French Institute Alliance Francaise‘s wonderful Animation First starts Tuesday and we in New York are better for it. Now in it’s 7th year the festival brings some of the best animated films from around the world to New York. While the fest is skewed toward French Animation, it still runs films from elsewhere (they are giving the Spanish award winning and Oscar hopeful ROBOT DREAMS it’s New York Premiere)
I could wax poetic about the festival but it’s pointless, you just need to go and see everything. The festival is just such a fantastic mix of features, shorts and special events that you are certain to find something that you will absolutely love.
As this posts I’ve seen all of the features and a couple of shorts. All of the features are worth your time. They run the gamut from family friendly (SIROCCO... and NINA...) to off beat (WHEN ADAM CHANGES) to what would be an R rated action film is it was live action (MARS EXPRESS) to real life drama (THE SIREN). I can honestly recommend all of them.
Actually the festival bookends, MARS EXPRESS and THE SIREN, are two of the best films you’ll see all year. I’ll have full reviews soon but you really need to see them. Tuesday night’s Opening film MARS EXPRESS is a science fiction noir mystery that has great action sequences and some haunting ideas about what it means to be alive. The closing night THE SIREN is the story of a young man in Iran and what happened to him after Iraq invaded his city in 1980. It will rock your world.
Do yourself a favor and look over the schedule and buy some tickets. You’ll thank me because this is one of the best festivals you can attend. (And I didn’t even mention their talks and special events which are always awesome)
For more details on the festival and the films go here.
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