Watch the Best Animated Films in April in Beijing!

The 13th BJIFF

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Do you still remember the rush to get tickets for INU-OH? This year's "Animation" section continues the wonderful content! The six animated films cover futuristic sci-fi masterpieces, realistic female awakening stories, and unrestrained imaginative works, all of which are wonderful and unmissable.

A Still of White Plastic Sky

If all animals and plants disappear in the future, what will human beings do? White Plastic Sky, a science-fiction animated film co-written and co-directed by Tibor Banoczki and Sarolta Szabo, is an attempt to figure out how to navigate humanity's destiny in such a world. The story takes place in Budapest in 2123. In the barren land, a young couple is struggling to survive. Their love becomes the only support for them to survive in this wasteland of life. The film was selected for the Encounters section at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival.

A Still of White Plastic Sky

The film provides the audience with a panoramic view of the death of the world where all life except human beings has disappeared. The rubble-blown, dried and dead plants and the human’s jungle of steel together form a postmodernist painting. In addition, the director also designs a set of highly imaginative urban life cycle system for Budapest 100 years later, which is absurd and interesting, but also makes the audience feel the faint sense of helplessness and despair behind it. This is an imaginative cautionary work not to be missed.

A Still of Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

If you like Haruki Murakami's novels, the film Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman should not be missed. French artist Pierre has combined six short novels by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami to create this stylized animated film. The film received rave reviews and won the Best Feature Film award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, known as the "Academy Award of Animation", and the Grand Jury Prize at the festival.

A Still of Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

It tells the story of a stray cat, a giant frog and a tsunami that prompts a couple to save Tokyo. Ultimately, Tokyo survives an earthquake and the couple find meaning in their lives. From the film introduction, we can see the strong “Murakami” flavor of the play, which is full of symbolic roles, personal spiritual life and the dual metaphors of social crisis, making all Haruki Murakami’s fans exulted. Pierre uses simple and direct lines and bold color blocks to build a cyber Tokyo in which everyone gets lost. Although it is a two-dimensional world of stick figures, it creates a very intriguing world of different tastes.

A Still of My Love Affair with Marriage

What happens when my body and my love brain fight? In My Love Affair with Marriage, Latvian director Signe Baumane presents a confrontation between women's bodies and social norms.

The director uses an anthropomorphic way to show the hormonal changes produced by the body and the reaction produced by the nerve center in the process of "falling in love" and "marriage". Behind the surreal scenes, there is strong scientific evidence that love and marriage are not prescription drugs for life, but are simply the result of hormones involved in the body's response. The film was nominated for Best Animated Film at the 35th European Film Awards.

A Still of Unicorn Wars

In his latest film, Unicorn Wars, the talented Spanish animation director Alberto Vázquez tells a dark tale of flesh and blood in the most innocent way possible: The war between the teddy bear and the unicorn has been going on for a long time, and all the bear cubs have been taught one thing from an early age - unicorns are evil. As the bear clan trains young recruits to join the fight, confident teddy bear Bree and his sensitive, introverted brother Tubby are sent on a dangerous mission through an enchanted forest of psychedelic terror with a group of equally inexperienced recruits.

A Still of Unicorn Wars

The film won the Goya Award for Best Animated Film in Spain. The cute appearance of the bears, the pink grassland and the romantic rainbow sky, and the bloody battle scenes form a strong contrast with the atmosphere of the bloody barracks, which brings the audience visual and psychological impact as much as that of the movie version of Ted. If you like animated films with dark fairy tales, Unicorn Wars should be your first choice at the 13th BJIFF.

A Still of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On tells the story of a little shell's journey to find his family. The film is directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp, who also stars as the director of the human documentary that broadcast the journey. Although it is the director's debut feature film, it has been hugely popular since its release: it has been nominated for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and a BafTA Award for Best Animated Feature in 2023, and won the 50th Annie Award for Annie Award for Best Animated Feature–Independent.

A Still of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

In the current mobile Internet era with fast pace and information explosion, the film tells a warm fairy tale about the family in the way of real life + stop-motion animation. In the film, Marcel, a little shell wearing orange sneakers, transforms a baseball into his own vehicle to move around the room, plays twisted macaroni as a horn, and watches movies on the Internet with his grandmother… Hidden in the debris of life is the director's golden innocence.

A Still of My Neighbors’ Neighbors

The boldest, most visually advanced and most imaginative film in the Animation section is My Neighbors’ Neighbors jointly directed by Anne-Laure Daffis and Léo Marchand. Different styles and materials, including wild lines, strong watercolor oil painting, live-action picture and 3D animation, are combined in the same picture, making the audience feel as if they are in a grotesque dream.

A Still of My Neighbors’ Neighbors

The film focuses on an apartment where an ogre breaks his tooth when he is asked to watch the neighbor's children; A magician cuts his assistant in half, and her legs run away; A hiker and his dog spend days in an elevator; An old man falls in love with a pair of legs… Among them, the residents each play a bizarre story, and finally string together. With its chaotic order and the director's playful French humor everywhere, it's one of the must-see films of the year you can't miss.

Stills of Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Howl's Moving Castle

In addition to the six new films, two feature films directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Castle in the Sky and Howl's Moving Castle, will also be featured in the "Game-Based Animated Films", a sub-section of "Animation”. Let's take a look back at these two fresh masterpieces on the big screen in this spring.

Stills of Stills of Lupin the 3rd vs Cat’s Eye

In addition, the section will also bring you the latest animated film, Lupin the 3rd vs Cat’s Eye, which was released in Japan this January. Since 1967, "Lupin the 3rd" series has profoundly influenced the development history of Japanese animation. Many internationally renowned Japanese animation masters, such as Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Dezaki Osamu (director of BLACK JACK) have participated in the production of this series of animation, which can be called the "progenitor" level IP of Japanese animation industry. Meanwhile, the "three cat's eye sisters" who compete with the evil thief Lupin the 3rd, are also childhood memories of many of the 80's and 90's. The three hot and slim beauty evil thieves let many juvenile at that time still haunted after growing up. In Stills of Lupin the 3rd vs Cat’s Eye, two evil thief IPs will engage in a century-battle. Who is going to excel? All will be revealed at the cinema!

The Animation section is to be launched with best animated films. Grab tickets right now!