World According To Shorts Partners With L.A.’s Laemmle Theatres for Nine Nation Animation

Laemmle Theatres and the World According to Shorts are pleased to present Nine Nation Animation, a selection of recent award-winning animated short films from the world’s most renowned festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Annecy, Clermont-Ferrand and others. The program spans the globe and a wide variety of animation styles. A cat and a mouse carry on a dysfunctional relationship in a futuristic landscape. A Chinese monk sets out on foot with a tiger during the Tang dynasty and happens upon the giant Buddhas of Bâmiyân. Two blue collar workers dissect the meaning of “normal” life as the world crumbles around them. A box of matches succumb, to their detriment, to the appeal of a cigarette.

The exclusive Los Angeles engagements will begin on Friday, July 29th at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills and Saturday, July 30th at the Playhouse 7 in Pasadena.

Titles include Deconstruction Workers by Kajsa Naess (Norway); Average 40 Matches by Burkay DoÄŸan, & M.Åžakir Arslan (Turkey); Bâmiyân by Patrick Pleutin (France); Please Say Something by David O’Reilly (Ireland/Germany); Flatlife by Jonas Geirnaert (Belgium); She Who Measures by Veljko Popoviç (Croatia); Home Road Movies by Robert Bradbrook (United Kingdom); The Tale of How by The Blackheart Gang (South Africa); and Never Like the First Time! by Jonas Odell (Sweden).

“Nine Nation ANimation proves that there’s a lot more to the animator’s art than either the cutting-edge ultra-realism of Pixar or the flat functionality of sitcoms like The Simpsons… offers a virtual catalog of the tools available to the animator–stop-motion, CGI, rotoscoping–with the techniques often combined in a single imposing display…mind-bending visuals.” (Andrew Schenker, Village Voice)

“The sheer variety of visual approaches here is dazzling… take[s] us places we’ve never been, only to reaffirm our commonality” (Ty Burr, Boston Globe)

“Illustrates the most provocative characteristic of all animation: the ability to approach the darkest of subjects with levity and amusement.” (Ryan Prendiville, San Francisco Bay Guardian)

Watch the trailer here: www.trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/ninenationanimation/