NFB To Co-Produce Final Short In ‘Impossible Figures’ Trilogy – Exclusive
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) announced today that it will join Polish animation company Animoon on the production of Impossible Figures and Other Stories I, the concluding film in Marta Pajek’s celebrated short film trilogy. The new short will launch on the festival circuit in spring 2020.
A teaser was released today for the short, which like the earlier installments, combines hand-drawn animation with cg elements and environments. Each of the shorts uses the motif of impossible figures as a metaphor for exploring situations that happen in different spaces:
Says Pajek about her new film:
Impossible Figures and Other Stories I is the first and—paradoxically—the final part of the triptych. The city, which is its subject, grows not only in space but, most importantly, in time. With all consequences. When trying to grasp a subject too big for one to imagine, it was essential to become a part of a small but wonderful community of NFB animators and directors, ‘lost’ in the utopian corridors of this epic institution.
“For the NFB, working with Marta Pajek has been stimulating and challenging,” said Michael Fukushima, the executive producer of the NFB’s English program animation studio. “She’s a cinematic force, and it’s exciting for everyone. Marta spent some months with us in our historical facility just before our move to downtown Montreal, and it was serendipity to be working on a film about the end of a civilization whilst an end of an era was, in real life, happening all around us.”
Adds Animoon producer Piotr Szczepanowicz, “This last film is very special, not only because it concludes all the themes explored in the trilogy, but also because it made our first collaboration with the NFB possible.… With its deep understanding of the subject matter and incredibly creative approach to the artistic challenges of the project, the NFB makes a perfect partner.”
The first two Impossible Figures shorts — released in 2016 and 2018 and produced by Animoon — earned major honors on the festival circuit including a number of grand prizes wins. Impossible Figures and Other Stories II won the grand prize at Stuttgart and GLAS in 2017, as well as best Polish film at the Animator Film Festival in Poland, while the second entry, Impossible Figures and Other Stories III, was selected for competition at Cannes last year, and won best animated film at the Krakow Film Festival, jury grand prize and audience awards at Animateka, and the top prize at the 2019 edition of Tricky Women.
The upcoming 14-minute film will be produced by Piotr Szczepanowicz and Grzegorz Wacławek of Animoon, and Maral Mohammadian of National Film Board of Canada.
Watch our interview with Pajek about the series:
