MAESTRO
In an intimate dressing room Maestro is preparing for his big performance with the help of a studious iron arm. When everything is set, Maestro goes to the light to perform his scene.
CREATORS
Written, designed, directed and produced by Géza M. Tóth
Music by Attila Pacsay
Animation and visual effects by Zoltán Bogdán, Béla Klingl, Árpád Koós and Tamás Megyeri
Sound design by Ákos Ambrus and Imre Madácsi
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
MAESTRO is a short animated film directed by Géza M. Tóth. It was nominated for a 2007 Academy Award® for Best Animated Short Film and won more than 40 international festivel prizes. This individual project was based on the director’s own invented story. M. Tóth drew his inspiration for the film from his big, traditional family. He recounts growing up with antique furniture, old toys and wooden clocks that charmed him with their secrets. He felt that they all had their own stories to tell. Thus, he decided to use the bird as the caricature for Maestro and the clockwork camera movement to tell the story of Maestro’s preparation for his big “performance”. MAESTRO is the first film M. Tóth has done using 3D computer animation. He felt it was the most appropriate technique to allow the complex camera movement and lighting to illuminate the intricate relationship of the characters. By moving the camera in a clockwise fashion around the dressing room, M. Tóth tried to generate an individual and dramatic story out of a simple, common occurrence. The five minutes of the film is built on one scene, but the camera movement is continuous and jumps like the secondhand arm of a clock. This complex movement combines with the characters’ particular personality to lead you up to the finale in the final seconds of the film.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Year of production: 2005
Running time: 5 min
Animation technique: 3D
Format: 35 mm
Aspect: 1:1,85
Sound: Dolby Digital
Dialogues: none
MAESTRO's festival results
2008 – Inernational Animation Festival Hiroshima, Japan
2008 – FICCO – Mexico City International Contemporary Film Festival, Mexico
2007 – Academy Award nomination for Best Animation Short Film
2007 – Kawasaki Digital Short Film Festival, Japan (Superior Prize)
2007 – FIKE-2007 – Evora International Short Film Festival, Portugal (Audience Award)
2007 - LUCANIA Film Festival, Lucania, Italy (Animation 1st Prize)
2007 – Semana de Cine de Medina del Campo, Medina, Spain (Special Prize)
2007 - NAFF Neum Animated Film Festival, Bosnia Herzegovina (Grand Prize)
2007 – SARDINIAFILMFESTIVAL, Sassari, Italy (Shortest Category Grand Prize)
2007 - 19th PRIX Danube Festival of Television Programmes for Children and Youth, Bratislava, Slovakia (Animation 1st Prize, Student Jury Award)
2007 - Fano International Film Festival, Italy (2nd prize)
2007 – Mar de Plata International Film Festival, Spain
2007 - Taiwan International Animation Festival (TIAF), Taiwan
2007 – Cinematik International Film Festival, Pöstyén, Slovakia
2006 - Ankara Festival on Wheels, Turkey
2006 – Bologna Future Film Festival, Italy (in competition)
2006 - Festival européen du film court de Brest, France
2006 – ANIMA, Brusels, Belgium (in competition)
2006 - GRANADA International Young Film-Makers Festival, Granada, Spain (Special mention)
2006 - Jerusalem International Film Festival
2006 – Festival IndieLisboa, Lisbon, Portugal (in competition)
2006 – London International Animated Film Festival, UK
2006 – Melbourne International Animated Film Festival, Australia
2006 – Nashville Film Festival, USA
2006 – Patras International Film Festval, Greece (in competition)
2006 – Festival BIMINI, Riga, Estonia (in competition)
2006 – Cinequest San José Film Festival
2006 – Trickfilm Festival, Stuttgart, Germany
2006 - Marematraggio Film Festival, Trieste, Italy (CEI Award)
2006 – Warsaw Film Festival
2006 – Animafest, Zagreb, Croatia (in competition)
2006 - Reggio Film Festival, Reggio Emilia, Italy (Shortvillage Prize, Audience Prize)
2006 - III. VIDEOLOGIA International Film Festival, Volgograd, Russia (Audience Prize)
2006 - BACKUP Festival, Weimar, Germany (Audience Prize)
2006 - CANARIASMEDIAFEST06, Las Palmas, Spain (Animation Prize - ex aequo)
2006 - River and Rails International Film Festival, Smiths Falls, Canada (Best Animated short)
