Humantis
2025 · 9m · USA
Directed by Paris Baillie
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, surreal
A dialogue-free stop-motion film about mantis-plant hybrid creatures called Humantises who move in coordinated harmony. When one begins to physically transform—its white body shifting to green—it desperately tries to hide the change, fearing the consequences of standing out.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Auteur-everything stop-motion mantis-plant hybrids who must conform or hide their change. Tasteful. Dialogue-free. Solo-director ambitious. Respectable. Boring.
Baillie credits herself as director, writer, animator, composer, editor, designer and DP — the auteur consolidation is the right ambition, but the page summary is a trailer with 632 views and the Laika comparison is, at this stage, aspirational. Worth watching the career.
Only a 34-second trailer is on the primary URL (the full 9:13 piece is linked in the sidebar), but Baillie crediting herself as director / writer / animator / composer / editor / designer / DP is the auteur-stop-motion compression that defines the form. Dialogue-free choreography about a green-among-white outlier is a clean visual thesis.
Reviews
Humantis is a beautiful arthouse indie film that may be short but packs a big message.
A beautiful stop-motion short set in a forest full of trees, moss, vines, and flowers...tells a heartfelt and emotional story from a creature without a face.
Festivals
- Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2024
- AFI FEST 2024, Grand Jury Prize for Animated Short
- Brooklyn Film Festival 2025, Best Animated Short
- Seattle International Film Festival 2025