Fantasia 2025

GHOSTS

Energy cannot be created or destroyed. When we die, where does our energy go? Inspired by Vauhini Vara's essay "Ghosts", in which she prompted Al to help her write about her sister's passing, "GHOSTS" takes us on the emotional journey of grief. We see a ghost figure trying to get through to her sister, who is still alive, and let her know she's still around somehow. There are two poems in this piece, one is a poem written by GPT 3, and the next is the director's (Oriana Mejer) response to it. This film uses spoken word poetry, TouchDesigner motion graphics, and is originally scored by French musician Taime.

Ghost Town

Seraphim Cloud and his life size doppelgänger enter the netherworld of Calico Ghost Town deep within the Mojave Desert.

Study No. 9

An experimental short from Oskar Fischinger

Pandemic in Times of Love

A 16mm archive from 1964 intervened as an emotional diary during the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic is the basis of this film, reinterpreted in the montage of the sound design, in which the images are reinterpreted, emphasizing the soundscape of the protests from 2020 to 2023 in the streets of Cajamarca, Cusco and Lima, three regions of Peru, questioning the constant political and social crisis.

undressed

Ozymandias

Ozymandias recites Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem of the same name. Selected AI-generated images and text-to-speech narration - with their vutlure-like generative methods, and already rapidly-dating aesthetics - are placed in parallel to the poem's explorations of legacy, decay, futility, and the future.

Gemini

Sarah and her two cats go about their separate lives. The cats have strange dreams about their desires, and Sarah develops an unshakable paranoia that something is wrong with them. Sarah's paranoia bleeds into her social life, and her two cats have their dreams come true.

Reflections - Mojave Desert

In late August 2016, the band of Floating Points travelled to the Mojave desert to rehearse and record before their tour of the Southern states of America. Whilst visiting Joshua Tree national park, they were struck not only by its physical beauty, but also of the sonic reflections from the rock formations. A unique sound of reverb, echo and phase shifting modulating the sound from its surroundings.They took advantage of this environment to write and record some new music at the base of some of these natural sculptures which was documented in this short film.

Green Bay

Set beneath a surreal green sky on a distant, crumbling world, the film captures the last survivors of a dying civilization—women who perform a synchronized ritual dance to summon an ethereal extraterrestrial presence from another realm.

dei notturni splendori

“And, 'twixt the shadows and frights of nocturnal splendors, My beloved will secretly be hiding. Say what you will, say what you may.” The sound of a distant whistle and theorbo calls a sleeping singer through the empty streets of Stuttgart in a midnight journey to the opera house. ‘dei notturni splendori’ is an experimental opera film made for the Staatsoper Stuttgart in the early months of the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Anderson Matthew captures the singer Helene Schneiderman through a midnight dream with a hand-cranked kino camera in an ecstatic 35mm photo roman, in search for her own performance of the Tarquinio Merula madrigal Folle é ben chi se crede from 1638.

Angel

In this short film, a young man, a girl and a dog attempt to fly with wings more symbolic than practical.

O/S

Taking inspiration from 20th-century avant-garde experiments in graphical sound generation, the entire image in O/S functions as an optical soundtrack. Abstract motion becomes sound.

Harawi

A poetic Super 8mm film created by Rachael Wilson and Anderson Matthew set to accompany the live recital performance of Olivier Messiaen’s Harawi – Chant d’amour et de mort (1945).

The 12th House

After an intruder infiltrates her apartment, Allie must deal with the remnants of painful memories that she refuses to accept.

Threnody

Threnody emphasises some of the madness and instability of a year filled with fires, infections and general disarray.

Things to Come

A vibrant animation by Patricia Marx. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2000.

I'M NOT A PERSON

A class project by transgender multimedia artist/dog Natalie Pit. Features the band Cherry Pit performing the second half of their song "I AM NOT A PERSON", set against unlicensed footage from other trans filmmakers, including the likes of Lex Walton, Louise Weard, Cate Wurtz, Jane Schoenbrun and Lily Alexandre.

Flags and Waves

This film test is a demonstration of Pixar's early attempts to research, analyze and recreate qualities of motion, shading and lighting that make water believable. Said techniques are later expanded upon in "Finding Nemo"

1/2 Man

A visual documentary of Einstürzende Neubauten, the German underground band, by Japanese cult director Sogo Ishii, made during their 1985 tour of Japan. The band makes an elaborate and remarkably choreographed appearance in the ruins of an old ironworks which was scheduled for demolition; footage of same was incorporated into the movie and a brief appearance on stage.

chimera

A child is attacked and turned into a chimera and must learn to navigate his strange world as an entirely new kind of being.