The Smalls Film Festival 2025 Announces Two Dedicated Animation Screenings at Curzon Hoxton
Skwigly
The Smalls Film Festival proudly presents two curated Animation programmes as part of its 2025 edition, taking place at Curzon Hoxton in London this September. This expanded offering reflects the remarkable strength, innovation and emotional impact of animated short films today, and highlights the festival’s commitment to championing the most exciting talent from across the world.
Audiences will be transported from psychedelic cruise ships and techno dancefloors, to scorched motels and coastal villages, via wildly imaginative visual landscapes. Together, the two screenings celebrate the emotional power, humour and daring originality of modern animated storytelling.
Now in its 18th annual edition, The Smalls Film Festival is an essential showcase for emerging and established filmmakers across all genres, bringing together artists, industry professionals and film lovers to celebrate the art of storytelling and creativity in cinema. This year’s lineup includes work such as Nicolas Keppens’ BEAUTIFUL MEN (nominated for Best Animated Short Film at this year’s Oscars) and Natalia León’s COMO SI LA TIERRA SE LAS HUBIERA TRAGADO (Winner of the Short Film Jury Award for Animation at Sundance).
Animation remains one of the most creatively liberating forms in cinema. Unrestricted by the boundaries of realism, it allows filmmakers to bend time, reshape perspective and express the inner world of their characters in limitless ways. Whether it’s through surreal metamorphosis, symbolic visual metaphors or bold narrative experimentation, animation continually pushes the evolution of visual storytelling and challenges what cinema can be.
A limited number of tickets are available, with each feature-length programme priced at just £5. View the full lineup and buy tickets at thesmallsfilmfestival.com
Official Selection 2025
Animation 1 (Saturday 20th September, 2.30pm)
- COMO SI LA TIERRA SE LAS HUBIERA TRAGADO (AS IF THE EARTH HAD SWALLOWED THEM UP)
Dir: Natalia León
Olivia, a young woman living abroad, returns to her hometown in Mexico in the hope of reconnecting with her past, reviving memories that are impossible to reconcile with. - KAMINHU
Dir: Marie Vieillevie
Joanna, a young European traveller, wanders Cape Verde, sketchbook in hand. In the village of Esperança, she meets Lito, a fisherman whose presence persuades her to linger a little longer. - SANS VOIX
Dir: Samuel Patthey
Dan is a young man who spends most of his time in his flat, always listening to electronic music. Outside, he feels disconnected and only finds solace in nightclubs, where techno music and drugs make him feel free. One day, a baby’s gaze changes his world perception. - THIS IS NOT AN EMERGENCY
Dir: Sydney Agans
Alex and Christy’s night off goes horribly wrong when Christy’s baby brother goes missing. After a long night of searching, all hope is lost – until they hear a familiar sound. - PETER HAIR
Dir: Uncle Shortbread
Peter, a hair living on the head of a balding man named Tim, has decided to hand in his notice. - THE SUNSET SPECIAL 2
Dir: Nicolas Gebbe
Sold as the perfect holiday and exclusive family utopia, a luxury cruise unravels into a psychedelic dream world, where artificial facades dissolve, illusions break, and crude realities are unveiled. - LUZ DIABLA
Dir: Paula Boffo, Gervasio Canda & Patricio Plaza
Martín, a flamboyant urban raver, is involved in a strange car accident on his way to a party in the middle of the Argentine countryside.
Animation 2 (Sunday 21st September, 12.30pm)
- BEAUTIFUL MEN
Dir: Nicolas Keppens
Three balding brothers travel to Istanbul to get a hair transplant. Stuck with each other in a hotel far from home, their insecurities grow faster than their hair. - S THE WOLF
Dir: Sameh Alaa
A middle-aged man reflects back on his tumultuous adolescent phase while sitting in his childhood bedroom. Through intricate and deeply personal musings somehow all tied to his hair, we accumulate meaning into the larger journey of his life. - LARVAL
Dir: Alice Bloomfield
A lonely girl fantasises about possessing the looks of her celebrity idol and winning the heart of her unrequited love. In a surreal, dreamlike turn of events, featuring a moth-like spirit, she discovers that perhaps she should have been more careful what she wished for. - SOLEIL GRIS
Dir: Camille Monnier
Under a scorching sun, two bickering teenagers swelter at a seedy motel while a voice on the radio warns of the world’s end. As the heat intensifies, the ecological apocalypse suddenly arrives. - SISOWATH QUAY
Dir: Stephanie Lansaque & François Leroy
Nakry and Sothear meet on Phnom Penh’s Sisowath Quay for their first date. At nightfall, the romance turns into a nightmare when the young girl transforms into a strange creature. - CRAB DIANE
Dir: Ryan McCown
A young woman, tired of working at a seaside diner, reaches out to cosmic forces. - HURIKÁN
Dir: Jan Saska
Hurikán rushes out to save his favourite beer stand from closure by fetching a new keg to impress the bartender he has a crush on. In a wild Prague district, he faces robbers, cops, and his own thirst.