Tessa Moult-Milewska’s Curiosa is a beautifully animated stop-motion short that centers on a young woman who learns a bit more than she asked for when she climbs into her boyfriend’s head. The U.K.-based animator has been receiving much recognition at festivals around the world for her latest project, which has qualified for Academy Award consideration by winning the Animated Short Jury Award at the Austin Film Festival, and was kind enough to answer a few of our questions about her intriguing short via email:
Animation Magazine: Can you tell us the origins and inspirations for your short?
Tessa Moult-Milewska: It started with a tagline: An overly curious girl climbs into her boyfriend’s head. I knew the film would have a strong ending because it seemed obvious to everyone I pitched it to that this level of curiosity wouldn’t end well. At that time, I was fascinated by retroactive jealousy, as I had experienced it personally a few years earlier. What I didn’t realize then was how many people would relate to the feeling portrayed in the story.
How long did it take to make and how many people worked on it with you?
This film was made in 2022, during the second year of my master’s degree at the National Film and Television School. It was a collaboration with students from ten other departments, as well as the model-making course, which was responsible for creating most of the puppets, including the human-sized masks. We also had actors and many volunteers, especially for set building and compositing — a total of 55 people altogether.
What was your ballpark budget?
The budget was around £9,000 (around $11,600) but the production value of the project is much higher, as the National Film and Television School provided us with space and equipment, and most of the work was done by students and volunteers.
How big were the puppets? What were they made of?
The small puppets were about 15cm tall, but the masks used for the pixilation scenes were designed for life-sized humans. The puppet faces were intended to look like they were carved from wood, but we had to ensure they weren’t too heavy for the actors to wear during the 10-day shoot. To keep them light, we chose materials like papier-mâché and wobbler, while the miniature puppets were actually made of resin.
What were your biggest challenges?
I think the most stressful challenge was completing the film under time pressure and challenging circumstances, both for personal reasons and because we were shooting during COVID. A more technical challenge was using pixilation — working with actors who pretended to be animated puppets — as I didn’t have much prior experience with this method, and actors, unlike puppets, breathe and can’t “freeze” in a single pose. For this reason, the animation itself is a bit rougher, but it’s a compromise I consciously accepted. I also found working with actors incredibly rewarding and insightful, and I would love to do it again.
What are you proudest of?
In Curiosa I’m really proud of the story pace, dialog and payoff working so well, I think humor is very tricky and for a long time it wasn’t quite clear if the right tone would come through.
Who are your animation inspirations?
Having grown up in Poland, I feel there’s a distinct, perhaps darker influence in my work, possibly inspired by Eastern European animators like Jan Švankmajer or the Brothers Quay, who came to Poland to create some of their films. I’m also deeply inspired by Charlie Kaufman’s work, especially Anomalisa and Being John Malkovich. I have a great love for surrealism and magical realism, and one of my favorite discoveries is the brilliant Adult Swim series The Shivering Truth.
What are your plans for the near future?
I have an amazing agent at U.S.-based Fourth Wall Management, whom I began working with after Curiosa won the Jury Award at the Austin Film Festival. The film has also just been released on the Animation Magazine’s Oscar Watch list, and I do hope it will reach a wide audience online.
It does feel like a challenging time to step into the industry, so I’m staying creative by working on a comic-book series, Pinecone and Scarecrow, as well as a documentary short that I’m currently developing at the Open Workshop residency in Viborg, Denmark. This week, the Polish Film Institute announced that it would support the production of my feature debut, Rainbow in Hell City, which I hope to move into production if we secure all necessary funding.
I would like to find my place in the animation industry and join an international, inclusive and open-minded storytelling team.
You can watch the complete short at www.shortoftheweek.com/2024/11/11/curiosa/.
Learn more about Tessa Moult-Milewska’s work at tessamm.com.
