Film Program: FEATURE FILMS

Feature Films

Release from Heaven
by Ali Noori Oskouci
Islamic Republic of Iran
01:16:00

In a war torn country, a female writer and teacher has to accompany two of her students on a life changing journey.

Ali Noori Oskouci was born in 1981, Tehran, Iran. He is a graduate of art who has started his art career from high school as a photographer, cartoonist and film maker. He then majored in cinema and tried different genres including fiction, documentary and animation. Along with film making, he also teaches in art colleges.

Ethel & Ernest
by Roger Mainwood
United Kingdom
01:34:00

Based on the 1998 book by the acclaimed British author and illustrator Raymond Briggs, the beautifully hand-drawn, animated feature film tells the true story of Briggs’s parents – Ethel and Ernest – two ordinary Londoners living through a period of extraordinary events and immense social change. The film follows the lives of lady’s maid Ethel and milkman Ernest from their first chance meeting in 1928, through the birth of their son Raymond in 1934, to their deaths, within months of each other, in 1971.

Roger Mainwood is one of the UK’s leading animation directors. He worked as an animator on adaptations of Raymond Briggs’ books The Snowman, When the Wind Blows and Father Christmas. His first major directing role was on Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Two Bad Mice and Johnny Town Mouse, and he was also animation director on the feature length TV specials The Wind in the Willows and Willows in Winter. Other directing roles have been on episodes of the BBC comedy series Stressed Eric, and he was series director on the BAFTA nominated pre-school series Meg and Mog. Ethel and Ernest is his debut animated feature.

Barkley
by Li-Wei Chiu
Taiwan
01:28:00

Fido, ran into an animal city, where he met Barkley and other human-like animal friends. Fido accidentally finds out that the animal city is governed by a magician known as “God” who pretends to have infinite supernatural powers. Using dazzling tricks, the “God” convinced all animal to worship him unquestionably. Fido and Barkley are determined to expose “God” for what he truly is , a fraud and find their way home

Li-Wei Chiu’s films have won numerous awards, including the China International Cartoon & Animation Festival, the Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival / Special Jury Award, the Golden Bell Awards /Best Animation Program, Digital Content Product / Best Animation Program, the 41th Golden Horse Award for Best Visual Effects, the 44th Golden Horse Award for Best Short Film, the Golden Harvest Award for Best Animated Film, the Grand Prize at the Taipei Film Festival, Taipei Film Festival / City Festival First Prize, Abu Dhabi International Environmental Film Festival, Polish Film Festival / Best Animation Award, and his films have been included in competitions at animation festivals in Spain, France, and Germany.

Abina and the Important Men
by Soumyaa Behrens
USA
01:00:00

Trevor Getz and Liz Clark’s graphic novel about a young woman who fights for her freedom in the courts of Africa’s gold coast in the late 1800’s comes to life in an animated feature produced by the Documentary Film Institute at San Francisco State University.

Behrens is an award-winning filmmaker whose projects have screened across the globe. Her work engages issues that influence the human condition and the political landscapes that shape identity and power structures within marginalized communities. Behrens is the Director of the Documentary Film Institute at San Francisco State University.