Summer 96 (Été 96)
2023 · 12m · France
Directed by Mathilde Bédouet
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, surreal
On August 15th — France's traditional holiday — young Paul joins his family for their annual picnic on Callot Island in Brittany, only for the group to get stranded when the tide rises because his father brought the wrong year's tide chart. Caught between childhood and adulthood, Paul experiences a quietly formative day that feels like memory made visible.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Shot live, every frame printed at 8 fps onto paper, then hand-drawn with colored pencils on a lightbox — over 5,000 prints, two years of work for twelve minutes. That's psychotic-level commitment and the texture probably justifies it. Yes.
Bédouet's hand-drawn-on-paper rotoscopy at 8 fps — over 5,000 individual lightbox frames across two years — produces precisely the half-remembered-home-movie tactility a Brittany family memory demands. Technique-as-meaning, fully earned. Twelve minutes of patient labor.
12:13 with the production process doing all the heavy lifting: live-shot footage, every frame printed at 8 fps onto paper (5,000+ prints), each hand-drawn in colored pencil on lightbox, two years to complete. Rotoscopy-in-colored-pencil is the half-remembered-home-movie texture made literal. Stunning labor.
Reviews
A film that mirrors memory itself: imperfect, selective, and deeply felt — a striking introduction to a distinctive new voice in animation.
C'était 96, les vacances avec Tati — une apparente simplicité qui cache un processus de fabrication complexe, avec la puissance émotionnelle d'une chanson pop.
Festivals
- Off-Courts Trouville 2023
- Tous Courts Aix-en-Provence 2023
- DOK Leipzig 2023
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2024
- César Awards 2024, Best Animated Short Film
- Festival Anima Brussels 2024
- Go Short International Short Film Festival 2024
- REGARD Saguenay Short Film Festival 2024
- Animation First USA 2024
- Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film 2024