C'erano abbastanza brividi e spaventi tra le candidature di quest'anno, per permettere di creare questa sezione oscura e sconvolgente, che spazia dalla Anteprima Mondiale di MOLOCH, una simbiosi particolare tra fabbrica e individuo, del regista polacco Marcin Pazera, fino ad arrivare a BUGCRUSH, il vincitore del Premio della Giuria al Sundance Film Festival, del regista americano Carter Smith, un inquietante sguardo ai pericoli che si corrono quando si cerca a tutti i costi di inserirsi in un liceo di provincia. In JONA/TOMBERRY, l'olandese Rosto ci colpisce con un incubo senza precedenti, mentre l'inglese (ma venezuelano di nascita) Carl Zitelmann, utilizza, nel suo TEMERARIO, un'animazione vivida e austera per far vivere agli spettatori gli ultimi momenti di un cowboy.

ARTIFICIAL WORLDS V.3
UK | 8:00 | 2005
WRITER/DIRECTOR: RICHARD FENWICK
PRODUCER: JO PHIPPS
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: JEFF CLEVERLEY
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: LOL CRAWLEY
CAST: ESTHER SHARMAN, SARAH HARDY, STEPHEN BROWN, BEN JOHNSTONE, HARVEY TANG, SEBASTIAN HATTON, MICHAEL JAMES LAMONT, DOUGLAS MCQUILLIN
OFFLINE EDITOR: PAUL HARDCASTLE @ TRIM EDITING
FILM COLORIST: MARK GETHIN @ MPC
COMPOSER: CATHODE
HEAD OF POST-PRODUCTION: MARCUS O’KEEFE
MODELLING/ANIMATION TEAM: MOSHINE ANIMATION STUDIO AND ROBERT SHOEBOTTOM
FLAME ARTIST: MARK BEARDALL @ TRIANGLE TELEVISION
SPONSORS: TRIANGLE TELEVISION, TRIM EDITING, MPC
FUNDERS: ARTS COUNCIL, DIGITAL CITY, AV FESTIVAL, MIDDLESBROUGH COUNCIL
TOOLS: 16MM, AVID, 3D STUDIO MAX, FLAME
The latest installment in British director Richard Fenwick’s ongoing RND# series and the third of his Artificial Worlds films, Artificial Worlds v.3, like its predecessors, explores an experimental rupture, presenting the end of the world in a short film. Apocalyptic and nihilstic, it portrays the real world in freefall, focusing on eight anonymous characters as they attempt to outrun a fast-moving digital tsunami, which tracks them like an incomprehensible predator from another dimension.

BUGCRUSH
US | 36:00 | 2006
WRITER/DIRECTOR: CARTER SMITH
PRODUCER: ERIN WILE
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DARREN LEW
CASTING DIRECTOR: JENNIFER VENDITTI
EDITOR: HOLLE SINGER
SOUND DESIGNER: ERIC NAGY
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: STEFAN BECKMAN
WARDROBE DESIGNER: PAUL STURA
MAKEUP AND HAIR: MIKE POTTER/JOANNA STEWART
SFX MAKEUP: JEREMY SELENFRIEND
SOUND MIXER: NOAH TIMAN
RERECORDING MIXER: ANDY KRIS
COLORIST: BILLY GABOR
ASSISTANT DIRECTORS: KERMAINE SUMRA/CARRIE FIX
SCRIPT SUPERVISOR: TONY OSSO
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: LEIGH HOLTZIN
TOOLS: LIGHTWAVE, AUTO CHARACTER SETUP (LIGHTWAVE PLUGIN), PHOTOSHOP, AFTER EFFECTS
Based on a short story by Scott Treleaven, this year’s Sundance Jury Prize winner in short filmmaking tells the story of Ben, a small-town high school loner, whose fascination with Grant, the seductively dangerous new kid, and his sinister friends eventually leads him out to a rural farmhouse where he encounters a world darker than he could possibly have imagined.

JINNIKU NO UMAREKAWARU
ITALY/JAPAN | 5:17 | 2006
DIRECTOR/EDITOR/COMPOSER/VFX: ALESSANDRO PACCIANI
VOICE: KINOSHITA YURIKO
TOOLS: 3DS MAX, BRAZIL, BOUJU, COMBUSTION, AVID XPRESS, PHOTOSHOP
Shot in director Alessandro Pacciani’s Florence, Italy bathroom and in Ginzu Japan, Pacciani's Jinniku is a super-condensed exercise in high-tech J-Horror. Inspired by a nightmare involving a breathing sink and slithering meat, the film challenges expectations and perceptions by violently splicing together the worlds of live flesh and CG effects against a score of explosive white noise.

JONA/TOMBERRY
NETHERLANDS | 12:14 | 2005
WRITER/DIRECTOR: ROSTO
ANIMATOR: STUDIO ROSTO A.D (ROSTO, MARTIJN PAASSCHENS, CHRISTEN BACH, ROLOFF DE JEU)
SOUND DESIGNER: TOM HAMBLETON
PRODUCERS: ROCKETTA FILM, STUDIO ROSTO A.D, ERIK SCHUT, ROSTO, HANNE DIT
TOOLS: HD, MAC G5, AFTER EFFECTS, PHOTOSHOP, CINEMA 4D
In this animated through-the-looking-glass fever dream, an ordinary man finds himself on top of a mountain hovering above a twitching baby with a human torso and a mermaid’s tail. A needle-nosed homunculus who is apparently responsible for this dystopian vision hands the man a gun and insists he shoot the creature. When the man refuses, things just get weirder.

MOLOCH
POLAND | 7:20 | 2006
WRITER/DIRECTOR: MARCIN PAZERA
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: MARCIN KOBYLECKI
COMPOSER/SOUND EFFECTS: DEMODOLL
ADDITIONAL ARTISTS: GRZEGORZ KRZYSIK
Moloch belongs to a long dystopian filmmaking tradition in which machinery is anthropomorphized that stretches back to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, which also featured a terrifying metal god called Moloch. In this grim, gothic nightmare, the setting is the harsh, cold, inhuman environment of an industrial plant, in which a wayward machine called Moloch occasionally wakens from its slumbers to stir the worst human instincts.

TEMERARIO
UK | 9:51 | 2006
DIRECTOR: CARL ZITELMANN
PRODUCER: DEBBIE CROSSCUP
SCREENWRITER: PAUL FRANCIS WILLIAMS
PRODUCER/CHARACTER DESIGNER: KIM FREDERIKSEN
CINEMATOGRAPHER: CARLOS CATALAN
EDITOR: MARIE SØDERPALM
COMPOSER: MATTHEW DAVIDSON
SOUND DESIGNER: CHRISTOPHER WILSON
COMPOSITING AND GRADING: DAN SNAPE
ONLINE AND FINAL GRADE: JAMES OSBORNE
With stylized animation inspired by manga and vintage comics, and storytelling that mixes the feel of old Westerns with fantasy and horror, Temerario – Spanish for “temerity,” or brashness – tells the story of Rio, a cowboy who must confront the evil within himself by fighting a duel with his shadowside.