Exclusive: Watch the trailer for Marcy Page’s ‘Virgin Fandango,’ an 11-minute stop-motion musical animated across more than 12,000 hand-painted ceramic tiles. It premieres next month at Annecy.
Inspired by Portuguese azulejo murals, the film reimagines the Bible's Mary as a rebellious and empowering figure through music, dance, and hand-painted animation mixed with stop-motion techniques.
We spoke with Page and composer Normand Roger about the years-long process behind ‘Virgin Fandango,’ from tile painting and stop-motion rigs to its feminist and political roots.
Full interview linked in bio.
Laika has released the breathtaking first teaser trailer for 'Wildwood,' its long-awaited stop-motion fantasy directed by Travis Knight. Distributed by Fathom Entertainment, it will hit theaters on October 23.
More info linked in bio.
The brothers behind the viral fan film ‘Superman: Awakens’ are back with something entirely original. Antonis and Stavros Fylladitis discuss creating their sci-fi short ‘Sjor’ in Unreal Engine 5 and why they never wanted it to feel like a tech demo.
“We didn’t want you to have to be an Unreal enthusiast or to be in the industry to appreciate what we’ve made.” With storytelling as the objective, 'Sjor' blends Norse mythology, gritty worldbuilding, and character drama in something more than a tech demo.
The brothers joined us to discuss the pressure of viral success, setting their own expectations, and why creating something they want to watch matters more than viewer counts.
Full article linked in bio.
Honami Yano’s new short 'Eri' premieres in this year's Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, and we're thrilled to exclusively debut its first trailer. The hand-painted film follows a Holstein who falls in love with another cow in a world where survival depends on reproduction.
Every frame was painted in acrylic directly onto transparent cels, inspired by one of Yano's dreams, extensive research, and field trips to farms across different seasons.
Our full interview dives into the making of 'Eri,' including nocturnal inspirations, casting cows in the lead roles, and building a queer love story around the realities of dairy farming ahead of the film’s Cannes premiere.
Full story linked in bio.
YouTube flagged the stop-motion series Tiny Grandma as AI-generated and demonitized the channel. Days later, creators Marie Hart and Peter stepped in front of the camera to tell their story, the channels blew up, and YouTube reached out directly to fix the mistake.
Hart and Heacock stopped their commercial work for six months to build the IP inspired by Hart’s Korean mother. Immigrant stories, handmade crafts, and family recipes have hit home with millions of viewers.
We talked with the couple about running their home studio, working with Philly institutions like the Eagles, and why an almost costly mistake by YouTube’s automated flagging system ended up becoming the best thing to happen to their channel.
Full article linked in bio.
Oscar-nominated Iranian filmmaker Yegane Moghaddam returns with a new mixed-media animated short, 'Our Body Language,' exploring cultural gestures, conformity, and the politics of the human body.
Her previous short, 'Our Uniform,' the first Iranian animated Oscar nominee, is also now available to watch online as a Vimeo Staff Pick.
We caught up with Moghaddam to discuss the inspirations behind her latest work, its focus on gesture and social behavior, and how the U.S. invasion of Iran delayed the film's production.
Full article linked in bio.
JUST DROPPED: Episode 2 of KYR-U!
Learn more about banned books with Aaron and Lisa in episode 2 of ur new animated kids' show Know Your Rights University at the link in our bio.
"The material in 'KYR-U' is constitutional, civic, and genuinely nonpartisan’: The ACLU’s new stop-motion kids’ series 'Know Your Rights University' channels 'Schoolhouse Rock!' with surprisingly sharp animation and civics lessons for the whole family.
Creator Brandon Lake assembled a team with colleagues from his years working at Stoopid Buddy and Bix Pix and recruited NY studios Threadwood and Neon Zoo to produce alongside the ACLU.
We caught up with Lake to discuss making civics feel playful instead of assigned, the show's 'School House Rock!' influences, and bringing 'KYR-U' to YouTube.
Full article linked in bio.
Nathan Little spent four years building his Sydney the Song Cat character by hand in his free time, while working on studio shows like 'The Loud House' and 'Casagrandes.' Despite a deep catalog of original videos and a big-studio resume, he woke up one Saturday morning to an email saying YouTube had decided his work wasn't "authentic," and his channel had been demonetized.
His story isn't unique, and that's why it's worth telling. More and more artists are being flagged by automated systems and forced to engage with a process that is anything but authentic.
Link in bio.
Emmy-nominated 'Goldie' creator Emily Brundige is crowdfunding her newest IP, 'Strawberry Vampire,' rather than pitching it to a studio, and plans to keep the property all to herself, even if "hopefully it'll outlive me."
By keeping things independent, no one is filing notes asking to modernize a 113-year-old Hungarian vampire. "I have this freedom to dig into just my taste, my aesthetic taste more than ever, just because I could do whatever I wanted."
The 'Goldie' creator and 'Hilda' vet talks with us about how her Hungarian Holocaust-survivor grandparents inspired the family-friendly vampire comedy, treating YouTube viewers as a test screeners, and why she's done pitching her own IP to studios. Full feature linked in bio.
#2danimation #animation #animatedpilor #strawberryvampire
May the 4th be with you! This group of Spanish pros made a Star Wars fan short in under a month, off the clock, between their day jobs.
Two visual languages tell different sides of the same bedtime story. Cam Kennedy's early-'90s Dark Horse aesthetic juxtaposes family-friendly animation with a mammoth "Gorulactus" to tie them together.
How does a crew of scruffy-looking nerf herders with day jobs at Lingokids, Netflix, and Viz Media pull off a 'Star Wars' short in four weeks? Director José Ucha and the team walk us through the cuts, the chaos, and the smuggler spirit behind production.
Full feature and more BTS artwork linked in bio.
#starwars #maytheforcebewithyou #animatedshort #animation
Fumi Games' 'Mouse: P.I. For Hire' is a first-person shooter developed to look like a 1930s Fleischer cartoon. It stars a trench-coated mouse detective and brings rubber-hose animation to a genre usually built on rigid, militaristic design.
Pulling it off meant studying the Fleischer and Terrytoons archives, hand-drawing every weapon, and figuring out how to render interactive assets without any precedent to pull from.
Director Michal Rostek and Warsaw's Fumi Games co-founder Mateusz Michalak walk us through how they did it. Article linked in bio.
#mousepiforhire #videogames #rubberhose
