Animation

During the Second World War, Anne Frank wrote in her diary to her imaginary friend Kitty. 75 years later, Kitty magically comes to life. Confused, and with the diary in her hand, the 13-year-old girl goes in search of Anne in modern-day Amsterdam, but is only laughed at for her research. The only one willing to help is the pickpocket Peter. Through him, Kitty learns how migrants to the country are marginalised or have to wait in camps for deportation. Horrified, she hatches a plan to help them. In this original and magnificently animated film, director Ari Folman brings the story of Anne Frank back to life, and reminds us that her message has not lost its relevance in today's refugee crisis.

Gisèle Ansorge (1923-1993) and Ernest, known as Nag Ansorge (1925-2013) had a lasting influence on national and international animated film with their animated films. Inspired by the work of Jiří Trnka, they began experimenting with a Super 8 camera and animated puppets. Encouraged by the festival success of "Les Corbeaux", they created ten more short films together. filmo is releasing a series of their wonderful films made between 1957 and 1991. It is a representative selection of short films from the Ansorges' entire oeuvre, which have been restored by the Cinémathèque suisse. Some of the most beautiful works are created using the sand animation technique developed by Gisèle Ansorge: In "Anima" (1977), living creatures are in constant transformation, and bodies, such as those of mother and child, also flow into one another; a bonus of the collection shows the making-of of "Anima". "Les Corbeaux" (1967) tells a fantastically gruesome fairy tale about the adventures of a horseman, while "‘Le petit garçon qui vole la lune" (1988) is a highly imaginative fable about how a boy's theft is connected to the phases of the moon. A collection of 15 works: Pam et Poum (1957) La Danseuse et le mendiant (1958) Le Pont du diable (1959) Alunissons (1965) Les Corbeaux (1967) Tempus (1969) Smile 1,2 & 3 (1975) Anima (1977) Scenes de la vie domestiques (1980) Das Veilchen (1981) Les enfants de laine (1984) Le petit garçon qui vola la lune (1988) Sabbat (1991) Bonus: Gisele ansorge au travail animation sable («Making of» Anima)

Paris in the 1950s: Somewhere between Montmartre and Saint-Germain-des-Prés, illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé and comic author René Goscinny bend over a blank sheet of paper and bring a mischievous and lovable boy to life: Little Nicholas. From games and fights in the schoolyard to pranks and camaraderie at summer camp, Nicholas experiences a happy and carefree childhood. During all the adventures, the curious boy repeatedly slips into his creator's studio, sits on the keyboard or dances on the drawings. In the process, he elicits from Sempé and Goscinny the touching story of their friendship and their own childhood full of hopes and dreams. An irresistibly charming, funny and warm-hearted film about the creators of Little Nicholas, the illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé and the comic author René Goscinny.

1980, Abadan. The capital of the Iranian oil industry is resisting an Iraqi siege. Fourteen-year-old Omid has braved the siege and stayed in the city with his grandfather, waiting for his elder brother to return from the front line. Along with Omid, a gallery of unusual characters have all remained in the city for their own reasons, and each resists in his or her own way. But the noose is tightening as Omid tries to save his loved ones, by embarking them on an abandoned boat he finds in Abadan’s port, that will become his ark. Sepideh Farsi has used the abstract and healing power of animation to create an adventure tale brimming with optimism, which places women and the socially marginalized as silent actors in a war that had already begun before the Iraqi attacks with the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

Recounted mostly through animation to protect his identity, Amin looks back over his past as a child refugee from Afghanistan as he grapples with a secret he’s kept hidden for 20 years. A thrilling documentary made with a blend of animation and archive footage tells an immensely powerful tale of a gay Afghan survivor and his need to confront his past in order to truly have a future. Amin arrived as an unaccompanied minor in Denmark from Afghanistan. Today, at 36, he is a successful academic and is getting married to his long-time boyfriend. A secret he has been hiding for over 20 years threatens to ruin the life he has built for himself. For the first time he is sharing his story with his close friend. FLEE weaves together a stunning tapestry of images and memories to tell the deeply affecting and original story of a young man grappling with his traumatic past in order to find his true self and the meaning of home.

