The Polish production MIASTO (The City, 1963) by Miroslaw Kijowicz tells the story of a man in the desert who builts an imaginary city, until it all becomes too much for him and he looks for another desert. Kijowicz, born in Leningrad, was a director and writer and continued to make films until 1991.

The consumer satire AUTOMANIA 2000 by the British-based animation team of John Halas and Joy Batchelor was screened in Oberhausen in 1964, nominated for the Oscar and won a BAFTA award in the same year. Halas & Batchelor are best known for their adaptation of George Orwell's ANIMAL FARM, having founded Halas & Batchelor Cartoons in 1940. For over 50 years, it was one of the leading animation studios in Western Europe, producing more than 2,000 films.

A very special dance film this time: Harry Kramer in SACKGASSE (1963), directed by Harry Kramer and Wolfgang Ramsbott. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1964. Kramer was a German dancer and artist, internationally known as a representative of Kinetic Art and a participant of documenta III in 1964. Together with Wolfgang Ramsbott, he shot five experimental 16mm films between 1956 and 1965.

In CZERWONE I CZARNE by Polish animator Witold Giersz, a bullfight goes back and forth. Under the influence of the raging audience, the relationship between bull and Torero goes from enemies to drinking buddies and back, until the two return to their paint pots in the end.The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1964, Giersz went on to make animated short films for more than four decades afterward.

When Geoffrey Jones´ film SNOW was screened in Oberhausen in 1964, the devastating winter of 1962/63 was still present in most people´s mind. Using material from that winter, Jones shows the hard work necessary to keep the trains, which were the backbone of the British transportation system in the 1960´s, running even in extreme weather conditions. Edited to play their own soundtrack reminiscing musique concrète, the infrastructure workers appear to be a well-oiled machine cooperating to keep the tracks free.

We are going to take a short festival break and will continue revisited on 7 May.

Walerian Borowczyk’s film RENAISSANCE was screened in Oberhausen in 1964. Stuck in an eternal backwards time loop, a room filled with memorabilia reassembles after an explosion until the bomb itself gets reconstructed only to immediately go off again. Aside from the question of how durable human memory will be in the end we are also made to wonder just how real – or fabricated – it actually is.

The last of our revisited films for the festival year of 1963, DONNE DI LUCANIA by Giovanni Vento, shows us a sinister village seemingly inhabited mostly by women. While the men are away, possibly looking for better paid work in the larger cities, the women are occupied with taking care of the homesteads left behind.

Another film by Ernest Pintoff that was screened at our festival in 1963 is THE OLD MAN AND THE FLOWER (1962, USA). The film is narrated by Dayton Allen and shows an old man talking to a sunflower that doesn’t want to start anything.

The film ZA BOREM, ZA LASEM (Beyond the Forest, Beyond the Woods, 1962, Poland) by Wladyslaw Nehrebecki shows a Polish custom where little girls throw wreaths of flowers into the water to find a suitor. A folk festival takes place on the riverbank, and after grotesque scenes, a fun peasant wedding follows. Nehrebecki was a Polish animator and cartoon director and is best known for his animated characters Bolek and Lolek. The film was screened at our festival in 1963. 

LABIRYNT (1963, Poland) by Jan Lenica is a short film about a lonely woman who has a series of surreal visions. Lenica adopts the techniques of collage and cut-outs in the film. He was known for his poster illustrations and collaborations on the early works of Walerian Borowczyk. The film won several Awards, including the Main Prize of the International Jury at our festival in 1963. 

The film NINGEN DOUBUTSUEN (Human Zoo, 1962, Japan) by Yōji Kuri is based on a poem by Shuntarou Tanikawa and shows that people can be as bad as animals. Kuri is one of the most influential figure in Japanese independent animation and was the unofficial leader and most prolific of the "Animation Association of Three" collective. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1963. 

THE HOLE (1962, USA) is an animated short film about two construction workers who talk about the nature of accidents and the possibility of a nuclear war. The film was screened at our festival in 1963 and won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoons in the same year. 

The film MAŁY WESTERN (1961, Poland) by Witold Giercz is one of Giercz’s best known films and tells the story of a cowboy and his white horse as well as two villains who are being punished. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1963. 

THE APPLE (1959, Great Britain) by George Dunning is an animated short film about a man’s unsuccessful attempts to fetch an apple from the high branch of a tree without being caught by the park ranger. Dunning was best known for his Beatles inspired film YELLOW SUBMARINE. THE APPLE was shown at our festival in 1963 and won the Prize of the City Oberhausen. It also won a BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film in the same year. 

