ANIMATION AT IKEA

A lightly seared article on filmmaking and genres.

“Animation is cinema, it’s not a genre for kids. It’s a medium.”
Overheard on stage at the Golden Globes, 2023

Guillermo del Toro said it like it is.
The crowd cheered, some few even stood up, you could hear one or two enthusiastic shouts coming from the round dinner tables at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel. I’ve been there.
Not on that particular night, no. It was a different occasion. And just to fill the picture with a bit more spatial awareness, that place is smaller and more intimate than you might think.

But here we were, back in 2023. Animators and animation filmmakers, feeling prouder than ever. Finally, we’re being recognized and what was always clear to us, was being proclaimed from that stage by one of the greats. That small, intimate but powerful stage. Del Toro has spoken and the world of film ingested.

I thought it was a missed opportunity.
I’m Jan. I make short films. Particularly those on the sidelines of mainstream. But more on that later. Oh, and my method of filmmaking is animation.

But back to Guillermo’s statement.
The point he made was good. I think this one would’ve been even better:

“Animation is cinema. Animation is a method.
Animation is not a genre.”

And here’s what I mean by that. It’s not about the topic of kids cinema versus adult cinema. We’ve been there and dealt with that a while back. And things have gotten better.
Instead, the current topic should be about the confinements that have been put on animated films as a whole. Our silent acceptance of animation as a genre. Our loud self-indulgence inside said confinements.

“Short films continue to offer animators the opportunity to realize artistic visions, dare to experiment, develop technical innovations, and address important topics. In short: they share stories that can only be told through animated film. More than any other film genre, animation profoundly touches people emotionally and leaves a lasting impression.”
Excerpt from Festival of Animation Berlin pre-face

This quote is a great example for what I mean. I fully agree with the first half. It’s all that I love about animation filmmaking.
But I assume that plenty of filmmakers using live action, mixed media or even AI would profoundly disagree with the very subjective and debatable second half of the quote. Any film can touch people to their core. In fact, my personal best list is dominated by live action.
Animation can’t call dibs on that just because they can draw feelings.

And on the topic of genres, let me shake your animation world:
Any film can be a genre film. The technique you use is irrelevant and
animation festivals are often more like animation conventions.

A genre solely depends on the topic and message that’s at the core of what you as a filmmaker create. If your film is considered a genre film, congratulations. This feels good. It means you infused your work with something tangible, an audience responded and what genre your film belongs to likely depended on the storytelling techniques you applied. On your level of experimentation. Your fondness for breaking rules. Even on the level of limitations you set yourself in making a film. Or on the amount of blood spilled, nudity shown, songs sung, or laser guns fired. Or the approval of the toughest crowd, children, which you successfully entertained or educated. Anything that has an impact on the story outcome, that steers it in a certain direction is fair game when it comes to genres. Anything that tickles an audience’s perception on a subject matter can be genre defining. It’s a beautiful concept, rooted in humanity’s century-old drive to stimulate one another through the power of story and expression. Through image, song, dance or tale.
And lately, in one of its newest forms, through film.
So what does animation have to do with the concept of genres?
Not a damn thing. It’s a medium. A tool. A technique. A passion. A lifelong love affair. It’s a pencil, a software, a light table. It is skill, it is experience. It is having a sixth sense for timing. It is endurance and patience.
Animation is not a genre. But any genre can be animated.

So let’s have a look at genre film festivals.

The concept of film genres, especially in the context of us humans flocking together to celebrate a common interest, to exchange nerdy wisdom and to bathe in the warm feeling that we are not alone out there is a beautiful idea. A meeting point where all those special interest groups exchange glances and nods, a fist bump here and there, hugs between long lasting locals. They meet in person to sit in a dark room and enjoy their favorite type of films together.

And here comes my first-hand experience: I finished my latest short in 2023, after a ten-year hiatus. It’s called BYE BEAR and this one was the toughest so far. Lots of twists and turns, doubts, desperation, re-writes and shuffling around. But hey, that’s filmmaking, too. Sometimes you simply follow the rabbit and sometimes the rabbit flips you off and goes home.

After BYE BEAR was completed, we decided to go the classic festival cycle route. This means, we hold back from publishing it and give it a good year to travel the world and hopefully play in as many festivals as possible. We found a great distribution partner in Fabian&Fred, jumped on a call with Fabian to align on our plans and strategy. We bombarded him with our wish list of festivals, many of which we remembered from our past short films. Our list was full of animation festivals. A lot of the usual suspects. The safe place where we belong. The place where we reach our target audience. Our animation genre.

Fabian replied in an unexpected way. He simply saw a film.
Specifically, he saw the film in the context of genres. Beyond animation.
And so he offered a different festival strategy. One where we mainly target film festivals and genre festivals.

Something unlocked in our brains and we realized that all we made was simply that. A film. And that’s how it should be received and reviewed.

Fast forward to today, we’re in the middle of the festival tour.
I’m glad we made this choice. Seeing BYE BEAR play amongst live action films at the Florida Film Festival, REGARD or at a genre festival like HARD:LINE is a treat, a reward and a recognition as a filmmaker.

The audience at HARD:LINE? Fans of Horror. BYE BEAR was the only animated film in the whole program. And besides me being so happy and proud at that festival that we are running wild outside of the animation realm, no one else there seemed to give a shit about that. What the audience cared about was solely based on the content and quality of my film and if it fits their bill. It really honored us as animation filmmakers. Because why should technique be a factor if all that matters is story and film crafting?

Let me explain this in a different way. The IKEA way.
If IKEA is film, we’re currently being dropped off at the ball pit.

To hang with other drop-offs who are supposedly just like us. But are they really? Doesn’t everybody tell a different story and have something different to say? And in a different way? This ball pit seems eerily like a smaller, plastic version of the real world of cinema and film.

Inside this ball pit, we’re also creating a little simulation of the real world.
We’re playing film. And we’re on the wrong path if too much emphasis is being put on animation festivals. It’s limiting. And we’re making it worse by curating programs based on the tools we use instead of the stories we tell. I’m not saying all, but looking at some animation festivals programs one can see a pattern, like a yearly fashion trend. It does seem a little like the selection process is based on animation style and look instead of the film itself.

We let other people congratulate us on the ball pit we claim as ours, in the big world of cinema. A pat on the shoulder. At the entrance of IKEA.

Guillermo said that what we do is not a genre for kids.
I say we still are the kids.

Time to get out of that ball pit and get yourself a hot dog or something.

You’re a filmmaker. Go make films.