The document describes the schedule and programme for the Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2020, including: - Film collections grouped by genre shown on different days - Masterclasses on animation and film editing techniques - A university showcase and guest programme on LGBT+ cinema The summary provides a high-level overview of the key information and structure contained in the original document in under 3 sentences.

1. Programme
https://issuu.com/aesthetica_magazine/docs/asff2020_programme?fr=sNj
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3. Schedule
WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY
FILM COLLECTION 1 Animation 4 (p191) Comedy 4 (p200) Documentary 3
(p215)
FILM COLLECTION 2 Comedy 2(p193) Thriller 1 (p208) Drama 8 (p216)
FILM COLLECTION 3 Drama 4 (p194) Documentary
Feature (p209)
Experimental 1
(p217)
MASTERCLASS Frame by Frame:
Animated Stories
(p26 - 4pm)
Bringing a Story to
Life: The Role of an
Editor (p28 -
11:30am)
UNIVERSITY
SHOWCASE
University of York
(p19 - 10am)
GUEST PROGRAMME LGBT+ Shorts:
Defining Gay Cinema
(p142)

4. Films 1
The compilation of 6 short films contained many different themes and stories. My personal favorite ‘Grab My Hand: A
Letter to My Dad’ talked a very emotional story between his father and his uncle. And his perspective on the story
between the two of them, and how the narrator thought they were superheros. This perspective on their story ties really
well with the art style, which had the art style of a comic book, which relates very heavily to superheros. I would highly
recommend this to other people, as it tells a very powerful message that I believe everyone needs to hear.
One other short film I believed was enjoyable was ‘The Passerby’. This is because I thought when watching the short film
for the first time I was very compelled by the story, as the way it was told is very unique and interesting, as you see small
glimpses of the whole streets perspective of the incident in the short film. The music in this short was also very powerful
as it was so overwhelming and really created much more tension as the story progressed. I would recommend this short
film to people who are interested in dramatic short films.
As for the other short films: ‘Sororal’, ‘Asmahan the Diva’, ‘The Fabric of You’ and ‘Evangeline’, I still thought most of them
had strong elements, they did not gain that initial interest like the other two stories did. ‘Sororal’ and ‘Asmahan the Diva’
did not do enough to make me care about the characters in the stories. ‘The Fabric of You’ I believed was too cryptic in it’s
storytelling and made unnecessary character development choices, ruining my immersion whilst watching. And in
‘Evangeline’ did not have dialogue in it which in some scenes ruined any tension during the story. All these short films did
have positives but I would not recommend them as highly as ‘Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad’ and ‘The Passerby’.
FILM TITLE FILM GENRE
Helplessness & Despair Animation

5. Films 2
This compilation of 6 short films all with the theme of drama shared that genre title very well, despite all stories being
vastly different. My personal favorite of the 6 I watched was ‘Sandpaper’. I enjoyed this one a lot because it tackled the
issue of mental health very well and the story very easily made you very invested in the two main characters(Sam and
Hansen) very quickly as the film opens up immediately into Hansen struggling to sleep. I thought the metaphor of the
group all sanding stuff together was very good, as they all start very rough but then start to smoothen everything out over
time and work. I would highly recommend this to anyone that is interested by movies involving heavy subjects.
Three other films I enjoyed out of the six were ‘All the Trimmings’, ‘Uncle Goose Waits For A Phone Call’ and ‘Flicker’. ‘All
the Trimmings’ shows a story of a dad desperately trying to give his two children a good christmas dinner, going to
extreme lengths to make this happen for them, the reason I enjoyed it is because it was very entertaining to watch the
father slowly learn throughout the course of the short film what his children really want to do during christmas, which is
spend time with their dad. ‘Uncle Goose Waits For A Phone Call’ tells the story of a very lonely man waiting for a phone
call from his friend, and you watch how desperately he chooses to stay by the phone to always make sure he’s there when
his friend calls. This story gained my interest as you feel very sorry for Uncle Goose as you see how lonely his life is
without his friend and this keeps you driven to see what happens next in the film. Finally, ‘Flicker’ tells a very powerful
story involving men's mental health, as you watch the main character Danny suffer panic attacks after getting assaulted at
a nightclub and you constantly watch him fall into a downward spiral as he plays the assault off like a joke until he breaks
down at the end, and sees his friends will always have his back. Out of these three stories the one I would most
recommend is ‘Flicker’ as I believe the message it tells is very important and the message gets to the audience very well.
The final two short films remaining are ‘To Sonny’ and ‘Mandem’. I did not enjoy these stories as much because ‘To Sonny’
did not capture my interest nearly as much as the other stories as I was emotionally invested in the main character which I
think is important in a drama themed movie. And I believed ‘Mandem’ was too short for the story it was trying to tell so
the plot was much less understandable compared to the others.
FILM TITLE FILM GENRE
To All The Boys Drama

