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Brussels-based director Soetkin Verstegen bills her methodical and nostalgic animation “Freeze Frame” as a “miniature cinema inside an ice cube.” Produced in a grainy, vintage style, the black-and-white short loosely follows workers as they harvest and attempt to preserve the frozen blocks. Amidst scenes of the monotonous, assembly-line efforts are insects, frogs, and various creatures swimming across the frames and eventually, crystallizing into skeletal ice sculptures.

In a conversation with Short of the Week, Verstegen spoke to the difficulty of using such a transient material, calling it “the most absurd technique since the invention of the moving image.” The tedious nature of stop-motion further matches the repetitive movements of the film’s subjects, forming “a playful puzzle with formal ideas around early cinema, decay, and preservation.”

You can find more of Verstegen’s short films that experiment with animation techniques on Vimeo.

Director, writer, animator: Soetkin Verstegen
Sound: Andrea Martignoni, Michał Krajczok

With the support of
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Germany
Saari Residency – Kone Foundation, Finland
Atelier 105 residency – Light Cone, France

2019

Awards:

Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, France, 2020 – Special Jury Prize Lab
Ann Arbor Film Festival, USA, 2020 – Chris Frayne Award for Best Animated Film
Annecy International Animated Film Festival, France 2020 – Jury Distinction
Fantoche International Animation Festival, Switzerland, 2020 – High Risk Award
Animafest Zagreb, Croatia, 2020 – Golden Zagreb Award
Fredrikstad Animation Festival, Noway, 2020 – Grand Prix
Banjaluka International Animated Film Festival, Bosnia, 2020 – Grand Prix
Monstra Animation Festival, Portugal, 2020 – Grand Prix
Warsaw International Animation Festival, Poland, 2020 – Grand Prix
Golden Kuker Sofia, Bulgaria, 2020 – Grand Prix
Supertoon International Animation Festival, Croatia, 2020 – Grand Prix
Black Maria Film Festival, USA, 2020 – Best Animation
Bamberger Kurzfilmtage, Germany, 2020 – Best Animation
Animakom Bilbao, Spain, 2020 – Jury’s Special Award
Filmzeitkaufbeuren, Germany, 2020 – Innovationspreis
Toronto Arthouse Film Festival, Canada, 2020 – Best Animated Short Film
Shorts that are not pants, Canada, 2020 – Best Animated Short