SET 2: BRIDGE

Narrated by Academy Award nominee James Cromwell (Babe, L.A Confidential), and based on John Matthias’ memoir first published in The New Yorker, Living with a Visionary is a soulful, bittersweet reflection on John’s fifty-year marriage to Diana, an art curator grappling with Parkinson’s. As Diana’s medication besets her with vivid, often beautiful hallucinations, John, now her caregiver, adapts to her imaginary world. When the Covid-19 pandemic separates them, John is forced to admit he can no longer care for Diana, and struggles to free himself from a psychiatric ward. In John’s final phone conversation with a Covid-positive Diana, he reads her the first poem he ever wrote for her, and is left with the memories of her visions.  

Stephen P. Neary is a Hoosier-born writer, director, and storyboard artist living in Los Angeles. Stephen created The Fungies! for Cartoon Network and HBO Max, serving as Executive Producer for the show's three seasons, which premiered in 2020. Prior, Stephen served as Supervising Producer for seasons two and three of Cartoon Network's Annie nominated show, Clarence. Graduating NYU in 2008, Stephen was a feature story artist at Blue Sky Studios for five years on franchises such as Ice Age, Rio, and The Peanuts Movie. In 2012, his independent short, Dr Breakfast, animated on his daily commute from Brooklyn to Connecticut, was an official selection in The Sundance Film Festival. Stephen currently works as a story artist for clients including Netflix, Illumination, Annapurna, and Sony, most recently on KPop Demon Hunters. Stephen teaches at CalArts, and paints goofy little autobio comics about his family, which you can read on his Instagram. 

A passenger on a bus reclines their seat too far back. This small gesture shifts the balance of the space, leading everyone on board in an unexpected direction.
  

She is an animation filmmaker whose practice moves between the abstract and the figurative, exploring visual storytelling through hand-crafted 2D techniques. After graduating with a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree from art school, now she lives and works in Korea. 

A man recounts his capillary peregrinations through his adolescence - from the barber’s trauma to his first love to the loss of his hair and eventually his father. Through this, we see a construction of a masculinity in the making.  

Sameh (Cairo, Egypt) finished his MA in filmmaking at EICAR Film School, Paris. His first short film FIFTEEN premiered at TIFF ‘17 and won several awards around the world. His recent film, I AM AFRAID TO FORGET YOUR FACE, is the first Egyptian film in 50 years to be selected for the Official Short Film Competition at Cannes Film Festival. Sameh is currently developing his debut feature film. 

Within the dunes, a sand creature and a baby sea turtle meet by a sudden turn of events. Together they will journey to the ocean where they will both learn what it is to be a part of their world. 

Fêt-Nat is a French animation director who has grown up between the UK, France, and Belgium. She is a recent graduate of the National Film and Television School where she directed and animated the 2D animated film “When the Tide Comes”. Her multicultural roots feed into her storytelling which often ties itself around themes of belonging within communities and the larger world. With past experiences in animation, concept art, and design she focuses on strong visual language in both her art style and characterful animation. 

Ball Lightning is the true story of a refugee who fled the personal and social effects of Soviet run East Germany after the end of WWII and immigrated to the United States in the 1960s. The story is told through the eyes of the surrogate daughter that she raised after she was forced to give away her own infant daughter as the iron curtain rose. Gusta serves as an example of survival, kindness and the fortitude of human resilience. The film is dedicated to her lost daughter, Esther, a reminder that the children separated from families because of war are never forgotten by those who love them. 

Catriona Baker is an Associate Professor of Animation & VFX at Lesley University’s College of Art and Design. She is an animator, book artist, and painter. Her work predominantly discusses themes of social justice, specifically: sexual assault and domestic violence awareness, female empowerment, and immigration. Her animations explore the visual juxtapositions between traditional mediums and digital processes. She holds a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College, a B.F.A. from Maine College of Art, and an M.F.A. from the University of Pennsylvania where she studied both animation and painting. She has been awarded several grants, and her work has been shown nationally in galleries, and in both private and corporate collections. Her animations have received national and international accolades, including an International Platinum Pixie award and two International CINDY (Cinema in Industry) awards. 

Blau reflects on the solitary confrontation with loneliness, in which nature and the aesthetic beauty and depth of a color offer comfort. 

In my art practice the medium collage forms the basis. By adding stop-motion animation, digital media and printmaking my work eventually results in collages, films and artist’s books. I approach my work as a vizualisation of thought streams which serve as starting points to build a world around. 

During a bike ride, someone catches two people tenderly embracing. He let himself be carried away by daydreams, imagining all sorts of cuddles... And so begins a journey through multiple hugs: hugs of comfort, compassion, tenderness, but also muscular hugs, soft hugs, explosive hugs and then group hugs, or the self-hug... at the end of this journey, our cyclist feels quite alone, but is he really as alone as he thinks he is? 

Born in 1982 in Paris. He currently works in the animation sector in Brussels. He animates for TV series such as “Mysterious Cities of Gold” “flippé” and feature films such as “le tableau” by J.F. Laguionie, “Petit Vampire” by Joan Sfar, “Icarus” by Carlo Vogele, “Sirocco” by Benoit Chieux. He regularly performs commissioned films for New-York or Luxembourg agency. The director/artist Nicolas Fong creates evolving animations, psychedelic swirls in transformation, to invite the viewer's fascination. This “big fat bearded”, in constant search of hallucinatory visual games between the magical and the creepy, operates his experiments for clips and short films. In 2017, he finished “Yin”, his first professional short animated film. 

A social satire in five acts about ourselves, about society, its behaviour and its flaws. Presented in a light-hearted and visually engaging style, the story serves as a warning against the consequences of stupidity, a lack of empathy and a lack of responsibility. 

As townsfolk rage in their fog of negativity, our hero and his dog aim to encourage a return to better days! The opposite effect leads to an unexpected calamity which galvanizes the masses.  

Actor and producer Renée Zellweger makes her directorial debut with the animated short film “They.” She first gained widespread attention for her role in “Jerry Maguire” (1996) followed by “Bridget Jones's Diary” (2001), which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She was nominated for another Academy Award for her performance in “Chicago” (2002), and won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “Cold Mountain” (2003). Zellweger’s additional films include “Judy” (2019) for which she won a Best Actress Oscar. Recently, Zellweger starred in “The Thing About Pam” (2022) and “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” (2025).