MIFA’s Short Film Pitch category went live yesterday with strong contenders including a post apocalyptic number from Argentina, “El After del Mundo” (“The World’s After”).
The 2D project from 28-year-old animation director Florentina Gonzalez goes for a Millennial after party vibe, focusing on two ghosts floating around in a post human ether.
There is Fluor, a chain smoking former delivery girl and Carlix, a landlocked melancholic obsessed with marine life. The narrative sees the dystopian duo attempt to connect with the things they used to love in a new landscape strewn with digital artefacts, but it’s the friendship they form that proves to be the ultimate connection.
Gonzalez, a freelance animator and a lecturer at Argentina’s National School of Art (from which she graduated) co-wrote the script with Matias Ferreyra – also a co producer on the project – and screenwriter Luz Marquez.
Other talent attached to the short –made through Argentina’s OSA Animation Studio – includes colorist and props designer Daniela Barella.
“We imagine this future as the end of a party, in that state of continuous hangover,” Gonzalez said, during her lively six-minute presentation.
“The project combines issues that affect us generationally – literally, as the threat of a near end-of-the-world, but also metaphorically, the feeling of living in constant crisis with work, hyper productivity and relationships,” she continued.
Like the flooded universe it portrays, this eight-minuter is already making waves – receiving support from Argentina’s APALAB 2019, as well as ShortWay, a short format bootcamp for Latin American projects, backed by the Mexican animation festival Pixelatl .
Gonzalez revealed that she’s also been awarded a month long CICLIC animation residency to develop the project further.
“El After del Mundo” is Gonzalez’s second short, following her first effort, “Trompita y la migración de liebres” (“Tiny Snout and the Hare Migration”) a 2D short that has debuted at international festivals in Chile, U.S. and Hong Kong as well as at the Ibero-American Quirino Awards.
At their first Annecy Gonzalez, and her team are looking forward to meeting co-producers, distributors and broadcasters to fund the production. The director added that the goal for this year was to complete the script, storyboard and development process.