The Electric Hotel

This experiment was a “prestige advertisement” for Shell Motor Oil. As conventional animation became dominated by Walt Disney, many European filmmakers turned to puppets as an alternative, and Lye enlisted the help of avant-garde friends such as Humphrey Jennings and John Banting to make the amusing puppets. Exploring the still-complex color process, which involved the combination of three separate images, Lye creates such a vivid storm scene that reviewers hailed it as “proof that the color film has entered a new stage.” The music is Holst’s The Planets. - Harvard Film Archive

The passion for high speed can nowadays almost be seen in the new-born. The film shows that such passion, if not controlled, is self-destructing and even suicidal. At least this is the way Trnka presents it in this satiric story. —kratkyfilm.cz

A young worm is chased by the Early Bird, but then a snake and two crows join the chase.

A boy puppet falls in love with a girl puppet. In a cruel twist of fate,they are separated when they are purchased by different people. When they chance upon each other again, the boy puppet does everything in his power to return to her side.

Two TV-watching enthusiasts pioneer a clever way to live on their couch until an unexpected event hurls them back into their youthful past.

A film exploring the nature of sex and gender roles. Nymph, a fairy, walks and dances through a woodland before being pursued by Pan, an evil spirit.

An oppressive droning score makes this rendering of the Faust legend quite disturbing to watch. The film itself consists of a number of impressive ‘appearing out of thin air’ effects, some lavish costumes, sets and backdrops. A climactic sword fight between a man and the Devil is a standout scene.

A Japanese-set magic show. There is a lot of visual trickery on display, ending with an amazing effect using reverse footage and superimposing/projecting images on top of one another.

This is a mesmerising little short that employs a peculiar bird’s eye view of a mischievous devil who dances around, performing strange tricks and making sexy ladies appear out of nowhere. The colourful visual effects are very impressive for the time.

Various scenes from New Testament and Old: Christian martyrdom under Roman rule, Daniel in the lion's den, and Belshazzar's vision of a floating hand spelling the end of his rule.

This is another short, simple dance number. It’s quite stunning and unusual though with a bat turning into a woman who proceeds to give us a skirt dance before disappearing into thin air. The dance is mesmerising with the skirt stunningly changing colour throughout the film.

With a beautifully painted Arabian backdrop and some vivid colours, this is one of the more visually impressive pieces.

Vom kleinen Maulwurf, der wissen wollte, wer ihm auf den Kopf gemacht hat

A compelling and unsettling documentary, Ghost Train introduces us to an elderly man whose wife is hospitalised with dementia. Struggling to cope, he visits Dracula's theatre restaurant, where he forms a bond with one of the performers.

Wallace and Gromit try out ten of their latest inventions—which rarely work as planned.

A young caterpillar yearns to fly like the butterflies and birds, but cannot launch himself high enough to do so ... until a couple start playing badminton nearby.

A man goes out on New Year's Day and is greeted by everyone with "Happy New Year", in the hope of getting a tip. The fellow is so annoyed that he runs into trouble with the law and almost loses his mind.

The morning shift at a big-city radio station.

People magically appear and disappear from an oversized musical cigar dispenser.

A dog decides to quit the slapstick comedy of cartoons and go to his country home to concentrate on Shakespeare, but two troublesome yet polite gophers foil his grand plans.