Anim’est officially ends its eighth edition the evening of October 12 with the Romanian premiere of the film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2/Stă să plouă cu chiftele 2, a sequel to the 2009 successful animation. The Sony Pictures 3D Production continues the story of the inventor Flint Lockwood – after his adventures four years ago, he thought he saved the world from his machine that turns water into food, but discovers that the nuisance survived, now producing animal foods – foodimals.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is signed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn and produced by the first part’s filmmakers, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and most of the distribution remains unchanged – Bill Hader (Flint), Anna Faris (Sam Sparks), James Caan (Tim Lockwood), Benjamin Bratt (Manny). The screenplay is based on the story and characters from the book “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett. The film is brought to Anim’est with the support of Intercom Film. The official release in cinemas in Romania is scheduled for October 25.
The first film in the series has enjoyed a great success, with global profits of 243 million dollars.
Think Oscar!
Among the surprises prepared by the organizers for the festival’s public, there is the special program Think Oscar! Ron Diamond, a member of the American Academy of Film, presents, for the first time in Romania, at Anim’est, a collection of short films made in different ages, grouped into four programs: Oscar award-winning animations, animations nominated for prestigious awards but that did not win the trophy, short films viewed by the Academy members that have not been nominated and animations that were never seen, though deserved a chance.
Six titles are in the award-winning short films category. In 1993, the winner was Bob’s Birthday (dir. Alison Snowden & David Fine), in which the British humor and midlife crisis are simmering, while the wife of dentist Bob prepares a surprise party, for his 40th birthday. Frank Film (1973) is an experimental short film signed by Frank and Caroline Mouris, composed of images collected from magazines over two overlapping narratives. The film received an Oscar next year and in 1996 was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for the National Film Registry .
The Norwegian animation The Danish Poet/Den danske dikteren (dir. Torill Kove, 2006), narrated by Liv Ullmann, follows a 40s poet who embarks on a journey in search of inspiration, but finds love. Besides the Oscar, the film received the prestigious Genie Award, the Canadian equivalent thereof. Father and Daughter, a Danish short film from 2000 directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit, received an Oscar and over 20 other awards for an illustration full of metaphors of the relationship between a daughter and her father throughout her life. The Australian animation The Lost Thing by Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan, follows a young man who stumbles upon a strange creature on a beach from a gloomy Melbourne, being awarded the Oscar in 2011.
In the Japanese film La Maison en Petites Cubes by Kunio Katō, a widower continuously builds a new floor to his home, in order to prevent flooding – the film received the Grand Prize for Short Film at 2008 Annecy and an Oscar a year later.
Ron Diamond will present each of the four programs and provide, in a masterclass, details about the criteria for selection and the reasons why some potential titles were disqualified.
Also, moviegoers will have access to animated shorts nominated for Oscars this year under a program offered by ShortsTV, a station dedicated to short films, recently launched in Romania.
Think Oscar! is an event supported by the U.S. Embassy.