PRAVDA (JUSTICE) (1962, Yugoslavia) by Ante Babaja is a short film based on the eponymous novel by Croatian writer Vladan Desnica about a street fight where passers-by are unsure if they should intervene or not. The film was part of our festival in 1963 and won the Main Prize of the International Jury. Babaja is best known for his film BREZA (The Birch Tree), which is regarded as one of the classics of Croatian cinema. 

SUROGAT (The Substitute, 1961, Yugoslavia) by Dušan Vukotić is a short film about a simple man, who comes to the beach and uses inflatable objects for all of his needs. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1962 and won a Special Mention by the International Jury. In the same year, the film won an Academy Award in the Category Best Short Subject, Cartoons. Vukotić is one of the best known members of the Zagreb school of animated films. 

The film SCIENCE FRICTION (1959, USA) by Stan VanDerBeek, one of the most influential US experimental filmmakers and known for his use of collage techniques, uses stop motion animation of still photographs from politics and science in the nuclear war. The scientists in question are being used by politicians in the space race and people and items are projected upwards, including iconic structures like the Eiffel Tower. The film was screened at our festival in 1962 and won the Main Prize for Best Experimental Film by the Oberhausen Industry.

EL NOVENO (1960, Spain) by Basilio Martín Patino is a short documentary about an annual Fiesta in Salamanca to commemorate the end of tribute payments to the Duke of Alba in 1852 - a popular holiday that includes bull fights. It was Martín Patinos first short film. He was known for his works in the New Spanish Cinema and for his creative approach to documentaries. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1962. 

The short film MUNRO (1960, Czechoslovakia/USA) by Gene Deitch was screened at our festival in 1962 and won a Special Mention by the International Jury. Munro is a four-year-old boy who is drafted to the Army. It takes a while to convince everyone that he is not old enough to be in the Army and when he finally is sent home, he receives a warm welcome. But he fears being send back to the army. Deitch, who is best known for his work for Terrytoons, won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoons with MUNRO in 1961. 

The film ALFA – OMEGA (1961, Italy) by Bruno Bozzetto, is a satirical cartoon showing the life of a modern "Everyman" in six episodes. The film was screened at our festival in 1962 and won the International Critics‘ Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 1962. Bozzetto is known for his political and satirical short works. 

MOTO PERPETUO (1959, Argentina) is a musical documentary short by Osias Wilenski, combining images of city life and its perpetual repetition with the music of Paganini's Moto Perpetuo, played by N.Chumachenko. It was screened at our festival in 1961. 

Another film by award-winning director Ernest Pintoff was shown at our festival in 1961. THE INTERVIEW (1960, USA) shows a reporter interviewing a jazz musician in which the "square" journalist and the "hip" musician have some trouble understanding each other. With music by none other than Stan Getz, the film won the Grand Prize of the International Jury in Oberhausen in 1961 and was nominated for a 1961 Bafta Award in the Category Best Animated Film. 

MARINE SNOW – THE ORIGIN OF OIL (1960, Japan) by Shinkichi Noda and Tetsuro Onoma is a beautiful example of cooperation between scientists and filmmakers. In this instance, the amazing images of sea plankton are a collaboration between the filmmakers and microscopy and other experts. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1961.

The film LINES: HORIZONTAL (1961, Canada) by Norman McLaren is an experimental short film in which horizontal lines move on the screen against a background of changing colors and in response to music which was composed specifically for this film. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1961 and won the Award for Best Arts and Experimental at the Canadian Film Awards in 1961.

MUZYKANCI (THE MUSICIANS) (1960, Italy) by Kazimierz Karabasz, a film about a single rehearsal of an amateur brass band made up of Warsaw tram drivers. The film won multiple awards, including the Main Prize of the International Jury at our festival in 1961. Karabasz was known for his documentaries and taught the documentary programme at the Łódź Film School for many years.

The film MEIN KIND (MY CHILD) (1955, Germany) by Joris Ivens “is an appeal by the International Democratic Women's Federation against a new war, calling on all mothers of the world to protect their children.”  It was screened in Oberhausen in 1961 and won the Critics’ Award at the Kultur- und Dokumentarfilmwoche Mannheim in 1956 and the 1st Prize at the Filmfestspiele Montevideo in 1956.

CHILDREN OF THE SUN (1960, USA) by Faith and John Hubley is an animated short film about children who grow up poor and malnourished as opposed to children who grow up happily and with enough to eat. The film was produced in cooperation with UNICEF and screened at our festival in 1961. The Hubleys were known for their animated short films, commercials and sponsored projects.

