Circo Animato 2022

Fantasia’s annual showcase of amazing animated short films from around the world returns with over a dozen dazzling offerings, marvellously multifarious in tone, technique, and perspective. This year’s selections, many of which are world premieres, come from France, Argentina, Chile, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, USA, and right here in Canada.

World premieres abound! EL AFTER DEL MUNDO is a decidedly different spin on doomsday, post-apocalyptic poetry in a zoomer hipster vernacular. In GLASS DOLL, a damaged porcelain doll inhabits a ruined wasteland of discarded playthings, while VRDLK: FAMILY OF VURDULAK is a gothic night of frights based on Tolstoy's 1839 novella.

BREAK BUG advises, be careful when you bust a move, lest ye get all busted up yourself. The charming micro-shorts THE COMMUTE, LO 100TO and BAEK-IL are new works from the 13th edition of the NFB’s animation apprenticeship program Hothouse.

This year’s array is also threaded with recurring themes of memories, family, and the changes time brings, expressed in ways guaranteed to mesmerize aficionados of fine animation. PIECE OF SOLITUDE finds an old man seeking out a lost childhood treasure. HISTOIRE POUR 2 TROMPETTES follows the parade of changes, the constant becoming that we call growing up. WHISPER DOWN THE LANE is a poignant take on a children’s game that isn’t so fun for adults. The sunrise can’t dispel the darkness that comes as an elderly woman ponders the many days of her life gone by, in DESHABITADA. An utterly organic mother desires a state of plasticized perfection for her newborn, in PERFECT CITY: THE MOTHER, from the director of S/HE (Fantasia 2019). THE PRINCIPLE OF SUNRISE is a lovely little slice of life’s tragic truths, and Colman Domingo (CANDYMAN, EUPHORIA) stars in NEW MOON, recollecting a hot summer night on the back porch, when a boy and his mom welcomed a new moon over West Philadelphia. – Rupert Bottenberg