Quo vadis homo sapiens

Brief History

This 1957 Romanian short animation and Cannes Film Festival winner skilfully and with incredible artistic expression manages to condense the entire narrative of human evolutionary theory into a ten minute short film. Not only that, he eerily anticipates the communist triumph of the USSR launching the first man into space by a few years.

The Seven Arts

Homo sapiens

A few years before Kubrick in "2001", although in a more farcical way, Ion Popescu-Gopo shows the evolution of a strange creature named man from the time he started to rub flint stones to nowadays when he has managed to split the atoms.

Audio Video

A comic history of telecommunications throughout the world.

Pilule I

Pilule II

Intermezzo for an Eternal Love

The little man learns that the Earth is in mortal danger due to pollution.

Behold the Man

Dialogue between a man from Earth and an alien about the advantages and darker sides of earthly civilization.

Infinity

A naked man keeps himself busy throughout an infinite space.

Trei mere

One of the primitive people discovered an apple tree but there is a condition: he can pluck apples from it, but only keep every third.

Energica

The little man discovers oil and invents all kinds of machines, including a robot woman, to satisfy his consumer needs.

Sportmen's Humour

A series of short sketches with Gopo's Little Man about sports.

Barca

Two men and a boat

The Imprint

An animation with Gopo's Little Man.

One Day in Bucharest

A musical film about... one day on the streets of Bucharest, in the '80s, having Anca Sigartau as a tour guide.

Steps to the Moon

An aspiring astronaut prepares his ship for take-off, plugs in a razor and causes a blackout. In the deep darkness the boy imagines himself meeting the literary characters who have enthralled readers past with their stories of space travel.

Cantemir

Historical adventure film that evokes the figure of the Prince Dimitrie Cantemir. The heroes fight for the manuscript "The History of the Ottoman Empire" and the jewels of the ruler's wife.

Trei mere

One of the primitive people discovered an apple tree but there is a condition: he can pluck apples from it, but only keep every third.

The Seven Arts

The Apprentice Wizard

A short film featuring Galax, the puppet man.

Three Times Bucharest

Three distinct cinematic stories that take place in Bucharest, made by three different directors, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the city's existence

The White Moor

Adapted from a folk legend, it tells the story of a bad-tempered nobleman and his chronically useless younger son - who dreams of being the mythical hero Harap Alb.

Faust XX

A terminally ill professor gets an immoral offer.

A Fantastic Comedy

This blend of comedy and psycho-drama is comprised of two disturbing stories. The first tells the tale of a robot who is set to Earth by his home planet to discover new energy sources. In the second a boy is sent into deep space as part of an inhuman experiment designed to create the perfect human.

The Bet

Based on a 19th century tale, this self-referential fantasy, complete with musical and animated interludes plus a cast of fairytale characters, tells the story of a bet between an old man and a fairy over a bag with two gold coins.

The Story of Love

A sci-fi fairy tale love story adventure about a young boy, who lands in a UFO, and the princess he falls in love with as an adult.

Maria, Mirabella

Two little girls - Maria and Mirabella - go to the woods for a walk and encounter several magical characters, among them a frog with his feet frozen in ice, a fireworm whose shoes keep catching fire, and a butterfly who's afraid of flying. To help their new friends, the girls must carry them to a sorceress who lives deep in the forest.

Behold the Man

Dialogue between a man from Earth and an alien about the advantages and darker sides of earthly civilization.

Brief History

This 1957 Romanian short animation and Cannes Film Festival winner skilfully and with incredible artistic expression manages to condense the entire narrative of human evolutionary theory into a ten minute short film. Not only that, he eerily anticipates the communist triumph of the USSR launching the first man into space by a few years.

A Bomb Was Stolen

A dialogue free Romanian science-fiction spy-comedy that draws upon farce, satire and surrealism as it subversively deconstructs the spy thriller with the protagonist's accidental discovery of a nuclear suitcase bomb and the subsequent fight over ownership between the rival powers of the criminals and the military.

Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas

Mickey, Minnie, and their famous friends Goofy, Donald, Daisy and Pluto gather together to reminisce about the love, magic and surprises in three wonder-filled stories of Christmas past.

Predator: Killer of Killers

While three of the fiercest warriors in human history—a Viking raider, a ninja in feudal Japan, and a WWII pilot—are killers in their own right, they are merely prey for their new opponent: the ultimate killer of killers.

Batman: Gotham Knight

Six interlocking stories reveal Bruce Wayne's earliest adventures as Batman and the steps he took to become the grim avenger of Gotham City.

Cinderella II: Dreams Come True

As a newly crowned princess, Cinderella quickly learns that life at the Palace - and her royal responsibilities - are more challenging than she had imagined. In three heartwarming tales, Cinderella calls on her animal friends and her Fairy Godmother to help as she brings her own grace and charm to her regal role and discovers that being true to yourself is the best way to make your dreams come true.

Genius Party

The seven short films making up GENIUS PARTY couldn’t be more diverse, linked only by a high standard of quality and inspiration. Atsuko Fukushima’s intro piece is a fantastic abstraction to soak up with the eyes. Masaaki Yuasa, of MIND GAME and CAT SOUP fame, brings his distinctive and deceptively simple graphic style and dream-state logic to the table with “Happy Machine,” his spin on a child’s earliest year. Shinji Kimura’s spookier “Deathtic 4,” meanwhile, seems to tap into the creepier corners of a child’s imagination and open up a toybox full of dark delights. Hideki Futamura’s “Limit Cycle” conjures up a vision of virtual reality, while Yuji Fukuyama’s "Doorbell" and "Baby Blue" by Shinichiro Watanabe use understated realism for very surreal purposes. And Shoji Kawamori, with “Shanghai Dragon,” takes the tropes and conventions of traditional anime out for very fun joyride.

The Animatrix

Straight from the creators of the groundbreaking Matrix trilogy, this collection of short animated films from the world's leading anime directors fuses computer graphics and Japanese anime to provide the background of the Matrix universe and the conflict between man and machines. The shorts include Final Flight of the Osiris, The Second Renaissance, Kid's Story, Program, World Record, Beyond, A Detective Story and Matriculated.