It’s the SEMI FINALS!  We started with a round of 16 animated films fighting it out to be one of the lucky four films to grace the Northwest Film Forum screens this summer. Animation is not a genre, it’s a medium and according to our homie Guillermo, “Animation is cinema.”

We will show all four of our semi-finalists but who will take the crown for NWFF ultimate animated feature? Your vote decides!

We’ve gathered films that span the breadth of what animation is and can be, with offerings from all over the world. Accompanying this bracket will be workshops that expound on the magic that is the illusion of animation.

All voters are entered to win a a prize package each round with 2 movie tickets, a large popcorn, 2 non-alcoholic beverages, and two candy selections!

Co-Presented with Sea Slug Animation Festival.

ANIMATION IS CINEMA!

The Land Before Time (1988) Dir. Don Bluth USA

An orphaned brontosaurus named Littlefoot sets off in search of the legendary Great Valley. A land of lush vegetation where the dinosaurs can thrive and live in peace. Along the way he meets four other young dinosaurs, each one a different species, and they encounter several obstacles as they learn to work together in order to survive.

Persepolis (2007) Dir. Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud

In 1970s Iran, Marjane ‘Marji’ Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah’s defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.

The Wolf House (1991) Dir. Joaquín Cociña & Cristóbal León

After escaping from a religious colony in Chile, Maria seeks shelter in a mansion where she’s taken in by two pigs, its only inhabitants. Like in a stop-motion dream, the universe of the house reacts to her feelings. The animals slowly morph into humans and the house into a dark, menacing world.

The Last Unicorn (1982) Dir. Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr.

A unicorn learns from a riddle-speaking butterfly that she is supposedly the last of her kind, all the others having been herded away by the monstrous Red Bull. The unicorn sets out to discover the truth behind the butterfly’s words. She is eventually joined on her quest by Schmendrick, a second-rate magician, and Molly Grue, a middle-aged woman who dreamed all her life of seeing a unicorn. Their journey leads them far from home, all the way to the castle of King Haggard.