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CineYouth Program

Pen, Pencil, Pixel: Animation

  Australia, Spain, United States     10 shorts | 47 minutes

Synopsis

Across these eleven shorts, you’ll find no single genre, theme, or medium, but you will find fantastical worlds, disarming emotional honesty, and vibrant displays of creativity. Whether drawn by hand, sculpted with clay, or animated digitally, these inventive shorts are sure to entertain and inspire.

Please note: Films in this program contain themes, images, and language that may not be suitable for all ages.

Films

A lego-animated hooded figure in a black cloak stands in front of a broken glass case.

Kaine Interception

Johnny White & Harry White | Colorado | Ages 16 & 14

In this Lego stop-motion actioner, secret agent Kaine and his mysterious new partner April race to interrupt a jewel heist.

An AI generated image of two white horses in a forest, bathed in an eerie glow staring in the distance

La infancia

Jesús García Nuño de la Rosa & Emiliano Reyes | Spain | Age 22

A man in a dark house is surrounded by an ethereal forest. Animals wander, children play, and fires burn. Is any of this real?

A black and white drawing of a spotlight shining on a plant, which is being rained on.

Weathered

Patrick Jang | California | Age 16

Teenagers share stories of adversity, resilience, and personal transformation in vulnerable interviews supported by vivid animation.

A zombie clay person stands impaled on pencil with another man, surrounded by paper houses.

Attack of the Living Clay

Jackson Milott | New York | Age 16

In a tiny household world, a clay man improvises ingenious, violent methods to fight off a horde of zombies.

A distorted, shadowy image of a large statue of a cross towering over a line of trees.

Why so blu

Danielle Arianna Picernos | Chicago | Age 22

Blue brushstrokes on film capture life and loss.

A hand-drawn robot boy stares, eye-twitching, body glitching, surrounded by pink-purple colour pencil strokes.

Trigonometry’s Ultimate Method to Putting the Fun Back in Your Own Funeral

April Aquino | Chicago | Age 22

Trigonometry’s untimely death inspires him to go out with one last hurrah, crashing his own funeral.

A digitally animated girl sleeps on her bed, her phone idle in the distance.

Twenty Twenty Three — To The Lighthouse

Chengyu Li | Ohio | Age 16

Drowning and stressed, a high school student asks herself, “Am I going crazy?”

A wide-eyed oulined ghost glowing, surrounded by hand-drawn images.

Treasure Haunt

Carlos Lerma | Chicago | Age 20

Longing for a single hug, a man traverses all boundaries and drinks the ghost potion, flying towards his love.

A cutout animated woman stands contemplating as stars hang and a bird perches on the tree behind her.

Headlands

Cecelia Clare | California | Age 20

Waves of nostalgia wash over an old woman as she dives deep into the water of her youth.

A young man in a flying suit swerves on his hoverboard.

Echoes in the Sand

Miles Isgrig | New York | Age 22

Hell-bent on finding his parents, Peter rebels against his robot guardian, bounding toward the voices in the desert.

A little boy in a foetal position as a dotted line snake is drawn around him.

Snake

Lewis Fuller Hill | Australia | Age 22

In a heartfelt visual letter penned to his mother, a man dreams of her voice and of snakes in a field.

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