Best-Of Prix Ars Electronica: New Animation Art 

Screening, 80 min

This Prix Ars Electronica Best-Of program includes 8 animations, 6 of which were awarded prizes in this year’s competition. The two Golden Nica winners, one Award of Distinction and three Honorary Mentions provide an excellent snapshot of the current landscape of animation art. Most of these works use novel technologies to deliver compelling socio-political commentary and make incisive reflections on pressing issues of our time: climate emergency, data surveillance, the invisible human labor that goes into training AI systems, the erosion of image credibility, the commodification of transnational education, as well as the need for fresh visions of culture, nature, and space. Two additional works enrich the program of award-winning projects, one delving into the quantum realities of our multidimensional universe, and the other unfolding a poignant tale of friendship and transformation.

SMOKE AND MIRRORS by Beatie Wolfe (GB), 4’20’’, Golden Nica Winner 

Smoke and Mirrors is an unusual blend of music video and science visualisation. This short and poignant work emphasizes the magnitude of the climate crisis, by presenting not only scientific facts about global warming but also the dangerous ideological positions which have been denying it over the past few decades. Rising methane levels are therefore illustrated alongside historical advertising slogans employed by oil companies meant to endanger credibility of climate emergency. The visualization is based on NASA’s Blue Marble image and set to Oh My Heart, which was released as the world’s first bioplastic record by Beatie Wolfe.

UNKNOWN QUANTUM OBJECTS by Alessandro Bavari (IT), 13’ 

Unknown Quantum Objects is an experimental animation exploring 13 of the 64 dimensions believed to exist beyond the three established space-time dimensions. Through animation, Bavari enables us direct experience of an otherwise highly theoretical and abstract concept. He provides a visual representation of concepts that lack tangible visual forms, but can be imaginatively brought to understanding through this medium.

STAINED by Jeremy Kamal (US), 2’11’’, Award of Distinction 

Stained is a short speculative CGI film depicting a utopian future where America’s landscapes are transformed by Black culture. The film follows a sensitive tea master that uses colored flora to mark territory. Based in a world where symbiotic relationships with technology allow Black Americans to transform “natural” and synthetic environments.

BYE BEAR by Jan Bitzer (DE), 10’40’’ 

In Bye Bear we step into a decaying 1980s motel, where a group of unusual friends gathers for one last celebration. At the heart of the party is Bear—a robot with an unusual dream: to shed its metallic shell and become a real bear. Bye Bear is a surreal story about friendship, transformation, change, and the ceremony of a long goodbye. The friends celebrate together and bid each other farewell. Bear's transformation into a real bear reaches its conclusion on this very night.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SOUVENIR, UK! by Los (CN), 3’, Honorary Mention 

Thank you for your Souvenir, UK! shows the experience of a Chinese student who spends a year in the UK grappling with cultural displacement and a sense of non belonging. Through this deeply personal film, the artist poses an essential question: are international students valued as contributors to the system, or are they merely being exploited as resources? The film’s raw and honest portrayal will resonate with anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.

UNKNOWN LABEL by Nicolas Gourault (FR), 16’ 34’’, Honorary Mention 

Unknown Label is a documentary about the experience of online micro-workers from the Global South who annotate images used to train self-driving cars. The film begins with a simple animation illustrating the process of segmentation—a crucial step in AI training where images are divided into distinct objects, such as separating cars from pedestrians or roads. This meticulous task, performed by human workers, allows AI systems to recognize and interact with their environments. The film highlights the discrimination they face, with the animated visuals evolving in complexity to mirror the complexity of the labor. The story culminates in a city-scale 3D data visualization, revealing the hidden human effort behind AI systems.

WASHED OUT: “THE HARDEST PART” by Paulo Trillo (US), Golden Nica AI in ART Award 

The music video for the album "The Hardest Part" by the band Washed Out marks a groundbreaking achievement, as it is the first fully generative video created with OpenAI's SORA text-to-video model. This is why it was awarded the Golden Nica for AI I in Art. Spanning several decades, the video begins in the early 80s and follows a young couple throughout their whole 4 life. By embracing the hallucinatory, dreamlike qualities of SORA, the video manages to capture the fleeting and elusive nature of memories.

DUCK by Rachel Maclean (GB), 16’30’’, Honorary Mention 

Duck is an unusual deepfake short film set in the iconic world of James Bond. Featuring AIgenerated portrayals of Sean Connery, Marilyn Monroe, and other stars, the animation introduces the audience to a seemingly familiar, yet in fact never-before-seen reality, where the fixed definition of identity and the reliability of history and news are continuously questioned. This witty yet unsettling display of deepfake mastery is sure to leave you jaw-dropping in astonishment.

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