This past weekend, Laughing Place was invited to cover the CCI-IFF (Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival) Animation Showcase at the recently opened Comic-Con Museum in San Diego.
This was my first time personally visiting the Comic-Con Museum, and it was great finally getting to see the permanent space created by Comic-Con International to celebrate the popular arts.
The CCI-IFF Animation Showcase spotlighted eight independent animated films from all over the world, each of which won Best Animated Film at the festival at some point over the past twenty years. The event was held in the theater on the museum’s lower level at 2:00 PM this past Saturday, February 17th.
The first of the eight short films featured was entitled Gorgonas, and was written and directed by Salvador Sanz from Argentina. It took home the CCI-IFF award in 2006, and it is described as “A retake on the classic story of the gorgons brought forward to the modern world and turned into an apocalyptic horror story.”
Watch “Gorgonas”:
The second short, written and directed by New York City’s Kun-i Chang, is entitled Fission and involves “A man who sees himself as graffiti on the wall.”
Watch “Fission”:
Third up is Wolf Dog Tales, which is written and directed by Bernadine Santistevan (also of New York). The synopsis for this short is as follows: “One day an ancient one took his grandson out for a walk, when suddenly, out of nowhere, they came across two wolves in a fight to the death–the battle between the good wolf and the bad wolf. The one that wins is the one that you feed.”
Watch “Wolf Dog Tales” trailer:
Third was Summer Bummer by the very famous American animator Bill Plympton. Its very brief story is described as “A man about to go swimming imagines what horrors could be lurking in his backyard pool.”
Watch "Summer Bummer":
Animated short number five was MITE by writer director Walter Volbers of Germany. “In a hotel hallway, the camera plunges into the microcosm of the hotel corridor carpet. Between crystal structures and inhabitants of this world, we see an American house dust mite at work.”
Watch MITE:
Writer/director Eric Law Anderson brought us the sixth short, which was entitled The Looking Planet. “During the construction of the universe, a young member of the Cosmos Corps of Engineers decides to break some fundamental laws in the name of self-expression.”
Watch "The Looking Planet":
The seventh and penultimate film was Wishing Box, in which “A pirate discovers a treasure chest and brings it aboard his ship. Upon opening the chest, he discovers there is more to the chest than meets the eye.” This one was written by Wenli “Lizzie” Zhang from San Francisco and directed by Zhang and Nan Li.
Watch “Wishing Box” trailer:
The final film screened during the event is not available to watch online in any form just yet, but that’s probably because it was the most recent– it took home the CCI-IFF prize in 2023, and it’s called The Horologist, written and directed by Jared Lee from Malaysia. “Obsessed with time, Sand found a way to sell time itself. While his rich customers stay young, they never question Sand's discovery and the source of their youth.”
I definitely enjoyed seeing these films during the Showcase, and was incredibly impressed by the tremendous amount of talent on display in the shorts. But I also really got a kick out of taking a look around the Comic-Con Museum for the first time, and during my visit I spotted a number of very familiar pop-culture artifacts as part of the entertaining and educational exhibits.
For additional information on the Comic-Con Museum and to purchase advance tickets to visit, be sure to visit Comic-Con Internatonal’s official website.