A selection of the world's best-loved, most beautiful and artistic animated feature films that explore themes of happiness, courage, friendship and self-acceptance. Whether you're a fan of anime or fairytales, this programme offers something for everyone.
Antanas Skučas, Julius Zubavičius
Inspired by the music and drawings of Lithuanian artist M.K. Čiurlionis, this film explores the creation of feature animations using artificial intelligence. The AI interprets Čiurlionis' style and creates an animation in full cinema format. The rest of the film is a mystery, known only to the AI. This ambitious project seeks to capture the artist's essence and create an endless dream of visual beauty.
Yutaro Kubo
Once upon a time, in a far, faraway place, there were two lands. The world was divided into an inner land and an outer land. People feared the outer land, inhabited by eerie beings, the carriers of a curse. One day, on the border with the inner land, inhabited by humans, one such being finds a girl on heaps of abandoned dead bodies. The girl says her name is Shiva and shows affection to the being who found her, calling him 'Teacher'. This is the story of two people — one human, one non-human — who linger in the hazy twilight that separates night from day.
José Miguel Ribeiro
Angola. Three generations of women in a 25-year civil war: Lelena (the grandmother), Nayola (the daughter) and Yara (the granddaughter). Past and present are interwoven. At the height of the war, Nayola goes in search of her missing husband. Decades later, the country is finally at peace but Nayola has not returned. Rebellious teenager Yara has become a subversive rap singer. Lelena tries to contain her for fear that the police will come to arrest her. One night, a masked intruder breaks into their house, armed with a machete – an encounter like nothing they could have imagined.
Kajsa Næss
Did you know that the first people to reach the North Pole travelled with a charming dog called Titina? She started out a stray from the streets of Rome, and ended up as a star! When famous Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen commissioned Italian engineer Umberto Nobile to build an airship for the expedition to The North Pole, he did not expect such a companion. But Nobile didn’t even think about leaving Titina behind – since he had adopted her, they had become inseparable, and went through all of life’s greatest adventures and biggest dangers together!
For the little ones: a programme of short animated films without words. 1. Franzy's Soup by Ana Chubinidze Chef Franzy, a lonely alien, discovers that her famous pink soup is not only delicious but also magical when she shares it with hungry creatures living on a strange planet. 2. Buds by Mathieu Gerald-Tulane Every morning, the same ritual: Camille, a lady in her eighties, comes out of her house carrying two large watering cans to take care of her garden on the other side of the street. 3. Under the ice by Milan Baulard, Ismaïl Berrahma, Flore Dupont, Laurie Estampes, Quentin Nory and Hugo Potin On a lake, a heron fishes as winter sets in. 4. Beyond the Trees by Jordan Baudé, Julie Bijjou, Pierre Burgoni and Catharianne Ni Every day, a 7-year-old Indonesian boy makes a long journey to reach his destination on time. 5. Sacred beast by Jean-Claude Rozec Born accidentally among ducks, a dragon, as gigantic as it is harmless, suddenly becomes a media star. Wrongly considered by men as a ferocious and bloodthirsty creature, he soon finds himself lost in the urban jungle. 6. The Elephant and the Whale by Jacques-Remi Girerd A white elephant falls in love with a pink whale trapped in a sinister showman's trailer. 7. The Monk and the Fish by Michael Dudok De Wit Somewhere in the world and outside time, a monastery is disturbed only by the soft hissing of a water tank located in the courtyard. A monk, close to the basin, notices the presence of a jumping fish. Obsessed by its presence, he tries to catch it...
Tadas Vidmantas
Unknown to us, there are small, interesting creatures and robots living in our world – babookums! And just like human beings, each of them is unique and interesting. What is more, each of them has a special power that no one else in the world has. Every day, babookums have the most unexpected adventures, solve problems, explore the outside world, deal with their emotions – whether they’re happy or sad – and learn something new. And most importantly, friendship always wins. This series shows recognisable social situations and personality types. However, its life lessons are interwoven with light jokes, funny dialogues and cute characters to stop little viewers getting bored as they become acquainted with the extraordinary world of babookums.
Julien Chheng, Jean-Christophe Roger
Ernest and Celestine are travelling back to Ernest's country, Gibberitia, to fix his broken violin. This exotic land is home to the best musicians on earth, and music constantly fills the air with joy. However, upon arriving, our two heroes discover that all forms of music have been banned there for many years – and for them, a life without music is unthinkable. Along with their friends and a mysterious masked outlaw, Ernest and Celestine must try their best to bring music and happiness back to the land of bears. *The number of seats is limited, please arrive no later than 15 minutes before the start of the screening.
Meinardas Valkevičius
Kakė Makė (or Nelly Jelly in English) is probably the most successful children's fictional character in Lithuania's history. As well as the many books created by Lina Žutautė, there are plenty of other popular Nelly Jelly products – from toys, games, and recipe books to hygiene and food products for kids. Now it's time for Nelly Jelly to have her own animated feature film! In the movie, Nelly Jelly presents six of her adventures, based on the author’s books. The goal of the animators was to retain the spirit of the original books, while also bringing the stories to life with a fresh perspective using the power of animation.
Rémi Durin, Arnaud Demuynck
Yuku is a young mouse who lives with her family in the cellar of a castle. Her grandmother passes on the family's values by telling her timeless folk tales. Bedridden since she was injured in a tussle with a cat, the old mouse tells her grandchildren that she will have to leave them to follow the little blind mole into the Earth’s tunnels. In one of her grandmother’s storybooks, Yuku learns that the flower of the Himalayas can bring her eternal light. She leaves on a journey of discovery to find the flower.
Zabou Breitman, Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec
Summer 1998 – Kabul under Taliban rule. Zunaira and Mohsen are young and in love. Despite the daily violence and misery, they hope for a better future. One day, a foolish gesture causes life to take an irrevocable turn.
Florence Miailhe
A family is forced to flee when their small village is looted one night. Soon separated from their parents, the two oldest children, Kyona and Adriel, face the road of exile alone. They embark on a heroic journey that takes them from childhood to adolescence in search of shelter, peace and the hope of finding refuge and their family. Crossing a continent torn apart by war and the persecution of migrants, the courageous siblings survive incredible challenges, before reaching a new world, free at last.
Jean-François Laguionie
As summer ends, an old lady finds that the last train of the season has left the small seaside station of Biligen without her. The town is deserted. The weather rapidly deteriorates and the arrival of high tides cuts off the electricity and all means of communication. Fragile and dainty, Louise is no Robinson Crusoe. Can she survive the winter alone?
Inna Sahakyan
At only 14 years old, Aurora lost everything during the horror of the Armenian genocide. Four years later, through luck and extraordinary courage, she escaped to New York, where her story became a media sensation. Starring as herself in 'Auction of Souls', an early Hollywood blockbuster, Aurora became the face of one of the largest charity campaigns in American history. With a blend of vivid animation, interviews with Aurora herself, and 18 minutes of surviving footage from her lost silent epic, Aurora's Sunrise revives a forgotten story of survival.
Pierre Földes
After spending five days glued to TV footage of the Tokyo earthquake, Kyoko suddenly leaves home. Her husband, Komura, takes a week’s leave from work and travels to deliver a mysterious box to two young women. Meanwhile, awkward loner Katagiri, a simple debt collector, sets out to save Tokyo together with a giant talking frog. In these stories by Murakami, in which dreams, visions, and reality magically intertwine, there is a search for a missing cat – and something more...