The upcoming festival reveals special retrospectives on animators Mariusz Wilczyński and Jodie Mack; the 2021 Ottawa International Animation Festival runs online September 22 - October 3.
The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) has revealed this year’s collection of retrospectives and special screenings; each year, the festival celebrates Canadian and international animators who have made outstanding contributions to the field.
This year’s special series kicks off with:
Mariusz Wilczyński Retrospective - OIAF 2020 Grand Prize for Best Feature winner.
- A self-taught artist who has been creating animated auteur cinema for over twenty years, his works include several short films (Times Have Passed, For My Mother and Me, Unfortunately, Kizi Mizi) and music videos (Allegro ma non tropp, Death to Five). His most recent work, Kill It and Leave This Town, took 11 years to complete.
- Retrospectives of Wilczyński’s films have been screened at MoMA in New York, National Museum of Brasília, Tokyo International Forum and The National Museum in Warsaw. His animations have been shown at the National Gallery in London and at Berlinale.
Jodie Mack Retrospective – 2021 OIAF Jury Member
- Mack uses recycled materials, injecting life and energy into the materials she uses.
- Mack received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2007.
- Her films have screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Jeonju International Film Festival, and the Viennale.
- Mack has presented solo programs at the Anthology Film Archives, BFI Festival, National Gallery of Art, REDCAT, and the Wexner Center for the Arts.
- Her work has been featured in Artforum, Cinema Scope, and the New York Times.
- A 2017/18 Radcliffe Fellow and a 2019 resident at the Headlands Centre for the Arts, Mac currently teaches animation at Dartmouth College in the United States.
- Mack’s animated feature, The Grand Bizarre, will be available late-July on Criterion’s online streaming platform.
Wong Ping - Jurist at OIAF20.
- A self-taught animator, Wong’s videos take on a bright and childlike aesthetic, creating a light-hearted, humorous, and accessible approach to the deep psychological issues experienced by the protagonists in his films.
- Born in Hong Kong, Wong received his BA from Curtin University, Perth, Australia in 2005.
- In 2018, he was the recipient of the inaugural Camden Arts Centre Emerging Arts Prize, and in 2019, he was one of the winners of The Ammodo Tiger Short Competition at the 48th International Film Festival Rotterdam.
- Wong’s work is held in several permanent collections including Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; M+, Hong Kong; KADIST, Paris/San Francisco; Fosun Art Foundation, Shanghai, among others.
Mike Maryniuk - 2021 OIAF Jury Member
- A self-taught artist from Manitoba, Canada, Maryniuk’s animation style is an inventive hybrid of Michel Gondry, Caroline Leaf and Les Blank.
- His films have screened at Sundance, SXSW, Annecy, and around the globe.
Learn more about OIAF 2021 special screenings and retrospectives here.
Source: Ottawa International Animation Festival