2006 - HIAFFF - 4th Hida International Animation Festival of Folktales and Fables, Gifu, Japan (Semi Grand Prize)
2006 - HUESCA International Short Film Festival, Spain (Special mention)
2006 - International Film Festival for Children and Youth, Zlín, Czech Republic (Hermina Tyrlova Award)
2006 - 8th International Panorama of Independent Filmmakers, Athens, Greece (Best Animation Award)
2006 - Leeds International Film Festival, UK (Jury’s Special Mention)
2006 - NAOUSSA International Short Film and Video Festival, Greece (Jury’s Special Mention)
2006 - Plein la Bobine Children Film Festival, Sancy, France (Jury’s Award)
2006 - CORTOONS International Short Animated Film Festival, Rome, Italy (Best Short from Europe)
2006 – MULTIVISION Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia (1st Prize)
2006 - ULRICH-SCHIEGG Film Festival, Stuttgart, Germany (Special Prize)
2006 – Kimera Cineklub, The Land of The Living Shorts, Campobasso, Italy (1st Prize, Audience Prize)
2006 - Wurzburg Film Weekend (Short Film Prize)
2005 – Annecy International Animated Film Festival, France (in competition)
2005 – Los Angeles Film Festival, USA (in competition)
2005 – AniMadrid, Spain (in competition)
2005 - Baden Fantoche
2005 - BUSHO Vision 2 Budapest International Short Film Festival, Hungary (Best Animation Award)
2005 - Interfilm, Berlin, Germany (Special Mention – Best Children’s Short)
2005 - SCHLINGEL International Film Festival for Children and Youth, Chemnitz, Germany (in competition)
2005 - Rushes Soho Shorts Festival, London, UK (Runner up, Best Animated Short Film)
2005 - Aubagne International Film Festival, France (Grand Prize (ex aequo), Audience Prize)
2005 - Les Nuits Magiques, Begles, France (Special Prize)
2005 - MATITA Film Festival, Chieti, Italy
2005 – BALKANIMA, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro (Special Prize)
2005 – Belo Horizonte International Short Film Festival, Brazil (Best Screenplay: Geza M. Toth)
2005 – MAFSZ – Hungarian Independent Film Festival, Budapest, Hungary (Special Prize)
2005 – DaKINO International Short Film Festival, Bucharest, Romania (Special Prize)
2005 - AniFest3, Budapest, Hungary (Special Prize, Audience Prize)
2005 – Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Estonia
2005 – CICDAF - China International Cartoon and Digital Art Festival, Changzhou, China (Best Short Film)
2005 – TIFF – Tirana Film Festival, Albania (in competition)
2005 – ANIMAMUNDI, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2005 - Castelli Animati, International Animated Film Festival, Rome, Italy
2005 – Arcipelago International Festival of Short Films and New Images, Rome, Italy
2005 – AlterNative Film Festival, Tirgu Mures, Romania (in competition)
2005 - Mill Valley Film Festival, USA
2005 – Bunter Hund, München, Germany (in competition)
2005 – ANIMACOR, Córdoba, Spain (Second Prize)
2005 – CINANIMA, Espinho, Portugal (Audience Prize)
2005 - Cinema Tous Ecrans, Genf, Switzerland
2005 – Giffoni Film Festival, Italy
2005 – Isfahan International Children Film Festival, Iran
2005 - Izmir International Short Film Festival, Turkey (Golden Cat Award)
2005 - KROK International Animated Films Festival, Kiev, Ukraine (in competition)
2005 - BUSTER - Copenhagen International Film Festival for Children and Youth, Denmark
2005 - DOK Leipzig - International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, Germany
2005 - ANIMATEKA, Ljubljana, Slovenia (in competition)
2005 – KAFF – Kecskemet Animation Film Festival, Hungary (Special Prize)
2005 – GLITCH, Montreal, Canada (Special Prize)
2005 – Worldwide Short Film Festival, Toronto, Canada (in competition)
2005 – CineFest, Miskolc, Hungary (Best Animation Film Prize)
2005 – Festival du Film de Vendome, France
2005 – Tindirindis International Animated Film Festival, Vilnius, Lithuania (in competition)
2005 – Valladolid International Film Festival, Spain (in competition)
2005 – JDAF - Japan Digital Animation Festival, Nagoya, Japan (Nagoya Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman's Prize)
2005 - Pecs Mozgokep Fesztival, Hungary (Special Prize)
2005 – International Short Film Festival Winterthur, Switzerland
2005 - Trencianske Teplice Art Film Festival, Slovakia (Special Mention)
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