ICE MERCHANTS
João Gonzalez / France, Portugal, United Kingdom / 2022 / 14 min / Colour
From the photo of a mountain house leaning over a precipice, the director drew inspiration for his animated story. Every day, a father and son crack the ice they made in their house that hangs from a high, frozen cliff and put it in a crate. Then they jump with a parachute to reach the village and sell the ice to its inhabitants. During the fall, they always lose their matching hats, but once they get to town, the father buys new ones. They return home thanks to a pulley system, spending so much precious time together. The boy's mother passed away a long time ago, but her presence continues to be felt, so much so that she will intervene to support them in a complicated situation.
João Gonzalez
João Gonzalez (b. 1996) is a Portuguese film director and animation designer. He specialized in multimedia arts at ESMAD in Porto, with particular focus on the field of animation. Since 2023 he has been working as a director and designer at the COLA collective. His film, The Voyager (2017) received an award at the BFI Future Film Festival, UK and Nestor (2019), received the Antonio Gaio Award at Cinanima 23. He wrote and directed the short film Ice Merchants (2022) which won the Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival as well as an Academy Award nomination.
Credits
Screenplay João GonzalezCinematography João GonzalezSound Ed Trousseau, Ricardo RealEditing João GonzalezMusic João GonzalezProduction company COLA Animation / Wildstream / Royal College of Art
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