TAAFI Festival to Screen 70+ Shorts in 2020 Program

The official selection of the TAAFI Animation Film Festival, screening this weekend (Feb. 14-16) at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto, will present more than 70 compelling, colorful, funny and thought-provoking short films across six themed programs leading up to the TAAFI 2020 Awards at the Closing Ceremony.  

Festival passes and individual screening/event tickets are available online.

Saturday Morning Kids Time (Block 1)

Sat., Feb. 15, 10-11:30 a.m. ***Kids 12 and under admitted for free***

• The Bravest Knight: Cedric & The Green Leaf Shabnam Rezaei (U.S. | Big Bad Boo) CANADIAN PREMIERE
• Dragon Recipes Maria Pavlou (Cyprus | Pixel Giants)
• DN Ace (Canada | Nelvana, Wexworks)
• Peep & the Big Wide World “An Inconvenient Tooth” Vadim Kapridov (Canada | 9 Story, Brown Bag)
• Put the Barbarian Back in the Box Daily Pearson, Scott Vanden Bosch (Australia | Ludo)
• The Ribbon (U.S. | StudioX)

The Mysteries of Life (Block 2)

Sat., Feb. 15, 3-4:30 p.m. | PG

• Chiakan-Mofei Shan-Yi Lin (Taiwan | Chaikan)
• Drawn to You Eleanor Davitt (Canada | Seneca College)
• Grandad Was a Romantic Maryam Mohajer (U.K.)
• Heat Wave Foklon Xenos (U.K.,Greece | NFTS)
• Nothing to Say Aubry Mintz (U.S., Canada | Seneca College)
• Outside the Box Janet Grainger (Ireland)
• Reflection Chelsea Keene (U.S.)
• Sister Siqi Song (U.S., China)
• The Star of Andra & Tati Alessandro Belli, Rosalba Viellaro (Italy | Federation)

The Oddball Collection (Block 3)

Sat., Feb. 15, 5:15-6:45 p.m. | 14+

• Atomic Love Ian Felipe Cortes Esqueda (Mexico | SAE Institute)
• Bun Yum Yum Sade Lahti (Finland | Turku University of Applied Sciences)
• Creepy Pasta Salad Lauren Orme (U.K. | Winding Snake Prod.)
• Cage Match Bryan Lee (U.S. | USC)
• Cold Sore Caitlin McCarthy (U.K. | Strange Beast)
• Don’t Feed These Animals Guilherme Afonso, Miguel Madail de Freitas (Portugal | Nebula Studios)
• Dead End Nir Berger (Israel | Mind The Gap Animation)
• Dream Cream Noam Sussman (Canada)
• Exit Luke Ramsay (U.K.)
• Lizard Queen Anca Vlasan (U.S. | Some Blonde Girl Prod.)
• Monster Prom Emily Lawton & Owen Doud (U.S. | LaDoud Prod.)
• My Pal Piggy Jeff Bruno (Canada | Seneca)
• Terror Fervor Phoebe Parsons (Canada)
• The Dinner Matthieu Fouquet (France | EMCA)
• The Local Freak Areg Savchenko (Canada | TheRegyman)

Sunday Morning Cartoon Pyjama Party (Block 4)

Sun., Feb. 16, 10-11:30 a.m. | PG

• Agony Ant Sean Cunningham, Stephen Fagan (Ireland | Studio Meala)
• A Cat Fighting a Cat in a Mirror Liu Meicen (China | School of Animation and Digital Arts Communication University of China)
• Beware the Wolf! Julie Rembauville (France | Prototypes Prod.)
• Bramalea Anda Chitescu (Canada | Seneca College)
• Cazando Gamusinos Silvia Manes Velasco (Spain | Universitat Politecnica de Valencia)
• Dubicel Yashira Jordan & Igor Gopkalo Streiff (Bolivia | Celeste)
• Irritable Ball Syndrome Brady Glover (U.S.)
• Legend of Ancient Borneo Geoffrey Sinn Chun Hou (Malaysia | All for One Prod.)
• Peep – NFB Edition Kaj Pindal (Canada | NFB)
• Roxanne Katie Heady (U.S. | Ringling College of Art & Design)
• Streets of Fury Aidan McAteer (Ireland)
• Santa. (Bone Voyage). Sergey Gordeev (Russia | Agama Film Studio)
• The Unusual Suspects Jackie Gorman (U.S. | Chapman University Dodge College)
• The Christmas Sneeze Kintan Chauhan (U.S. | Kintan Chauhan)
• Teddy Bear Rescue Louis Bodart (Canada | Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema)
• o28 Otalia Causse, Geoffroy Collin, Louise Grardel, Antoine Marchand, Robin Merle, Fabien Meyran (France | Supinfocom Rubika)

