ONCE THERE WAS A SEA… (2021)

ABOUT THE FILM

Last human stories from the glittering bottom of dying Aral Sea.

Svetlana stares into the salt desert with her only eye. Gulshat runs an empty hotel. Captain records traces of the vanishing sea, and Sergei drives tourists across its bare, glittering seabed. The last people of Mo´ynoq who remember the original shore of drying Aral Sea… Their days are intertwined with memories of the glorious past of the fishing power and dreams of the return of the great water. The present is a cemetery of ships that will never set sail from the port again.

The animated documentary by Joanna Kozuch.

The project is realised in co-production of Anima-Pol (PL), plackartnyj (SK), TVP (PL), EC1-Lodz (PL) and Radio and Television Slovakia (SK). The project was financially supported by the Slovak Audiovisual Fund, the Polish Film Institute, the programme of European Union Creative Europe MEDIA, the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, the Bratislava Self-Governing Region and the Literary Fund. The international sales agent of the film is Miyu Distribution.

animation, PL/SK, 2021, 17 min.

oncetherewasasea.com

TRAILER

FESTIVALS AND AWARDS

The Slovak premiere of this film was held on October 12, 2021 in Košice, Slovakia. The international premiere of this film was held in January 2022 at 44th Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival 2022 in France.

Since then it has received these awards:

Student Jury Award – 44th Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival 2022, France
Best Short Film – Anifilm – International Festival of Animated Films 2022, Liberec, Czechia
Special Mention – CinemAmbiente – Environmental Film Festival 2022, Torino, Italy
Special Mention National Competition – 15th International Animated Film Festival ANIMATOR, Poland 2022
ANIMALAB Award – Animare Cartoon Film Festival 2022, Italy
Best Animated Film – Krakow Green Film Festival 2022, Poland 2022
St. Vojtech Prize for the best Visegrad Film – Biennial of Animation Bratislava BAB 2022, Bratislava, Slovakia
Best Short Film – 8th International Short Film Festival SHORT FORM 2022, Belgrade, Serbia
Best Short Film – 48th IFF EKOFILM 2022, Brno, Czechia
Best Anidoc –17th ANIMEST – Animation Film Festival 2022, Bucharest, Romania
ANIMALAB Award – Sedicicorto – International Film Festival 2022, Forli, Italy
Special Jury Award –Kaohsiung Film Festival 2022, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Special Mention –CinéOpen – Festival de Cinéma d’Animation de Pontarlier 2022, Pontarlier, France
Best Animation for Adults – “TOFUZI” International Animated Film Festival 2022, Tbilisi, Georgia
Slnko v sieti – Slovak National Film Award 2021 for The Best Animation
IGRIC, National Creative Awards IGRIC 2022

You could have seen Once There Was a Sea… at these festivals:

44th Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival 2022, France
Ulju Mountain Film Festival 2022, Ulju, South Korea
Brussels Short Film Festival 2022, Brussels, Belgium
Anifilm – International Festival of Animated Films 2022, Liberec, Czechia
Vienna Shorts 2022, Vienna, Austria
Framed Film Festival 2022, Groningen, The Netherlands
Psarokokalo Athens International Short Film Festival 2022, Athens, Greece
Animafest Zagreb – World Festival of Animated Film 2022, Zagreb, Croatia
FICG – Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara 2022, Guadalajara, Mexico
Festival International du Film d’Animation d’Annecy 2022, Annecy, France
Festival International de Contis 2022, Contis, France
ShortFest – Palm Springs International Film Festival 2022, Palm Springs, USA
Fest Anča – International Animation Festival 2022, Žilina, Slovakia
CinemAmbiente – Environmental Film Festival 2022, Torino, Italy
15th International Animated Film Festival ANIMATOR 2022, Poznań, Poland
SiciliAmbiente – Festival di documentari, cortometraggi e animazioni 2022, San Vito lo Capo, Italy
San Giò Verona Video Festival 2022, Verona, Italy
Hiroshima Animation Season 2022, Hiroshima, Japan
Krakow Green Film Festival 2022, Poland 2022
Rencontres Cinéma de Gindou 2022, Gindou, France
Concorto Film Festival 2022, Pontenure, Italy
Animator Fest – European Youth Festival of Animated Film 2022, Jagodina, Serbia
Rising of Lusitania – AnimaDoc Film Festival 2022, Lodź, Poland
ONE Country ONE Film 2022, Apchat/Issoire, France
Viborg Animation Festival 2022, Viborg, Denmark
StopTrik International Film Festival 2022, Maribor/Łódź, Slovenia/Poland
MANIFEST – Mafra Animation Film Festival 2022, Mafra, Portugal
8th International Short Film Festival SHORT FORM 2022, Belgrade, Serbia
Biennial of Animation Bratislava BAB 2022, Bratislava, Slovakia
48th IFF EKOFILM 2022, Brno, Czechia
17th ANIMEST – Animation Film Festival 2022, Bucharest, Romania
Primaanima – World festival of first animations 2022, Budaors, Hungary
Sedicicorto – International Film Festival 2022, Forli, Italy
Animaphix – Festival Internazionale del Film d’Animazione 2022, Palermo, Italy
Kaohsiung Film Festival 2022, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
CinéOpen – Festival de Cinéma d’Animation de Pontarlier 2022, Pontarlier, France
“TOFUZI” International Animated Film Festival 2022, Tbilisi, Georgia
Festival Jóvenes Realizadores – Granada Film Fest 2022, Granada, Spain
35th Festival du Film de Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux 2022, Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, France
Linz International Short Film Festival 2022, Linz, Austria
DOC NYC 2022, New York, USA
CINANIMA – International Animated Film Festival 2022, Espinho, Portugal
Innsbruck Nature Film Festival 2022, Innsbruck, Austria
ANIMAGE – Festival Internacional de Animação de Pernambuco 2022, Recife, Brazil
PÖFF – Black Nights Film Festival 2022, Tallinn, Estonia
LIAF – London International Animation Festival 2022, London, Great Britain
Escales documentaires – International Festival of Creative Documentary Films 2022, La Rochelle, France
MUMIA – Mostra Udigrudi Mundial de Animação 2022, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
DOC-Cévennes – Festival international du documentaire en Cévennes 2022, France
19th ANIMATEKA – International Animated Film Festival 2022, Ljubljana, Slovenia

AUTHORS

Director: Joanna Kozuch
Screenplay: Joanna Kozuch, Katarína Moláková
Script Consultants: Phil Parker, Barbora Budinská
Producer: BFILM – Peter Badač
Co-producers: Anima-Pol (PL) – Joanna Wendorff, plackartnyj (PL), TVP (PL), EC1-Lodz (PL), RTVS (SK)
Art Design: Joanna Kozuch
Animation: Marek Jasaň, Joanna Kozuch, Michaela Mašáňová, Agata Mikina, Marta Magnuska, Jolanta Dudzińska, Matej Babic, Michalina Musialik, Justyna Pazdan, Janusz Martyn
Editor: Marek Šulík
Sound Design: Dušan Kozák
Music: Martin Hasák

JOANNA KOZUCH

Joanna (1977) is director, visual artist and animator. She graduated at Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan (PL) and University of Silesia in Katowice (PL). She is also a teacher at Animation department at Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, where she has received her PhD (SK).

Filmography:

The Game (short animation film,2004)
Fongopolis (short animation film, 2013)
39 Weeks, 6 Days (short animation film, 2017)
Music Box (short animation film, 2019)
Once There Was a Sea… (short animation documentary, 2021)
Once There Was a Sea…: The Story of Aral Sea (short animation documentary, 2021)