We have cute short film to share with you this first week in February. The Present is a touching story about an angry boy whose mother buys him an (initially unwanted) present. A thesis short by director Jacob Frey — from the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction at the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg in Ludwigsburg, Germany — this is a great calling card for a new animation talent.
In addition to some really nice animation, The Present is especially impressive in how it develops the story arc over the three plus minutes of screen time. While I don’t want to give too much away, I will say that this short made me go from kind of hating the boy (and wondering if he might be a sociopath) to really feeling sympathy for him in just a few seconds; it’s quite an impressive feat to create a character arc in such a short span of time, and even better that it is done without laying on the schmaltz too thickly.
This short has already had a great run at film festivals, and I have no doubt we will be hearing more from it’s creator soon. If you liked this short, be sure to check out more of Frey’s work on his Vimeo Page.