O!PLA 2017 – almost 5000 Jury members, 61 festival venues located between Baltic Sea and Tatra Mountains, 121. shorts divided into 9 competition categories – these numbers briefly outline the specifics of the most unique and completely grassroots biggest Polish celebration of animated film. Now O!PLA is back with a new program entraining viewers from around the world into the newest and the coolest Polish animation (O!PLA means "Oh! Polish Animation"). And traditionally the program is created by "the biggest Jury in the world" - Polish audience. From 5 years O!PLA consequently grows in strength, but one thing remains constant - independence and passion, which standing behind the O!PLA.

This year O!PLA provides two programs!

 

 

PROGRAM 1 (90’)

 

01. PUSSY / Cipka, 8’ 22’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Renata Gąsiorowska

Production: Film School in Lodz

 

A young girl spends the evening alone at home. She decides to have some sweet solo pleasure session, but not everything goes according to plan.

 

 

02. GYROS DANCE, 14’ 39’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Piotr Loc Hoang Ngoc

Production: FUMI Studio

 

In a city where it's crowded and a lot of sunshine two mice live together under one roof, close to each other and very different. The house is also their place of work, the work is boring and hard. He is fine with that, she dreams of being a TV star.

 

 

03. SCHROEDINGER'S DOG / Pies Schroedingera, 8’ 51’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Natalia Krawczuk

Production: Film School in Lodz

 

Schrodinger's cat is a cat that is both: alive and dead. Sometimes relationships between people resemble that cat. Brief history of Mr, Ms, their dog and their couch.

 

 

04. ECOLOGICAL ALLEGORY OR LEOKADIA AND ILDEFONS’ GLANCE BLACK / Alegoria Ekologiczna Czyli Leokadii i Ildefonsa Łyp Wstecz, 6’ 17’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Tomasz Pawlak

Production:

 

Ildefons is a designer. He has just got an impressive payment for his latest invention and together with his wife, Leokadia, they decide to spend the money on a trip to a remote, quiet place where they spent their engagement period. Unfortunately, their arrival there brings disappointment…

 

 

05. MONUMENT, 2’ 30’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Marcin Giżycki

Production:

 

The film depicts secret life of monumental sculptures designed by Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz for the Soviet Military Cemetery in Warsaw.

 

 

06. VIKING / Wiking, 1’ 53’’

Poland 2015

Directed by Wiktor Pietrzak

Production: PJATK Warsaw

 

Sometimes alcohol stimulate imagination too much...

 

 

07. IMPOSSIBLE FIGURES AND OTHER STORIES II / Figury Niemożliwe I Inne Historie II, 15’

Poland 2016

Directed by Marta Pajek

Production: Animoon

 

The protagonist of the film is a woman who trips and falls, while rushing around the house. She gets up, only to discover, that her home has unusual features – it is built from paradoxes, filled with illusions and covered with patterns.

 

 

08. POINTING TO A MARVEL, 4’ 02’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Maciej Bączyk

Production: Lotto

 

A mysterious animated music video, which is like an police investigation...

 

 

09. THIS WAYWARD CARNALITY / Ta Niesforna Cielesność, 9’ 45’’

Poland 2015

Directed by Joanna Wójcik

Production: Marek Serafiński Studio

 

A liberated grandma visits her grandson and tries to introduce him into the world of sexual relations with his own body.

 

 

10. BANQUET / Bankiet, 3’ 50’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Julia Orlik

Production: Film School in Lodz

 

The main character is on a banquet and he can’t find himself on this situation. To keep up with the rest, he starts repeating the actions performed by other guests.

 

 

11. SHORTSEEING, 8’

Poland 2017

Directed by Jakub Romanowicz

Production: Kaszalot Studio

 

Who is a masked figure who paints buildings every day with dry brushes? Why continue to go out on the streets, repeating the same things on the next walls?

 

 

12. INK MEETS BLANK / Zdarzenie Plastyczne, 5’ 11’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Tymon Albrzykowski

Production: FUMI Studio/ Film School in Lodz

 

Abstract animation about meaning of existence; about constant path of development, accompanied by numerous of changes, fluctuations and doubts.

 

 

13. SAUSAGE WITH FISH / Kiełbasa Z Rybą, 1’ 37’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Michał Sulej

Production: UMCS Lublin

 

Simple and funny story about how taste sausage with fish...