6. Films 3
FILM TITLE FILM GENRE
Strange Tales Comedy

7. Films 4
Out of the six short movies I was shown, my personal favorite was ‘The Last Flight’. This is because
FILM TITLE FILM GENRE
Future & Decline Animation

8. Films 5
FILM TITLE FILM GENRE

9. Films 6
FILM TITLE FILM GENRE

10. Films 7
FILM TITLE FILM GENRE

11. Films 8
FILM TITLE FILM GENRE

12. Films 9
FILM TITLE FILM GENRE

13. Masterclass 1
This masterclass was about Anthony Farquhar-Smith telling his stories and experiences of creating stop motion animation
throughout the course of his career. He also talks about the limitations he had to deal with when working on older
projects, the main example he used was one of his older creations called ‘Flatworld’. He discussed the struggles of using
older technology as most of it was much bigger giving much less workspace and you also had to scale all objects down to
give a manageable amount of workspace.
We were also told where Anthony gained his passion for animation from, being animated disney movies, his examples
being ‘The Jungle Book(1967)’ and ‘The Aristocrats(1970)’. Watching this masterclass taught me that you will only gain
skill with animation through major time commitment and dedication. This is shown by looking at the many difficulties
Anthony had to deal with when first beginning his career as an animator. These struggles involved both the technology at
the time, as well as the very demanding work schedule, making him and his team have to commit a lot of time into each
project.
Anthony also talked about his experiences with the movies ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ and ‘Corpse Bride’, where creative direction
was explained and how much it impacted the process of animating the movies.
The reason I chose to watch this masterclass is because I believed it would relate well to my career ambitions and
university courses. As I would like to study either animation or film making at university, which made this masterclass very
beneficial for me.
MASTERCLASS TITLE
Frame by Frame: Animated Stories

14. Masterclass 2
In this masterclass, cinematographer Tristan Oliver talks about his experience with working on stop motion animated
movies such as ‘ParaNorman(2012)’, ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox(2009) and ‘Isle of Dogs(2018).
Tristan discusses a lot about uses of lighting when creating stop motion, and the difficulties of making it perfect each
frame. He uses two examples of this, both of them containing small glass bottles making it challenging to get the perfect
colours needed as the scale for eat scene is much smaller than it appears on film. He then discusses the process of
creating the perfect colours and shades of light by using dye’s to change the colours of inside the bottles, helping create
the perfect atmosphere needed for each scene.
This can help give me information that could be very useful for any kinds of filming, as lighting is vital in any kind of filming
style. This relates this masterclass very well to my FMP as it will be very useful to know when I am in production for my
FMP, as it teaches me very key information that is necessary for productions.
MASTERCLASS TITLE
Cinematography: Capturing the Action,
One Frame at a Time

15. University Showcase
SHOWCASE TITLE
Why Does Storytelling Matter?

16. Guest Programme
GUEST PROGRAMME TITLE