A collection of mind-expanding films, inspiring artists, and insights into the animation process to fuel your creative practice.
Make your Mondays a little more pleasant with a newly curated short film each week, plus our insights into why we love them.
The range of moods it runs through in just over two-and-a-half minutes is astounding. The fact she can do it in such an intuitively appealing way is why she's an artist you absolutely should be following.
The first half of the film shows the unease that accompanies those restless nights where sleep never seems to come. The second shows that falling asleep isn't always so great, either.
Dylon Klemen-Hurrell is a recent graduate from AUArts who specializes in animating to music, which he also composes.
The story of a Nishnaabeg youth and elder rescuing a canoe from a museum's collection, it's a direct challenge to the western claim that other culture's artifacts are educational items or historical curiousities.
Heads up - QAS will be hiring! We’ll be looking for up to 4 folks to fill positions in April-August 2023. More details and an official call for applications will be coming soon!
It's strange, because the mix of digital animation and real footage, and especially the nature of the projection, should emphasize how artificial the images are, but they don't.
Taking a look back at 2021 and 2022 Quickdraw Life.
There's a reason it walked away from our 2017 GIRAF festival with the Audience Favourite award and some of the highest ratings we've ever seen for a short at the fest.
Split into four parts, the film is somewhere between a visual poem and an expression of philosophy, cycling through acts of creation and destruction, evolution and remembrance. Volcanoes erupt, creatures evolve as sort of whimsical exquisite corpses, the pins that make up the animation dance around the screen in a strangely minimal ballet.
Have a great long Family Day Weekend!
The frog is wearing boots. What more do you need?
It would be a striking film no matter where it came from, but even with the diversity of Gobelins' current output, it stands out all the more for the expectations it defies.
We are excited to announce the recipient of our 2023 Procedural Electrifying Projection (PEP) Residency!
Time to take a look back at the amazing Animation Lockdown 2022: IMPOSSIBLE SHAPES edition and see which film came out on top of the Penrose Triangle!
It would be a striking film no matter where it came from, but even with the diversity of Gobelins' current output, it stands out all the more for the expectations it defies.
Silly and slightly surreal, it's also a perfect reminder of the virtue of simplicity
Where most video yule logs are almost static, 2.0 is perfect for parties with much shorter attention spans.
The loose line work and muddled audio add to the intimacy, as the film fixates on quiet moments and small gestures
We're getting close to the Quickdraw staff hibernation season! Closed Dec 18 - Jan 14
Kade’s take on describing that mystery, excitement, and bizarre undertones are just so fitting for our beloved festival of independent animation.
Kade’s take on describing that mystery, excitement, and bizarre undertones are just so fitting for our beloved festival of independent animation.
Its post-life coda can't come close to capturing everything beautiful about life, but that failure is its own argument for life's beauty.
It’d be grisly if it wasn’t so delightfully well drawn, and its blend of cutesy rubber-hose animation with macabre madness has been inspiring animators for nearly a century
From the opening shot of a crudely rendered surfer to the final mishmash of birthday cakes, cocktail glasses, dancing bears and fidget spinners, it's a burst of absolute glee.
The QAS Board is thrilled to announce that Val Duncan has been hired as our new Executive Director!
Fur, grass and leaves share space with fabric, felt and construction paper, creating a world that you just want to reach out and touch.
It's a unique form of collaboration, with each artist building on, altering or subverting the last.
Just enjoy the tripping cadences of Worth's words, the craft of Allinson's ever-shifting clay, and let the meaning live in the experience of it.
A visual improvisation on the music of a group of sidewalk musicians, the film passes through multiple movements and varying levels of abstraction.
Various elements of my art include curls and curves contrasting with straight lines, cartoon-like figures, and vibrant colours. I like to manipulate my use of colours in a polychromatic style. Sometimes I try to replicate realism. Other times I take realism and twist it in a chaotic way, so it also produces something beautiful
Even at its most intense, Lovrity's film remains gorgeous to look at. But its picture of paradise trampled by toxic masculinity is a haunting one, despite the beauty.
Even at its most intense, Lovrity's film remains gorgeous to look at. But its picture of paradise trampled by toxic masculinity is a haunting one, despite the beauty.
Prologue is meant to be the beginning of an adaptation of Lysistrata, the Greek play where women withhold sex from their spouses to stop a war. It would be interesting to see where Williams aimed to take the production; how faithful he would be to its story, how much humour and horror he planned to bring to the piece.
Complex and intricate as it is, though, appreciating Divisional Articulations is all about the simple satisfaction of watching video and audio in perfect sync, and letting the boundary between your senses blur.
There are films like Honami YANO's Tokyo School of the Arts graduate film, Chromosome Sweetheart—films that live in complexity, ambiguity and uncertainty.
Based on the works of Canadian artist Dave Cooper, The Absence of Eddy Table is billed as a romantic horror film, but there's no conventional relationship to be found here.