The film UN GIORNO IN BARBAGIA (1958, Italy) by Vittorio De Seta captures the lives of Sardinian women taking care of home and fields while their shepherd husbands are away with their flocks. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1961. De Seta was considered Italian cinema's great imaginative realists of the 1960s.

In THE LITTLE ISLAND (1958, United Kingdom) by Richard Williams, three men representing Truth, Beauty and Good settle on a tiny island. A philosophical argument without words, the film won the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film in 1959 and was screened at our festival in 1960. It was Williams', who is best known as the animation director of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, first film.

O MÍSTO NA SLUNCI (A PLACE IN THE SUN, 1959, Czechoslovakia) by František Vystrčil is an animation about two men who fight for a spot in the sun until they realize that they can both sit in the sun and enjoy it together. The film won the Prize of the Gutehoffnungshütte Sterkrade AG at our festival in 1960 and was nominated for an Oscar in 1961.

UZEL NA KAPESNÍKU (THE KNOT IN THE HANDKERCHIEF, 1958, Czechoslovakia) by Hermína Týrlová tells the story of a boy, who ties a knot in his handkerchief to remember repairing his leaky faucet, but the handkerchief is alive and flees to explore the outside world. The boy and the handkerchief experience different adventures. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1960. Týrlová was known for her animations and has often been called the mother of Czech animation.

THE VIOLINIST (1959, USA) by Ernest Pintoff was screened at our festival in 1960 and tells the story of Harry, the Violinist who learns a lesson through changing the way he plays. The film is voiced by Carl Reiner. Pintoff won the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film with this short film in 1960.

YŪREISEN (The Phantom Ship) (Japan, 1956) by Noburō Ōfuji is a short film that was screened at our festival in 1960. The film tells the story of the ship without dialogue. Ōfuji was well known for his traditional animated films as well as being one “of the most notable auteurs of anime of the first half of the 20th century” and the Ōfuji Noburō Award gets awarded in his honour every year, at the Mainichi Film Awards (en-academic.com).

SERENAL (Canada, 1959) by Norman McLaren is, according to the National Film Board of Canada, a „gay fantasia of patterned sound in which Norman McLaren salutes the West Indies, painting the spirit of fiesta on film to the lively beat of an island tune by Trinidad's Grand Curacaya Orchestra.“ The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1960.

WORKS OF CALDER (USA, 1950) by Herbert Matter is a short film shown at our festival in 1960. With several different pictures of nature, the sun, and a little boy walking on the beach as well as the sculptor Alexander Calder and his work, Matter shows how Calder was inspired by nature. Matter was primarily known as a photographer.

FROM KAISER TO FUHRER (USA, 1959) by Isaac Kleinerman is part of a documentary series hosted by Walter Cronkite, examining outstanding events and personalities of the twentieth century. This specific episode discusses the years preceding WWII in Germany and the rise of Adolf Hitler. It was part of our festival in 1960.

We Shall Never Die (Israel, 1959) by Alina and Yoram Gross is an experimental short film, "dedicated to the millions who died at the hands of Nazi criminals", which was screened at our festival in 1960. Gross is perhaps best known for his adaptations of children’s characters from books and films but maintained an interest in experimental film throughout his career and established several awards for young filmmakers in this field.

Skyscraper (USA, 1959) is another experimental short film by Shirley Clarke, documenting the construction of a new skyscraper, the Tishman building on prestigious Fifth Avenue. The film was nominated for an Oscar and won the Venice Film Festival award and several other awards. This film was also shown at our festival in 1960.

Bridges-Go-Round (USA, 1958) by Shirley Clarke is an experimental work, consisting of a montage of images of New York’s various bridges. With two different soundtracks the film gives the bridges either the image of an urban jungle (jazz version by Teo Macero) or an alien landscape (electro-acoustic version by Louis & Bebe Barron). Screened in Oberhausen in 1960. This link shows both versions.

Motýli tady nežijí (Butterflies Do Not Live Here) (Czechoslovakia, 1958) by Miro Bernat is a documentary about the life of Jewish children forced to live in Theresienstadt and about their drawings from the Teresian ghetto. The children were later executed by the Nazis. The film won the Palme d'Or - Short Film in 1959 and was screened at our festival in 1960.

Another short film by Walerian Borowczyk and Chris Marker which was screened at our festival in 1960 is SZKOLA (The School) (Poland, 1958). In this black and white film, a Polish soldier is lined up against a wall and forced to do various training techniques. It is part animated and part still photography.

