Merlin against Santa Claus

Walking towards the fire. In a ceaseless stream of light, people, landscapes and objects lead us to mysterious regions. French filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski’s work is hard to classify - and all the richer for it. Together with his wife Michèle, whose musique concrète compositions form the basis of the sound design, Bokanowski offers a prolonged, dense and visually visceral experience of the kind that is rare in cinema today. Difficult to define and locate, its strangeness is quite unique.

Drawn from elements of West African folk tales, it depicts how a newborn boy, Kirikou, saves his village from the evil witch Karaba.

A young woman lives with her sleeping husband. Prisoner of her loneliness, she refuses to accept that this man is only a memory.

On the planet Gandahar where peace reigns and poverty is unknown, this utopian lifestyle is upset by reports of people at the outlying frontiers being turned to stone. Sylvain is sent to investigate this mysterious threat.

On planet Perdide, an attack of giant hornets leaves young Piel alone in a wrecked car with his dying father. A mayday message reaches their friend Jaffar, an adventurer travelling through space. Onboard Jaffar’s shuttle are the renegade Prince Matton, his fiancée, and Silbad, who knows Perdide well. Thus begins an incredible race across space to save Piel.

There is a world with two towns that are big enemies: Pyross and Hydross.

A young shepherdess and a chimneysweep plan to get married and escape the clutches of a tyrannical king in love with her, assisted by the guile of a cheeky mockingbird, the king's archenemy.

Kid, a 15-year-old hard laborer, steals a map that promises to reveal the location of the notorious pirate Black Mor's treasure. Together with his crew -- MacGregor, Beanpole, Taka and Jim the monkey -- Kid procures a vessel and sets out to sea.

In the year 50 BC, Gaul is occupied by the Romans - nearly. But the small village of Asterix and his friends still resists the Roman legions with the aid of their druid's magic potion, which gives superhuman strength. Learning of this potion, a Roman centurion kidnaps the druid to get the secret formula out of him.

It’s the story of an encounter: a caged bear who can’t sing meets a little bird who can’t fly but who can sing beautifully. Their friendship will be mutually beneficial and together they will overcome their disabilities.

Animated short about the tale of the Magic Flute

The film is a sub-story to Kirikou and the Sorceress rather than a straight sequel. The movie is set while Kirikou is still a child and Karaba is still a sorceress. Like Princes et princesses and Les Contes de la nuit, it is an anthology film comprising several episodic stories, each of them describing Kirikou's interactions with a different animals. It is however unique among Michel Ocelot's films, not only in that it is co-directed by Bénédicte Galup (who has previously worked with him as an animator) but also for each of the stories being written by a different person (in all other cases, Ocelot has been the sole writer and director of his films).

Badluck is a man with the head of a fish (this is a play on words in French between « poisse » – bad luck and « poisson » – fish). Bubbles of bad luck come out of his mouth. When one of the bubbles follows somebody, it throws a spell on that person. And the victim is sent into a tailspin of misery and bad luck where the worst that can possibly happen always does, right up until death, in the most incredible circumstances (but meaningless for the other protagonists) ends his or her cycle of bad luck. With dark, scathing irony, the “Badluck” Chronicles will allow you to have a great deal of fun at somebody else’s expense. And you won’t even feel guilty about it !

One of the first animated short films. A wanderer enters a cabaret in the countryside and asks a waitress for a beer. She comes back with a pint, as the wanderer begins to court her. However, the kitchen boy comes, drinks the beer and vanishes. The wanderer, misunderstanding, asks for another beer. Then a traveler enters and has an argument with the wandered. During the argument, the kitchen boy appears, sips the second beer and runs away. As the traveler quits, the customer finds his glass empty again. He calls the waitress, expresses his disappointment and leaves. The kitchen boy comes in and explains to the waitress what he did with the two beers. They make fun together of the wanderer and leave. A lost film.

Appearing in his own TV commercials, unscrupulous toy maker, Wally P. Nezzer has convinced all of Dinkletown that "Christmas is when you get stuff!" With the town's children begging for more toys, it's sure to be the worst Christmas ever -- until one brave little Buzz-Saw Louie doll decides to take matters into his own hands! The Toy That Saved Christmas reminds children of all ages that "Christmas isn't about getting; it's about giving.

On the planet Ygam, the Draags, extremely technologically and spiritually advanced blue humanoids, consider the tiny Oms, human beings descendants of Terra's inhabitants, as ignorant animals. Those who live in slavery are treated as simple pets and used to entertain Draag children; those who live hidden in the hostile wilderness of the planet are periodically hunted and ruthlessly slaughtered as if they were vermin.

In the vestibule of a hospital room, a young boy waits to see his dying mother. The clamor and spiralling movements of bodies around him intensify, forming a grotesque circus—a cacophonous circle that pushes the child back, depriving him of one final touch of his mother's hand. Using rotoscoped drawings suggestive of charcoal sketches, as well as 3D and object animation techniques, The Circus compels viewing with its unsettling realism. Colour is employed metaphorically to subtly express the promise and the memory of maternal affection. Nicolas Brault's highly personal film, suffused with poetic modesty, casts a poignantly sincere gaze on the heartbreak of a child facing the fearful, mysterious experience of his mother's death.

Short film of 300 individually painted images. A lost film.

From Regina's personal and visual memories, a tribute to her uncle Thomas, who was an artistic inspiration and played a key role in her becoming a filmmaker. A moving tribute to a poet of the everyday.

The Kid Tintouin