Sheridan College – Selected Films of 2019 (Block 5)

Sun., Feb. 16, 12:15-1:30 p.m. | PG

• Animation History Rebecca Simpson
• Beeno Finds a Friend Corina Tu
• Francotirador Joseph Bertrand
• Golden Ice Cream Chayadol Lomtong
• Her Boat Yingzhong Hu
• In Passing Esther Cheung
• Parkman Turcin Soylu
• Pit Stop Raship Trikha
• Smite! Tyler Nardone
• The Fox and the Pigeon Michelle Chua, Aileen Dewhurts, Sharon Gabriella, Viktor Ivanovsku, Sang Lee, Tyler Pacana, Sikyung Kevin Sung, Morgan Thompson, Matt Walton, Steven Wang, Chelsea van Toi
• What I See In You Megan Lawless
• Wash Day Jaida Salmon
• Yolk Renee Y Liang

Flight of the Imagination (Shorts Block 6)

Sun. Feb. 16, 2:15-3:45 p.m. | PG

• Archipaper Rafal Barnas (Poland | Unique Vision Studio)
• Castle Ryotaro Miyajima (Japan | Miyajima Animation)
• Good Night Firefly Yin Qianya (China | School of Animation and Digital Arts, Communication University of China)
• Gunpowder Romane Faure, Nathanael Perron, Lea Detrain, Benoit de Geyer d’Orth, Pei-Hsuan Lin, Anne-Lise Kubiak (France | Supinfocom Rubika)
• In October: Deception Hour Pradeep Shankar (India)
• Kelpie Danielle Bittner (Canada | Sheridan College)
• Sauvage Raoul Dhellemmes, Axel Beaudelot, Pauline Lemaire, Marius Dalle, Alexis Jouen and Ophelie Kaszynski (France | Pole 3D)
• Shuffled Markus Helmersson (Sweden | Massac Prod.)
• The Girl in the Hallway Valerie Barnhart (Canada)
• The Credits Movie Jeffrey Ashkin (U.S. | Raindance Films)
• Violent Equation Antonis Doussias (Greece | Authorwave, Carousel Films)
• What on Earth Kaj Pindal (Canada | NFB)

The feature film lineup include Away by Gints Zilbalodis (Opening Film), Another Day of Life by Raul de la Fuente & Damian Nenow, Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles by Salvador Simó and Okko’s Inn by Kitaro Kosaka.

The TAAFI 2020 Awards will during the Sunday night Closing Ceremonies award prizes for Best Kids Film, Best Canadian Film, Best International Film, Best Student Film, and the Grand Prix of the Festival. This year’s Festival Jury is comprised of Cort Lane (SVP Animation & Family, Marvel Ent.), Dave Gerhard (Creative Director, Atomic Cartoons), M.R. Horhager (director, Dot.), Rick Clodfelter (founder, Garden Place Media), Austen Payne (One Hell of Party) and Katie Wilson (Director of Programming, Corus Ent.).

TAAFI’s Animated Person of the Year award has been redubbed in honor of the late Kaj Pindal (1927-2019), an instrumental force in Canadian animation through his work with the National Film Board. This year’s recipient is Blair Kitchen, whose posthumous honor will be accepted by his wife and fellow animation artist Rochelle Kitchen.

Learn more at taafi.com.