 

 

PROGRAM 2 (89’)

 

01. LEAVEN / Zaczyn, 4’ 55’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Artur Hanaj

Production: Film School in Lodz

 

If you want the dough to rise, mix flour with yeast and milk. Then put the dough in warmth, so it rises a bit. Finally knead it well, place in the baking tin and put in the oven. Be careful, or the dough will fall.

 

 

02. THE WIZARD OF U.S. / Czarnoksiężnik Z Krainy U.S., 22’ 31’’

Poland 2016

Directe by Balbina Bruszewska

Production: WJTeam

 

The Wizard of U.S. is a social satire - an animated documentary about emotions, based on themes from the popular American novel The Wizard of Oz, in order to illustrate how Los Angeles makes the American Dream come true. Using the factual interviews with the inhabitants of Los Angeles, observing their everyday life, habits and behavior, after three years of having survived in L.A. the director reveals the thrills and absurdities that govern the world of the big stakes and unleashed dreams the way it is all perceived by an immigrant from Europe.

 

 

03. FORSAKEN FOREST, 9’ 38’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Anna Beata Barańska

Production:

 

Whole story of this video happens in one place, a kind of a path in a dark forest. Darkness, swaying trees, buzzing insects. Nature changes slowly, led by its natural rhythm. We can see what nature offers to us: trees, clouds, insects, birds, sun, moon, grass, some pollen, dust, but also something more. The rationality creeps a little irrationality to discreetly make landscape a little more unreal. Video causes in us a feeling of insecurity. Nature becomes something strange and scary. We can feel that we are alone…

 

 

04. DINO OR SOMETHING, 7’ 26’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Magdalena Pilecka

Production:

 

DINO or something - a collection of adventures full of absurdity, black humor, minimalism, pastel colors and small characters, called dinki's.

 

 

05. MOON LANDING, 8’ 30’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Maciej Bednarek

Production:

 

"Moon Landing" is the story of the first landing of a man on the Moon, July 20, 1969. It is a tribute to all who make the landed on the Silver Globe and for whom the conquest of space cease to be a dream.

 

 

06. FREEDOM, 00’ 43’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Mikołaj Janiw

Production: PJATK Warsaw

 

Short story about the freedom…

 

 

07. BLACK / Czerń, 14’

Poland 2016

Directed by Tomasz Popakul

Production: JAPIK

 

‘Black’ (‘黒’) tells about a pair of astronauts trapped on an orbital space station because of a nuclear war that erupted unexpectedly on Earth. They lost contact with Earth and all attempts to communicate with their base or anybody else have failed. All they can do now is watch nuclear explosions taking place on the surface of the Earth and try to survive together somehow...

 

 

08. BLACK VOLGA / Czarna Wołga, 3’ 58’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Marta Wiktorowicz

Production: Artistic University in Poznan

 

During the black and white days a group of neighbours share a conversation that leads to the answer of a dreadful mystery. What happened to the missing child. The conversation grows out of control and the world around the characters is constantly evolving. The story grows and becomes more and more surreal and ridiculous with every passing second. This animation explores the human need to gossip while satirising our reliance on stereotypes that surround us everywhere.

 

 

09. FOREIGN BODY / Ciało Obce, 7’

Poland 2016

Directed by Marta Magnuska

Production: Film School in Lodz

 

A foreign body lives its own life. You're not able to get rid of it, it's always with you, you need it. Caress that odd part of yours, don't try to shave its long tousled fur. This is a story about something that's considered to be strange at first but turns out to be the dearest thing to us. About the transformation of inside and outside.

 

 

10. BIOTOP, 00’ 51’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Jolanta Bańkowska

Production: Fine Art Academy in Warsaw

 

Short story about the relation between humans and natural environment...

 

 

11. TRACES OF EPHEMERAL / Ślady Ulotne, 7’ 49’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Agnieszka Waszczeniuk

Production: Artistic University in Poznan

 

The film is the story of man and his relationship with nature - the nature of which we are the part; which has the ability to renew itself, dying and returning to life. Unreal atmosphere and constantly blowing wind that can destroy, but it also gives hope for the birth of something new, raises the question - do we watch the moment just before awakening of the main character, or the moment of collapsing in the deepest sleep with no return?

 

 

12. FOURTH / Czwarty, 1’ 30’’

Poland 2016

Directed by Agnieszka Janik

Production: UMCS Lublin

 

Short story about the farmer, the fox and the chicken...