Followed by a conversation with Anca Damian at 3:45pm in the FIAF Skyroom
The Island
Dir. Anca Damian, 2021, Romania, France, Belgium, Color. 84 min.
In English
Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2022 – Nominee Best Feature Films
One of the most remarkable artists working in animation today, FIAF’s Guest of Honor, Anca Damian, is back with an “upside-down” version of Robinson Crusoe, with an infusion of magic from The Little Prince and humor from Monty Python.
In The Island, Robinson chooses his own exile on an island and Friday is the only survivor of a migrant boat that sunk in the Mediterranean. The two will share a desire to find freedom in a surreal world populated by outcasts and mermaids.
Set to a score composed by the Balanescu Quartet, The Island is a visually rich and layered film, both a musical comedy and a surrealist tale where ecological concerns collide with the migrant crisis in a comic observation of a world that doesn’t quite “go round.”
“This year, the brilliant auteur (Anca Damian) is back with a new movie that is ready to shake up the status quo, deliver eye-popping visuals and offer some clever insights about the human condition in the modern world.” — Animation Magazine
RELATED EVENTS
TALK
A Conversation with Anca Damian
Sun, Jan 29 at 3:45pm
FIAF Skyroom (8th Floor)
Following the screening, join us in the FIAF Skyroom as award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker Anca Damian discusses her new film, The Island, as well as current projects and career highlights.
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AR EXHIBITION
Sat, Jan 28–Sun, Jan 29
11am–6pm
FIAF Tinker Auditorium (Floor A)
Throughout the festival, experience some of the major themes of Anca Damian’s film The Island, such as migration, ecology, alienation, and tech addiction, in its augmented reality companion, In Search of Paradise.
Learn MoreTRAILER
The Island
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Anca Damian
Anca Damian is a Romanian film director, writer, and producer. Known for her inventive mixing of animation techniques, and creative story-telling, Damian has produced an expansive body of work without ever shying away from controversial narratives.
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Crulic: The Path to Beyond (2011), her second animated feature, about a Romanian citizen who died in a Polish prison while on a hunger strike, premiered at Locarno Film Festival and went on to win 35 awards, including the Crystal Award at the 2012 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
Other directorial credits in animation include The Magic Mountain (2015), for which she received the 2016 Audentia Award for Best Female Director from Eurimages, and The Call (2018), selections at the Toronto and Sundance Film Festivals. Marona’s Fantastic Tale (2019) premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and went on to screen at many others, including Rotterdam IFF as well as Tokyo IFF. It received prizes at Los Angeles’s Animation is Film, Bucheon IAF, and Tokyo Anime Award. In New York, it premiered at Animation First 2020. Damian recently finished The Island which premiered at Rotterdam IFF in Big Screen Competition and in the Competition at Annecy International Animation Film Festival and is currently working on her next feature, Starseed.
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