Before it was fleshed out into a 10-film miniseries (which constitutes one of the best American animated features of the 21st century, for what it's worth), Patrick McHale's Over the Garden Wall started its life as a more humble short film, Tome of the Unknown.
Connection is at the heart of the film. Its plot is fairly standard for a children's film, a quick and cute tale of a search for belonging. But it's packed with warmth and humour, and enough silliness to win over even the sourest audience.
Robbie Ward's video for "Annihilation" by Dedsa is a stunner, a one-of-a-kind creation that's equally suited to a serious watching or the epic backdrop to your Halloween party.
Everything in an animated world can grow, shrink or transform in the blink of an eye, and the simple cube in which Egg's narrator resides does all that, constantly—and so does the character.
It’s been a busy time at Quickdraw over the last few months, and we wanted to give an update for what to expect for our summer hours: we are hoping to open our doors and return to Saturday Free Swim! Read on for details --
The Woman Who Turned Into a Castle is a story from noted neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, whose work often focused on describing unusual mental states in order to illuminate the workings of the brain.
Filmed with a multiplane camera setup with five layers, the film only gives viewers glimpses of the whole, with constant motion on the other, blurred-out layers adding to the film's inner anxiety.
an animated short as part of the National Film Board's Five @ 50 Series: An Intimate Look at Contemporary LGBTQ2+ Lives and Identities. A neon-coloured tribute (conflicted as it may be) to a long-shuttered Edmonton gay bar, it is every bit as thoughtful, personal and provocative as you'd expect, and a worthy addition to Vivek's ever-growing artistic catalogue.
Despite being overshadowed by the two very different masterpieces he released on either side of it, Don Hertzfeldt's The Meaning of Life is still the kind of film most animators go their whole career hoping to create—funny, thoughtful, cynical and gorgeous in its own odd way.
If you're in need of a wholesome escape, Jacob Kafka's student short is a great place to get it. Silly, calm, and life-affirming, it's six well-spent minutes for the terminally overwhelmed.
Set in a version of Kolkata that has been made uninhabitable by rising water levels in a post-global warming future, Ghost studio's 2020 short is a tense 10 minutes of climate horror
Four new animated beauties for your perusal, including a video for Fleet Foxes, a colourfully choreographed self-portrait, a dark-comic twist on pixilation, and the tale of a studly wolf discovering the world of sex work.
The daughter of one of the engineers who worked on the creation and launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, Tracy K. Smith's poem is a touching tribute to her father's work—but it's the analog artwork by Brazilian animation director Daniel Bruson that truly elevates this short film
Two vastly different music videos, one using machine learning to create hyper-detailed close-ups of currency, the other painted in broad, blocky and vibrant strokes; plus two films from artists we've spotlighted in our Monday Shorts series, returning with even more impressive iterations of styles we already loved.
A clever spin on abstract animation, Sweater gives its director an excuse to indulge in the medium's affinity for swirling patterns, vivid colours, and kaleidoscopic arrangements, with some relateable slapstick added as a framing device
3D scanning on your phone, a new "Innovation Centre" in Calgary, and an adorable trailer, plus other news from the world of animation
Steeped in art deco elegance and ornate designs, Avarya is a visually rich addition to one of science fiction's longest ongoing converstions—one that has only gotten more urgent since it began nearly a century ago.
With its unique visual metaphors, subtle comic timing, and the sandpaper grit of cognitive dissonance, Lepage's darkly funny short captures a contemporary version of an age-old feeling.
Jobs at cSPACE, SAAG and the NMC, screening opportunities with the Calgary Black Film Festival, a Downtown Activation Grant, and national and municipal funding opportunities
An encounter with a street vendor prompts a young boy to confront his own mortality in this multilayered memento mori from the Tokyo University of the Arts
Animation Lockdown winners compete for The 48 Film Festival's inaugural prize
GIF contest, grant deadlines and free artistic "utensils" — here are the arts opportunities in Calgary this week.
Buoyed by a joyful score and Mirai Mizue's intricate draftsmanship, Dreamland is a narrative film in abstract clothing, a memorable blurring of the boundaries between animated genres.
GLAS and Annecy announce 2022 selections, Kate Beaton gets an AppleTV+ series, Animation Magazine chronicles Cartoon Movie, and AWN dives into the history of one of Canadian animation's most prominent studios
GLAS and Annecy announce 2022 selections, Kate Beaton gets an AppleTV+ series, Animation Magazine chronicles Cartoon Movie, and AWN dives into the history of one of Canadian animation's most prominent studios
Calls for artworks and residencies, job postings, and educational workshops are all part of this week's roundup of professional opportunities for Calgary animators
Quickdraw artists selected for HBOMax and WarnerMedia Access' new animated shorts program cohort
The return of CUFF's 48-hour filmmaking challenge, opportunities for queer and Indigenous creators, and a job posting from our neighbours at EMMEDIA round out this week's offerings
A sci-fi fable in the vein of Italo Calvini's Cosmicomics, Matisse Gonzalez' film is a brief, breezy story built around an immediately intuitive metaphor
Man on the Chair is a film focused on doubts, with a sense of uncertainty that goes beyond asking why we are here to whether we are here at all. Director Jeong Dahee doesn't seem especially interested in finding answers—it's the feeling of sitting within questions that seems to interest her.
