“The Reward” and other films from Denmark’s Animation Workshop

The talk of the town this morning is this friggin’ brilliant short – The Reward – an epic “hero’s journey” in nine minutes (take that, Peter Jackson). This graduation film was directed by Mikkel Mainz and Kenneth Ladekjaer (and their team: Glenn August, Jonas Andreassen, Josefine Hannibal, Karen Bennetzen, Ole Christian Loken, Paolo Giandoso and Tanja Nielsen) at Denmark’s Animation Workshop.

Animator/teacher Mike Nguyen (Iron Giant) recently forwarded this and links to five other great films and trailers from this year’s graduating class. Mike gives a a 2-3 week workshop on character animation to first year students. (Mike is currently based in Korea, teaching traditional animation there).

Go to the link to explore further work from this outstanding school. Below I’ve embed a few of my other favorites.

Under The Fold (Director: Bo Juhl Nielson)

Memoria (Director: Elisabit Yr Atladottir)

The Odd Sound Out (Directors: Pernille Sihm, Ida Maria Schouw Andreasen)