Das Rad (“Rocks”), written and directed by Chris Stenner, Arvid Uibel and Heidi Wittlinger, was nominated for the 2003 Academy Award for Animated Short Film. Here is the synopsis of the film from Wikipedia:
“The film tracks a hillside from ancient times through the present and into the future, usually moving through time at high speed, representing geologic time (so that buildings appear and disappear in an instant), but occasionally switching to real time and showing the inhabitants and objects in motion in their day-to-day existence.”1
The following YouTube video provides English subtitles to the German original.
The film was produced by Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Germany and has receieved various distinctions beyond the Academy Award nomination including2:
- the Special First Animation Award and Special Jury Award at the 2002 Anima Mundi Animation Festival
- the Silver Poznan Goat at the 2003 Ale Kino! – International Young Audience Film Festival
- the Student Category – Best Student or Graduation Film at the 2002 Annecy International Animated Film Festival
- the Audience Award at the 2003 Fantoche – International Animation Film Festival
- the Audience Award at the 2002 Sweden Fantastic Film Festival
- the Best Short Film – Animation award at the 2004 Málaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema
- the Audience Award – Student Competition at the 2002 Wiesbaden goEast
I think Chris Stenner, Arvid Uibel and Heidi Wittlinger’s depiction of geologic time as “real-time” is simply brilliant. What do you think about the film? Please share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.
References
- Das Rad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Rad Accessed December 26, 2009.
- Das Rad (2003/I) – Awards http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0330801/awards Accessed December 26, 2009.
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The video also gives a nice demonstration of flash animation by animator