshima (Grand Prix) and others.
Also incorporating animated elements is this year’s TIFF winner for the Share Her Journey Award for best film by a woman: Shé (Snake), from Chinese-American director and animator Renee Zhan. Making its world premiere at Toronto, the “live-action/stop-motion hybrid horror” centers on a tightly wound violinist in a prestigious London youth orchestra, whose inner monsters take external form under the pressure of a promising new talent challenging her for her place.
Jury’s statement:
“For this film’s incredibly original and surreal creativity, which is matched with beautiful acting, the jury is thrilled to give the Short Cuts Share Her Journey Award to Renee Zhan for Shé (Snake). It’s not common to be bewitched by grotesque creatures in a film but here they captured the hearts of the audience thanks to their humor and charm.”
The Houston-based director is a familiar name at TIFF, where her previous animated shorts Reneepoptosis (2018), O Black Hole! (2020) and Soft Animals (2021) have also screened in competition. Zhan has previously won awards from Sundance, Locarno (Reneepoptosis); SXSW, The British Animation Awards (O Black Hole!); Slamdance (Hold Me [Ca Caw Ca Caw], 2017) and others.
In the 47th People’s Choice Awards at the festival, celebrated Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki‘s not-quite-final film The Boy and the Heron was recognized with the second runner-up prize for TIFF 2023 People’s Choice Award.
The feature film made its international premiere at the festival, and will open in U.S. theaters through GKIDS on December 8.
Find the full winners announcements for TIFF 2023 at tiff.net.
