How are you today?

Finally, an animated short that doesn't pretend violence is anything but absurd and disorienting—two people locked in conflict while the world falls apart around them is exactly the kind of premise that makes committees nervous and proves they should be. This is the kind of experimental work that doesn't care if you're comfortable.

Markatatos draws from a lineage of surrealist animation and psychological drama, constructing a formally rigorous piece where isolation and violence aren't separate themes but formally woven into the visual language itself. The restraint in approach—seven minutes to convey confusion and dread—demonstrates real curatorial understanding of what animation can do with negative space.

The singular choice here is the decision to keep the two characters in constant, tense proximity while the world around them fractures—it's a sound design and pacing choice that makes the animation do psychological work rather than narrative work, and it transforms what could be muddled abstraction into something that *feels* like suffocation.

An experimental but relatable film about feeling alone in a world that is often scary or confusing, this 7-minute animated short uses a cartoonish style to deliver quite a bleak and reverberating storyline.

Though How are you today? feels a little more accessible than the film we were discussing then, it's not exactly what you would deem an 'easy watch'.

Opening with the lines "You were born into a f*cked up world and you will die in a f*cked up world" Markatatos' film sets its tone early on. Almost dialogue-free, the only speech in the film is delivered as unrecognisable squeaks and mutterings, with subtitles appearing playfully on screen to provide translation.