When Herra, a young Czech woman, falls in love with Nazir, an Afghan, she has no idea what kind of life awaits her in post-Taliban Afghanistan, nor of the family she is about to integrate into. A liberal grandfather, an adopted child who is highly intelligent and Freshta, who would do anything to escape her husband's violent grip.

The dialogue-less film follows the major life stages of a castaway on a deserted tropical island populated by turtles, crabs and birds.

The film tells the story of Ben and his little sister Saoirse – the last Seal-child – who embark on a fantastic journey back to their home by the Sea, across a fading world of ancient Irish legends and magic, a world that needs Saoirse to find her voice and sing the "Song of the Sea" to save all of fairy kind from being lost forever. Following his debut feature "The Secret of Kells", animation wunderkind Tomm Moore scores a second Oscar nomination with "Song of the Sea", a modern fairy tale which stays true to the celebrated 2D animation style of Cartoon Saloon with a beautiful story for the whole family.

The life and controversial death of Vincent Van Gogh told by his paintings and by the characters that inhabit them. The intrigue unfolds through interviews with the characters closest to Vincent and through dramatic reconstructions of the events leading up to his death. Loving Vincent features over 120 of Vincent Van Gogh’s greatest paintings. The plot, drawn from the 800 letters written by the painter himself, lead us to the significant people and events in the time leading up to his unexpected death. Every shot is painted just as Vincent himself painted.

After losing his mother, a young boy is sent to a foster home with other orphans his age where he begins to learn the meaning of trust and true love.

A super-powered boy helps a wheelchair-bound policeman in his attempt to bring down a mob kingpin.

Maurice, a large talking cat, travels from town to town offering to solve their sudden rat problem. Each time, he unveils Keith, a young boy who can play the pipe quite well, and the rats march out of town to the relief of the townsfolk. Maurice and the money received from the grateful town suddenly disappear and he reappears a suitable distance away to count the money – with Keith and the rats! But these are no ordinary rats – they talk and wear clothes and dream of an island paradise where rats and humans live together in peace. All goes well with their ‘rat scam’ until they reach the town of Bad Blintz, where they meet a book obsessed girl, Malicia, who leads them on an adventure to solve the mystery of her town...

The autobiography of Bruno Wilkomirski, who described his childhood in a concentration camp in it, led to a scandal, because it was exposed as fiction. Interviews and archive material are used to investigate the motives of the man who turned his personal trauma as an orphan in Switzerland into a collective Jewish trauma and thus became a perpetrator himself.

The lives of three strong-willed women and a young musician cross paths in Tehran’s schizophrenic society where sex, adultery, corruption, prostitution and drugs coexist with strict religious law. In this bustling modern metropolis, avoiding prohibition has become an everyday sport and breaking taboos can be a means of personal emancipation.

With his films, Georges Schwizgebel has created classics of contemporary animation. "With his fluid metamorphoses, he is a "painter of the big screen". The sweeping camera movements in his film paintings transcend spatial and temporal boundaries with astounding continuity", reads the jury statement for the Honorary Award of the Swiss Film Awards, which Georges Schwizgebel received in 2018. A collection of 18 works full of poetry: Le Vol d’Icare (1974) Perspectives (1975) Hors-Jeux (1977) Le Ravissement de Frank N. Stein (1982) 78 tours (1985) Nakounine (1986) Le Sujet du tableau (1989) La Course à l’Abîme (1992) L’Année du Daim (1995) Zig Zag (1996) Fugue (1998) La Jeune Filles et les Nuages (2000) L’Homme sans Ombre (2004) Jeu (2006) Retouches (2008) Romance (2011) Chemin Faisant (2012) Le Roi des Aulnes - Erlkönig (2015)

After losing his mother, a young boy is sent to a foster home with other orphans his age where he begins to learn the meaning of trust and true love.

Enchanted toys come to life to do battle with a holiday-hating villain who is bent on stopping Christmas.

