Aaaah!
2023 · 5m · France
Directed by Osman Cerfon
Genres: animation, comedy, coming-of-age
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, whimsical
A grotesque, joyful animated short about the full spectrum of childhood emotion, expressed entirely through screams of 'Aaaah!'
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A five-minute film that commits entirely to a single phoneme as its narrative language should be unwatchable—instead, Cerfon's grotesque joy becomes a genuinely subversive argument about how we've been trained to muffle childhood. It's the kind of premise that makes you say 'wait, WHAT?' and then realize he's right.
Cerfon locates himself in a lineage of sound-design minimalism and emotional expressionism, yet the execution risks collapsing under its own constraint; the formal rigor is evident, but whether the film sustains its conceit across five minutes or merely documents it remains the central question.
The decision to render the full emotional spectrum through vocal performance alone—no dialogue, no music scoring the beats—hinges entirely on the voice actor's control, and that single choice either elevates a modest premise into something genuinely singular or exposes it as a one-note joke.
Reviews
What more can be said beyond what Aaaah! so hilariously and precisely captures - the relentless seesaw of youthful emotion? Yet, beyond its beautifully paced and intricately designed exploration of adolescence, the film resonates on a deeper level, mirroring the collective anxieties of our time.
Festivals
- Berlin International Film Festival 2023, Official Selection
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2024, Official Selection
- Animafest Zagreb 2024, Special Mention