SXSW 2015: Animation Shorts Lineup Announced

South by Southwest has announced the selections for their 2015 film festival, which will take place in Austin, Texas, from March 13-21. Eleven films were selected for the animated short category, including Don Hertzfeldt’s World of Tomororow, which won Sundance’s grand jury prize last month. Pixar’s retrograde dud LAVA is also on the list, which is an odd programming choice if you’re trying to represent contemporary developments in animation with just 11 films.

Outside of the animation category, there are animated projects spread throughout the rest of the festival: Lucas Martell’s The OceanMaker screens in the Texas Shorts program; Sawako Kabuki’s ANAL JUKE -anal juice, which was previously featured on Cartoon Brew, was selected for the Midnight Shorts program; Balázs Simon’s “Re” will appear in the music video screening; and Brett Morgen’s new Kurt Cobain documentary Montage of Heck includes animated sequences by Hisko Hulsing and Stefan Nadelman.

Below are selections for the animation category:

All Your Favorite Shows!
Director: Danny Madden
Anything you wanna watch in the palm of your hands! Crazy convenient. Crazy. . . (World Premiere)

Bottom Feeders
Director: Matt Reynolds
A hand drawn animation documenting a parasitic reproductive cycle. (World Premiere)
Previously a Cartoon Brew Short Pick of the Day

Butter Ya’Self
Director: Julian Petschek
A banana and a hot dog bun are famous.

Half Wet
Director: Sophie Koko Gate (UK)
We are all born as wet as a banana, 75% water.

LAVA
Director: James Ford Murphy
Inspired by the isolated beauty of tropical islands and the explosive allure of ocean volcanoes, LAVA is a musical love story that takes place over millions of years.

PALM ROT
Director: Ryan Gillis
An old crop-duster discovers a mysterious crate floating in the Florida Everglades. Bringing the crate onto his airboat is just the first in a series of decisions he learns to regret.

Pig
Director: Steven Subotnick
The pig is everything. (North American Premiere)

Roadtrip
Director: Xaver Xylophon (Germany)
Julius can’t sleep. To get his head empty he decides to go on a roadtrip, but somehow he can’t manage to leave. A hand drawn film about failure, insomnia, a red motorbike, pretty bargirls, the desolateness of Berlin and waterproof socks.

teeth
Directors: Daniel Gray, Tom Brown (UK/Hungary/USA)
The point of no return cannot be crossed twice.

whole
Director: William Reynish (Denmark)
whole is a film about heartache. (U.S. Premiere)

World of Tomorrow
Director: Don Hertzfeldt
A little girl is taken on a mind-bending tour of her distant future.