Creepy Animation Night
Thursday, 24. 9. 2025 at 21.00 / Vetrinj mansion, courtyard
Scary monsters, super creeps, you will be running, running scared.
You will thank Animest Bucharest later!
Curated by Mihai Mitrică
Introduced by Kar from Animest.
Content notes: Some films in the programme include sensitive themes such as: Cruelty to animals, killing, self-destructive behaviours and suicide, psychological, physical, and sexual violence and rape.
01
Mediums
Tim Gideon
2022, USA, 9’
An abstract visual poem exploring the relationship between objects, memory, and grief.
Language: None
Technique: Object animation
Recommended for children under 14 years old: No
Team:
Made by Tim Gideon
About the Director:
Tim Gideon is a stop-motion filmmaker working independently in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently at work on his first feature-length film. For behind-the-scenes footage.
02
Our Lady of Rot
Bibi Erjavec (ALUO Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana)
2025, Slovenia, 5’
We are in a strange post-apocalyptic world of half-decayed skeletons. Here, flesh itself has become a rarity and possessing any is seen as both a privilege and responsibility. There are none as self-sacrificing as Our Lady of Rot.
Language: English
Technique: Puppet animation, Clay animation, Animation with wax
Recommended for childre under 14 years old: No
Team:
Script: Bibi Erjavec
Animation: Bibi Erjavec
Music: Gašper Muženič
About the Director:
Bibi Erjavec is a Slovenian artist and chemist. They're interested in everything, but mostly animation, illustration and education. In their work they like to combine elements of science, history, grotesque and humor. “Our Lady of Rot” is their master's thesis film.
03
Love Is Just a Death Away
Bára Anna Stejskalová (Bionaut Animation, FAMU)
2020, Czechia, 11’30”
A tender story about finding love even amid utter decay.
Language: None
Technique: Puppet animation
Recommended for children under 14 years old: No
Team:
Written and directed: Bára Anna Stejskalová
Producers: Jakub Košťál, Vratislav Šlajer
DOP: Václav Tlapák
Sound: Miroslav Chaloupka
Editing: Ilona Malá
Music: Daniel Patras, Miroslav Chaloupka
Dramaturgy: Petr Koubek
Set supervision: Ondřej Slavík
Vfx supervision: Patrik Michalů
About the Director:
Bára Anna Stejskalová studies Animation programme TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Czech Republic. Her graduation film The Fishermen was on BAFTA shortlist. She's a co-creator of HEARDT, project which got official Burning Man Honorarium Grant in 2018.
04
Canis
Marc Riba, Ana Solanas (I+G stop motion)
2013, Spain, 17’
Two survivors are isolated in a house constantly besieged by a horde of stray dogs.
Language: None
Technique: Puppet animation
Recommended for children under 14 years old: No
Team:
Written and directed by Marc Riba & Anna Solanas
Animation: Núria Riba
Cinematography: Anna Molins
Music: Aleix Pitarch
Editing: Sergi Martí
Sound: Anna Solanas
Art direction: Marc Riba
Character design: Núria Riba
Dressmaker: Anna Ribera
About the Directors:
Marc Riba and Anna Solanas have been working in the world of puppet animation for more than 20 years. They have made several short films which have been selected in more than 1500 festivals around the world.
05
Underlife
Jarosław Konopka (Stowarzyszenie Filmowców Polskich, Se-Ma-For Produkcja Filmowa, Studio "Młodzi i Film" im. Andrzeja Munka, Telewizja Polska)
2010, Poland, 8’30”
A baby carriage, a symbol of the time and place of birth, serves as the film's central motif. It represents the space where we first enter the world, yet over the years, it becomes an object that reminds us of our roots.
Language: None
Technique: Puppet animation
Recommended for children under 14 years old: No
Team:
Written and directed by Jarosław Konopka
Puppets: Dariusz Kalita, Tomasz Wiśniewski
Music: Łukasz Feiner (guitar and interpretation of Fryderyk Chopin's Preludium e-moll
Singing: Martina Macko
Sound: Jarosław Konopka
Voice acting: Jakub Moroz
Artistic supervision: Zbigniew Żmudzki
Head producer: Ewa Wierzbowska
Production collaboration: Kazimierz Królikowski
About the Director:
Jarosław Konopka, born in 1970 in Lublin, is an animator, visual artist, photographer, and sound designer. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, he made his professional debut with Underlife, followed by Escape (2017). Both films received wide appreciation at international animation festivals and continue to be selected for curated programmes exploring themes of the subconscious and trauma.
06
The Origins of Creatures
Floris Kaayk (seriousFilm)
2010, The Netherlands, 12’
An apocalyptic vision of humanity after a cataclysmic event. In a dark parable, mutant limbs seek to collaborate while their efforts are doomed to fail through miscommunication.
Language: None
Technique: Stop motion filmmaking through a set, 3D CGI
Recommended for children under 14 years old: No
Team:
Written and directed by Floris Kaayk
Script coaching: Vincent Bal
Production design: Gijs Kaayk
Set construction: Krista te Brake
Camera: Reinier van Brummelen
Milo operator: Alex de Heus
Gaffers Erwin Roodhart, Edwin Bakker
Animation, compositing, editing Floris Kaayk
Sound design: Bart Jilesen
Foley artist: Erik Griekspoor
Sound editing: Elena Martin Hidalgo
Music: Lennert Busch
Compositing, grading, online: Reinier van Brummelen
Production assistant: Sophie Slabbekoorn
Producer: Marc Thelosen, Yan Ting Yuen, Koert Davidse (seriousFilm)
About the Director:
Floris Kaayk (1982) graduated with distinction in Animation at the St.Joost Academy (Breda, the Netherlands) and obtained his Master of Fine Arts degree at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. During his studies he developed a fascination with worlds without people, industrial sites and abandoned landscapes, themes that underpinned, for instance, his 2005 animated nature documentary “The Order Electrus”. One year after that, Kaayk completed his second film, “Metalosis Maligna” (2006), a fictional information film about an affliction in people who have medical implants in their bodies. Both films won several awards, internationally. In his latest work, “The Origin of Creatures”, Kaayk creates a post-apocalyptic city inhabited by silent, mutant body parts. A jumble of fingers find an eye, soon joined by a bundle of legs. Like busy insects they try to erect a new structure in a desperate attempt to create order in their chaos.
07
Abyssus Abyssum Invocat / Abyssus Abyssum Invocat
Wes Simpkins (Matthew Glasson)
2012, USA, 10’
“Hell invokes Hell,”more commonly known as, “One misdeed precedes another,” or more colloquially known as, “Two wrongs do not make a right.”
Language: None
Technique: Puppet animation, live-action puppetry
Recommended for children under 14 years old: No
Team:
Directed by Wes Simpkins
Co-producer, Vocal Talent: Matthew Glasson
Voice acting: Jeff Ward
Composer: David Ohliger
Sound designer: Michelangelo Soznowitz
About the Director:
Wes Simpkins is a resident of Brooklyn, New York, and has worked as a storyboard artist on hundreds of film and advertising projects. His film, “Abyssus Abyssum Invocat,” marks his debut as a filmmaker. He studied stop motion at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.