Animation First 2019 guest of honor, Michel Ocelot, hand-picked a program of eclectic shorts for the festival, highlighting films that have nourished his own career as a filmmaker.

Haut Pays des Neiges
Dir. Bernard Palacios, France, 1989. 10 min 30 sec. Color. Digital. In French with English subtitles.
A land surveyor lives alone in a hut in the Himalayan mountains. He is visited by a strange creature.

La Main (Ruka)
Dir. Jiří Trnka, Czech Republic, 1965. 19 min. Color. DCP. No dialogue.
Puppet master Jiří Trnka’s La Main is a tragicomic story of a little man who wishes to make a flower-pot for his beloved flower and an almighty and always present hand that forces him to create a portrait celebrating it.

La Traversée de l’Atlantique à la Rame
Dir. Jean-François Laguionie, France, 1978. 21 min. Color. DCP. In French with English subtitles.
A man and a woman in a boat and a journey that lasts a long time, a lifetime.

Le Petit Soldat
Dir. Paul Grimault, 1948. 11 min.
A wounded toy soldier who return from war to his beloved ballerina.

Sientje
Dir. Christina Moesker, Netherlands, 1997. 5 min. Color. Digital. No dialogue
Sientje is a little girl who is really, really angry.

Une Bombe par hasard
Dir. Jean-François Laguionie, France, 1969. 9 min. Color. Digital. No dialogue
The city was abandoned by its inhabitants who fear the explosion of an infernal machine. A vagabond appears, and is not aware of this event.