The Miracle
2023 · 15m · Belgium, Netherlands, France
Directed by Nienke Deutz
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, surreal
Irma, a single, child-free woman in her thirties, checks into 'The Miracle,' an all-inclusive resort where the sun always shines — only to discover everything is designed for families and pregnant women. As she navigates a place that constantly confronts her with what she doesn't have, she arrives at a fragile kind of acceptance.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Translucent cutout-on-stop-motion sets at a family resort designed to make the child-free woman invisible — that's the perfect technique-meets-meaning marriage. Deutz earns the conceit.
Hand-painted 2D characters printed on transparent sheets and reanimated within physical stop-motion sets — Nienke Deutz's translucency-as-invisibility metaphor for childless women is the kind of formal-thematic alignment one looks for. The 143K Vimeo views and director-commentary track confirm the seriousness.
Characters animated in 2D, printed on transparent sheets, hand-cut, hand-painted, and reanimated frame-by-frame within physical stop-motion sets — the literal translucency as a metaphor for the childless woman's invisibility is the kind of technique-as-meaning that elevates the whole short. Fourteen minutes, 143K views, with director's commentary in the audio settings.
Reviews
Such a striking and unique animation style in service of a deeply moving story. Beautiful work.
The resolution is less a miracle and more a noncommittal shrug, though the visual execution with its soft textures and earth tones remains praiseworthy throughout.
Festivals
- Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2023
- Animafest Zagreb 2024, Grand Prize
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2024, Special Jury Mention
- Ottawa International Animation Festival 2023, Best Animation Technique
- Manchester Animation Festival 2023, Short Film Award
- Chicago International Film Festival 2024, Gold Hugo, Best Animated Short
- AFI Fest 2023
- Kaboom Animation Festival 2024, Best Dutch Short Film
- Berlin Interfilm 2023, Best Animated Film