This film is only available in German --- When Conni travels with her kindergarten group, she discovers that her tomcat Mau has arrived as a stowaway. As pets are not allowed in "Schloss Funkelstein", Conni has to hide the tomcat. A crazy adventure begins.

PEQUEÑAS VOCES is a unique and powerful hybrid documentary with computer animation which tells the real life stories and experiences of displaced children in Colombia. PEQUEÑAS VOCES is an animated documentary based on interviews and drawing workshops with a new generation of children (8 to 13 years old) who have grown up in middle of violence and chaos in Colombia; the interviews show how they perceive their reality. Those stories are illustrated and animated using the original drawings by the children.

Croatia, January 1992. In the midst of the Yugoslav Wars, Chris, a young Swiss journalist is found dead in mysterious circumstances. He was wearing the uniform of an international mercenary group. Anja Kofmel was his cousin. As a little girl, she used to admire this handsome young man; now a grown-up woman, she decides to investigate his story, trying to understand what really was the involvement of Chris in the conflict

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.

Tatsumi celebrates the life of Japanese comic artist, Yoshihiro Tatsumi. As he becomes successful, he redefines the manga landscape with an alternative genre for adults-and his work plunges into the darker aspects of life.

LIYANA is a story born in the imaginations of five orphaned children in the Kingdom of Swaziland. The film follows the children, Zweli, Sibusiso, Phumlani, Mkhuleko, and Nomcebo, as they collaborate to tell the original tale of Liyana, a fictional character whose early life bears remarkable similarities to their own. The world that the children imagine for Liyana is brought to life in an innovative style of animated artwork. This hybrid film weaves documentary scenes together with the animated adventure. LIYANA is executive produced by British-Zimbabwean actress, Thandie Newton, with artwork from rising Nigerian talent, Shofela Coker. Under the guidance of acclaimed South African storyteller, Gcina Mhlophe, the children transform their darkest memories and brightest dreams into fuel for their fairytale. After an idyllic early childhood, Liyana’s world is shattered when her father contracts HIV and both of her parents die. Inspired by a recent real-life robbery, the children decide that there will be a frightening attack at Liyana’s family homestead. In the aftermath of this terrible night, the girl and her trusty sidekick, the family bull, embark on a dangerous, beautiful, and often humorous quest into the wilderness. Hunger, wild animals, and treacherous terrain stand between Liyana and an uncertain fate. As our young storytellers move their fictional character forward through trial and temptation, we periodically return to intimate documentary scenes of the children’s lives in Swaziland - nightly rituals, herding cattle, and a trip to a local clinic for an HIV test. The children’s creative journey is echoed throughout the film by allegorical scenes of the group hiking down a steep ravine in search of a mysterious river. These intertwining narrative strands work together to draw connections between Liyana and the children. As the real and imagined worlds begin to converge the children must choose what kind of story they will tell - in fiction, and in their own lives.

Anina Yatay Salas is a pensive redhead who really does not like her name. Each part is a palindrome, which means it reads the same both forwards and backwards. Her schoolmates are always teasing her about this, especially Anina’s arch-enemy Yisel. When these two get into a playground fight one day they are sent to the school head who disciplines them with a nerve-racking punishment: they are both given a sealed black envelope which they are not allowed to open for an entire week. Haunted by nightmares, the days drag by endlessly for Anina. She and her inquisitive best friend try to devise all sorts of ways to discover what is inside the envelope. Gradually, Anina begins to realise that not only does Yisel share her fate: she also has much bigger problems to contend with than Anina. Tentatively, the two rivals begin to get to know each other. Narrated by the voice of the young protagonist, the film is able to follow Anina’s thought processes and provide an insight into her emotional world. Anina’s day-dreams are not always about her troubles and woes - they also reflect her awakening feelings of love.

Getrud Woker, one of the first female professors in Europe, was an early feminist and pacifist, advocating for women’s rights and against war. Yet her story was never included in historical accounts, despite the fact that she challenged the societal conventions of the day to oppose gender discrimination and immoral war practices. She was – as she continues to be today – a true inspiration for self-determined women