The animator Anton Octavian, known for the short animated films as: My Friend is a Cloud, Falling Down and The Fog, will participate in Annecy International Animated Film Festival with his famous Elmando.

Anton, a graduate of the Arts in Timisoara in 2008, is known for his talent in animation.

Elmando was a journey in itself. I started with Dave Famularo, an old friend from The Mantra, that I’ve worked with in the past and who told us about Sandro and about this project. Sandro met Elmando (a Congolese refugee now aged 50) in Paris. When he was 10, his village was attacked and his mother was kidnapped and he went in search of her. The clip starts with this story and reinterprets some of his adventures. I filmed in 2014 in Naples, with a team of 5 people and about 20 restless and fantastic children, it was a whole adventure. Then we moved on to assembly and eventually we put on drawing. The film is a combination of digital rotoscoping and 2D, many backgrounds were restored because we had no sets and we didn’t use green screen”says Anton Octavian for animationmagazine.eu.

„Elmando’s story is told by Sandro, from here started the script written by me and Andreea. The storyboard was also developed by her and we worked for a month to detail, and then we went to Naples. In five months we drew over 2,000 unique designs. For Andreea was the first project of its kind and we had a period of adjustment because we had to coordinate the style, but in the end went well, „added Anton.

„Sandro’s music is full of energy and excitement and we tried to carry this also visual. It was hard to find an emotional balance between a very rhythmic and joyful song and a story so sad. If you look in, one scene can have different 5-8 frames. It was a real challenge at assembly to keep up with the track, but in the end it became a short musical clip ” said the filmmaker animated short film.

Elmando had the premire at FIFF in Namur, then traveled to animation largest festivals: from the SICAF in Seoul to Anima Brussels in Stuttgart, Anima Mundi, Amin’est and Atlanta Film Festival. In June, it is in competition at Annecy.

„As a prize, we took 2nd place in The Best European Film Anim!Arte in Brazil, Mediteraneo Best Film at the Rome Film Fest Tracce and Best Animated Short at SEEfest in Los Angeles. The video was seen by thousands of people all over the world and now is competing in Annecy. I think it’s the first short in 25 years from Romania and this is a prize in itself ”

Currently Anton is working on two scripts for short films and a site.