SMALL PEOPLE WITH HATS
2014 · 7m · UK
Directed by Sarina Nihei
Genres: animation, dark comedy, experimental
Tones: absurdist, contemplative, darkly comic
A hand-drawn RCA graduation animation observing small hat-wearing people as they navigate the pressures and absurdities of modern social existence, rendered with a spare graphic line that gives the work its unsettling quality.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
The Ottawa Grand Prize — the highest honour in international animation — marks Nihei as an artist of consequence from her very first completed work; the hand-drawn materiality gives the film a craft argument that digital-pipeline graduation films rarely achieve.
RCA graduation animation, Ottawa Grand Prize. Hand-drawn-on-paper with that kind of award trail isn't student work anymore — it's a director announcing themselves. Strong.
Sarina Nihei's RCA grad film — hand-drawn on paper, no digital smoothing, so the line itself stays fragile and unsettling. Won Ottawa Grand Prize and Primanima for good reason.
Festivals
- Ottawa International Animation Film Festival 2015, Grand Prize and Best Sound
- Primanima Festival 2014, Grand Prix
- Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2015
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2015
- London International Animation Festival 2014