LES ASTRONAUTES (The Astronauts) (Poland, 1956) by Walerian Borowczyk and Chris Marker is a short film about the adventures of an inventor who builds a spacecraft to have adventures, in which he visits “human” planets, peeps at women and gets involved in intergalactic warfare. The film was screened at our festival in 1960.

ENERGETICALLY YOURS (USA, 1957) was designed by legendary artist and cartoonist Ronald Searle for the Standard Oil Company and is a cartoon of the history of the usage of energy by mankind. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1959 and features the music of composer Lyn Murray.

FLEBUS (USA, 1957) by Ernest Pintoff and Gene Deitch and narrated by Allen Swift is about Flebus, whom everyone likes, but who grows desperate when he meets the one person who can’t stand him. The film was screened at our festival in 1959. 

With FREE RADICALS (USA, 1958) Len Lye participated in our festival in 1959. This black and white animated short film is said to be one of Lyes best works. The film won second prize at the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels and in 2008 Free Radicals was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress as a “classic film” that it would “preserve for all time.”  

THE JUGGLER OF OUR LADY (USA 1957) by Al Kouzel and Gene Deitch is an animated adaptation of the eponymous book by R.O. Blechman, narrated by Boris Karloff, about a juggler who decides to become an ascetic and then a monk. Kouzel worked at Terrytoons and directed the film, while Deitch was known for his illustrations and animations, including for Tom and Jerry and Popeye. 

UNDER NIGHT STREETS (GB 1958) by Ralph Keene is a documentary film about the track workers and track cleaners who maintain the London Underground system every night, while the trains are not running. Keene, a well-known documentary filmmaker, won the Special Mention of the International Jury at our festival in 1959. 

HARLEM WEDNESDAY by Faith and John Hubley (USA 1959) was screened at our festival in 1959, showing the paintings of Gregorio Prestopino, which convey the sights and sounds of a day in Harlem to the music of Benny Carter. The Hubleys were known for their experimental film works and won several Oscars for their short films. 

HIGHWAY 1958 by Hilary Harris (USA 1958) was screened at our festival in 1959 - a fast moving Road Movie, shot from a moving car. Harris, who is regarded as one of the pioneers of time-lapse film, won a Bronze Medal for his work at the International Experimental Film Festival in Brussels in 1958.

We screened Joan and Peter Foldes’s ANIMATED GENESIS from 1952 for the first time in 1959. This short, a rough outline of the story of creation and evolution, is often abstract and almost psychedelic. It received the ‘Prix pour la couleur - court métrage’ at Cannes in 1952 – a prize for the best colour short.

Peter Burness’s PINK AND BLUE BLUES from 1952 was screened in Oberhausen in 1959. It is one of the many productions centering on the cartoon figure of Mr. Magoo, a short-sighted elderly gentleman whose misfortunes largely stem from his poor eyesight. This short was nominated for Best Short Subject at the 1953 Academy Awards.

Continuing after our festival break with Kenneth Anger’s FIREWORKS from 1947, screened in Oberhausen in 1959, is a milestone of gay cinema. This dream-like, experimental short which is “widely regarded as the first gay narrative film ever made in the U.S.” (Matthew Hays) stars the director himself as the main character. The film contains strong homoerotic imagery, coupled with elements of surrealism and horror. 

Karel Zeman’s PAN PROKOUK VYNÁLEZCEM (Mr. Prokouk, the Inventor), originally from 1949 and screened at our festival in 1958, is one of several films about the titular character created by the director. The strikingly detailed and fluid depiction of small machinery stands out in this black-and-white stop-motion film.

Dušan Vukotić’s COWBOY JIMMY from 1957 is an animation that ticks off all the familiar Western tropes. We screened the comic book-style animation in 1958.

Ion Popescu-Gopo’s film SCURTĂ ISTORIE (A Brief History) from 1956 is a humorous and, indeed, brief animation that tells a story of natural and human history. We screened this film in 1958, one year after it won a Palme d’Or at Cannes for the best short film.

Another live-action film directed by Norman McLaren and animated by Evelyn Lambart, A CHAIRY TALE from 1957 is part pixilation, part reminiscent of puppet animation. The film tells the story of a man who tries to sit down on a chair that repeatedly dodges his attempts. Reminiscent of silent-film era slapstick, this short was screened at our festival in 1958, and was nominated in the category “Short Subject (Live Action)” at the Oscars that same year.