A bit of a short round-up this week. It's almost like there's some more significant news out there.
This week's opportunities include a call for submisisons for an Earth Day zine, sessional work at AUArts, and info on CADA's upcoming project grants
We aren't saying that the AV Club's animation is the sole reason this new crossing is being built, but we aren't not saying that, either
Nata Metlukh pokes fun at social cues misfiring with a fun house-mirror reflection of our social incompetence
Media arts awards, emerging artist scholarships, artist talks and community check-ins make up this week's arts opportunities for Calgary artists
Looking back at Glucose four years later, it's easy to see why folks were so excited. For lack of a better word, and at the risk of sounding absurdly unhip, it just looks and sounds cool.
A new video from Chad VanGaalen, behind the scenes of the opening credits of Netflix's The House, shakeups at the NFB, and other news from the world of animation
An incubator program for Black filmmakers, a remote ani-jam in Halifax, and a series of creative economy strategic workshops round out this week's Calgary (and remote) arts opportunities
An animation that focuses on the subtle movements and rhythms that unconsciously happen at an owambe, a Nigerian street party. As people come together in joy, their hearts begin to beat to the same rhythm, as if united in happiness.
A new video from Chad VanGaalen, behind the scenes of the opening credits of Netflix's The House, shakeups at the NFB, and other news from the world of animation
A shorter collection this week, but still some interesting opportunities, including permanent roles at CADA, summer internships, and more festival deadlines
Kibwe Tavares' sci-fi short is far from your typical architecture school project, but his eye for the intersection of class, race, and the built environment is all over this film.
QAS members in print and on screen around the world
A restoration of a bizarro Romanian sci-fi gem, fusing mo-cap and animation pipelines in Unreal, GIRAF selections winning awards, and other news from the world of animation
An odd assortment of job postings and calls for submissions this week, including zombie Jesus, arts mentorships, festival calls and potential murals
We're looking for independent and artful animated films to share with our audience in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Even before seeing a frame of Erika Grace Strada's student short, the title brings some very specific imagery to mind. It suggests alien landscapes, strange creatures, and a healthy dose of cosmic horror—and it delivers most of that. The jaunty soundtrack dispels any sense of dread, but with a different score, the film's opening could easily set the stage for some true cosmic horror.
Seeing so many talented local artists get the chance to be part of something so joyful, and that'll be seen on such a large scale, is a real treat
A teaser for Guillermo's Pinocchio, behind the scenes of an Apple II classic, feature film announcements, and a first glimpse at Studio Ghibli's theme park
Visual experiments, poetic emotional journeys, and playful explorations of culture and storytelling—it's another half-dozen new additions to our ongoing Vimeo channel
A short documentary based on the writing of a real sweeper master, The Chimney Swift is whole lot bleaker than Mary Poppins' "Chim Chim Cheree" would lead you to believe
The Calgary-shot Fraggle Rock reboot is out! Plus trailers for Inu-Oh, Shenmue the Animation, and The Cuphead Show, animated GLAAD Media Award nominees, and other news from the world of animation
Plenty of interesting opportunities this week, including calls for Calgary festivals, mentorship and scholarships for Alberta media artists, an international residency at Hiroshima, and a chance to help steer the Alberta animation and VFX industry
An animation legend transforms a Renaissance painting into a densely woven dance of shapes and colour.
Trailers for Netflix's The House and Cuphead's latest DLC, plus Slovenian stop-motion, awards announcements, Makato Shinkai's new feature, and Bugs Bunny vs. The Walrus
A look back on a year full of preparation and anticipation—with more than its share of bright spots along the way
The opening image of Panta Rhei is a long shot of a beach. On the left, a humpback whale lies on the sand belly up. In the centre, the film's protagonist, a marine biologist named Stefaan, stands motionless. The camera is far back, the two figures dwarfed by the barren beach and the drab grey sky.
New trailers from Studio Ponoc and Sony animation, deleted scenes from Bojack Horseman, and new uploads of classic Sally Cruickshank round out this week's quick links
Our programming director shares his thoughts on some new, classic, and obscure Christmas animations
We'll have limited availability from Dec. 19 through January 17—thanks for your patience, and happy holidays!
Freeze Frame is a stop-motion film made from ice, and there is an inherent tension between that technique and that material. Stop motion is a slow, tedious practice that creates the appearance of motion from static materials. But ice is never really static. As soon as it's out of the freezer, it is already in the process of disappearing.
All-star tutorials, stop-motion interviews, industry news, and other items that caught our eye this week.
