Presenting new Animation Films - Frameworks & Short Shorts at the Galway Film Fleadh
Continuing a tradition of excellence in Irish animation, this year both the Frameworks and Short Shorts schemes present a wide range of new animated shorts. Frameworks include GRANNY O'GRIMM'S SLEEPING BEAUTY (Nicky Phelan), SANDPIPER (Jimmy Murakami), THE ROOSTER, THE CROCODILE & THE NIGHT SKY (Padraig Fagan) and animated Short Shorts include COLOUR CONTAMINATION (Louise Bagnall).Written and performed by Kathleen O'Rourke, Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty is the animated story of Granny O'Grimm, a seemingly sweet old lady, who loses the plot as she tells her version of Sleeping Beauty to her terrified Granddaughter. It is directed by Nicky Phelan whose series, Crap Rap, has been accepted into Cartoons on the Bay and Annecy, where it was nominated in the Best Television Series category, and earlier this year was short listed for the Prix Jeunesse Awards. The short is produced by Darragh O'Connell in Brown Bag Films. Brown Bag Films recently picked up the Grand Prix for Ding Dong Denny's History of Ireland, at the Digital Media Awards.
Scripted by Aidan Hickey and directed Jimmy Murakami, Sandpiper is poignant story of a young boy saving a Sandpiper with a broken wing from Vicious Seagulls. He tends the injured bird and releases it back into the wild. Murakami's previous credits include the Oscar nominated films The Violinist and The Snowman, the Annecy Grand Prix winner When The Wind Blows and the feature length adaptation of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. Hickey also has a wide range of award winning credits including The Island of Inis Cool, The Boy with no Story and Hans Christian Anderson. Sandpiper is produced by Peter Fleming.
The Rooster, the Crocodile & the Night Sky is written and directed by Padraig Fagan and produced by Barry O'Donoghue in Barley Films. It is an animated tale of passion, loss, surreal comedy and explosive violence. Barley Films previously produced the award winning shorts Agriculture Report and The Red Ball which picked up two awards at last years Galway Film Fleadh.
Barley Films have also produced Colour Contamination, written and directed by IADT graduate Louise Bagnall, which tells a tale about a clean cut business man who is adverse to all things colourful , who enters a waiting room filled with colourful plastic chairs and is forced to confront his worst fears.
Frameworks is financed by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB) and The Arts Council. The scheme aims to produce stimulating ground-breaking new work from Irish animators. Funded exclusively by the IFB, Short Shorts aims to encourage the making of films which are innovative, provocative or in some other way risky and rule-breaking.
Frameworks and Short Shorts will premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh on Saturday July 12th at 2pm in the Town Hall Theatre.