An unusual festival entry, Ward Kimball’s MAN IN SPACE from 1955 is an episode from the television show ‘Disneyland’ and was shown at our festival in 1958. Walt Disney himself addresses the viewer, as does the director. The film, made even before Sputnik 1 was launched, explores the topic of manned space travel and explains scientific concepts and technological advances through animation. Not only does the film strive for credibility by interviewing pioneering engineers; our contemporary knowledge gleaned from years of manned space travel makes this film and its predictions also an intriguing watch, one that was nominated as Best Documentary Short at the 1957 Oscars.

A little known fact about our festival is that there simply was no edition in 1957. Therefore we are now continuing our journey through our festival years with an entry from 1958: Max de Haas’s MASKERAGE. Filmed at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, the film shows the museum’s extensive collection of masks from colonised nations. Through the use of lighting and sound, the masks appear as objects of terror - an act of Othering other cultures’ means of artistic expression that contemporary viewers may find insensitive. Nevertheless, the film may function as a foil contributing to the current discourse of repatriation of cultural artefacts.

Břetislav Pojar’s film O SKLENIČKU VÍC (A Drop too Much) from 1954 was screened at our 1956 festival. The stop-motion film, which won the Prix du film de marionettes at Cannes in the year of its release, boasts an astounding level of realism. The sets believably mimic the outdoors as well as interiors, an effect that is enhanced by carefully measured depths in the cinematography.

We screened Hans Fischerkoesen’s DER SCHNEEMANN (The Snowman) from 1944 for the first time in 1956. Often dubbed the ”German Walt Disney”, Fischerkoesen worked under Hitler, who hoped to build an animation industry rivalling America’s. This film is a product of that period in Fischerkoesen’s career, and indeed one can recognise Disney’s influence on Fischerkoesen in the titular character’s expressively animated physicality.

Today’s film, Jószef Misik’s KERMESSE FANTASTIQUE from 1948, is a lush piece of stop-motion animation. Screened in 1955, this film impresses with its rich, warm colours and stunningly fluid and inventive animation, resulting in a beautiful piece of Gay 1890s nostalgia.

Norman McLaren’s NEIGHBOURS, screened in 1955, is a brightly coloured, bizarre piece of pixilation. Created with an anti-war message in mind, and twice nominated at the 1952 Oscars (both as Short Subject and documentary Short Subject), the film proved controversial: both for its politics and for being a fictional film that won the documentary category.

Today’s film, Norman McLaren’s A PHANTASY, from 1949 and screened at our 1955 festival, is another entry from the prolific animator’s vast oeuvre. In this film, McLaren layers analogue and synthetic sound over a fluidly animated, liminal dreamscape; creating an elegant piece of animation that is both soothing and unnerving.

Albert Lamorisse’s CRIN BLANC, CHEVAL SAUVAGE (White Mane), which we screened in 1955, is a classic story of friendship between a child and an unruly animal. Employing traditional Western movie imagery in shots of the picturesque Camargue region of France, the film won the 1953 Palme d’or at Cannes.

Paul Haesaerts's VISITE A PICASSO starts out as a regular art history documentary, but then surprises viewers with an appearance of Picasso himself, creating art on camera (a year before Henri-Georges Clouzot’s famous LE MYSTÈRE PICASSO).

Another wonderful documentary by former Honorary President of our festival, Bert Haanstra.  In THE RIVAL WORLD from 1955, screened in Oberhausen in the same year, Bert Haanstra's portrays insects as a complex, disease-bearing species, and the ways in which people across the world try to protect themselves – cutting-edge science in 1955.

Today's film is Roger Blais's CANADA'S ATOM GOES TO WORK, screened at our second festival in 1955. A document of a time when nuclear energy and radiation were not yet primarily associated with environmenta hazards, but World War 2's nuclear attacks were still fresh in the minds of many.

Not many films from our first festival year have been digitized and made available online - and some already featured in the "Legendary Shorts" series; so today's film is both the second and final entry from 1954 that we are able to present here. In Norman McLaren's A LITTLE PHANTASY, Arnold Böcklin's famous painting Isle of the Dead is brought to life through animation.

Today, we are kicking off our new series OBERHAUSEN REVISITED. Our Festival History in Shorts, presenting films from our almost 70 years long festival history that we have not previously shared online. Our very first find is Norman McLaren's DOTS, which was screened as part of the programme "International Avant-garde" in 1954, our first festival year. In this award-winning film, McLaren employs a fascinating technique of "painted" synthetic sound production that was also used in his film LOOP, and thoroughly elaborated on in PEN POINT PERCUSSION; both of which we screened alongside this film.