Au 8ème Jour (On the 8th Day)
2023 · 8m · France
Directed by Agathe Sénéchal, Alicia Massez, Elise Debruyne, Flavie Carin, Théo Duhautois
Genres: animation, documentary, fantasy
Tones: melancholic, surreal, tender
In a vibrant world where animals and landscapes appear sewn from fabric, each tethered by yarn to a central life force, dark tendrils of black fiber begin to consume the idyllic realm, forcing its inhabitants to flee for survival. A wordless environmental parable told through stunning CG animation styled to look like stop-motion textile art.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
CG faked to look like stitched textile stop-motion is a real craft flex, but 254 official selections and the synopsis read as a tasteful environmental parable for the festival circuit. Beautifully made consensus.
Computer animation engineered to imitate stitched textile, with 254 festival selections and Oscar-qualifying honors, suggests the technical achievement is matched by audience response — this is the lineage of Pixar's Piper crossed with the craft-fetish of The Wolf House. Wordless ecological parable as a fully realized formal universe.
CG rendered to look like stop-motion textile art is a precise, hard-won technical brief — every frame has to read as fabric without being fabric. 254 official selections and Best in Show at SIGGRAPH ASIA Tokyo confirms the craft community recognized it.
Reviews
A wonderfully unique and gorgeously atmospheric piece that tells a well-worn story with novel animation and striking music.
The attention to detail, making computer animation look like it's a stitched-together tapestry, makes the visual presentation of this world falling apart utterly devastating.
Festivals
- SXSW Film Festival 2024
- Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2024, Bruce Corwin Award for Best Animated Short Film
- Bend Film Festival 2024, Best Animated Short
- Festival Premiers Plans d'Angers