"Tünde Molnar's graphic novel recounts the life and death of the dog Simon. Its rich and melancholic images capture a moment of transition in which time seems to come to a standstill. At the same time, they speak of an intense love of life, and of a desire to run faster than death in order to outwit time through speed. While this may end fatally, there is consolation in viewing the continuation of beginnings and ends through the dead dog's eyes. With its poetic imagery and reduced text, "I am Simon" succeeds in conveying the notion of a span of life in admirable brevity. There is no distinction between joy and sorrow, the two are inseparable.
And this is the film's extraordinary achievement: with great skill it succeeds in tapping the full potential of animation in order to turn a dog's life into an utterly and existentially human experience." by Emergeandsee Media and Art Festival, 2010.
I Am Simon is an animation short film and a master diploma project made in Moholy-Nagy Unisversity of Art and Design, Budapest, 2009. Simon is a dog who spends his whole time with his friends and they have way-out runs together until one of them gets injured.
2012 Animated Short Award
5th Balkan Snapshots Festival, The Netherlands
2011 Best Script Award and Special Mention by the Hungarian Film Critics
7th Festival of European Animated Feature Films and TV-Specials, Hungary
10th KAFF: Kecskemet Animation Film Festival, Hungary
2011 Animation Category Award
42nd Hungarian Film Week, Hungary
2011 Best Student Animation Short Film
10th Rome Independent Film Festival, Italy
2010 Best Work of the Animation Artist
9th Open St.Petersburg Student Film Festival, Russia
2010 The Jury Mention as an Outstanding Film
14th Ismailia International Festival for Documentary & Short Films, Egypt
2010 Student Jury Prize
International Film Festival of Fine Arts, Hungary
2010 Main Prize, Attila Dargay Prize
7th JamesonCineFest: Miskolc International Film Festival, Hungary
2010 2nd Award, National Audiovisual Institute Award, The Silver Pegasus
3rd Animator Festival, Poland
2010 Second Place of the two Jury Winners
Emergeandsee Media Arts Festival, Germany
2010 Best Student: Postgraduate Individual
3rd Stoke Your Fires Festival, United Kingdom
2010 Best Student Film
9th AniFest: International Festival of Animated Films, Czech Republic
2010 Best Computer Animated Film
7th International Student Film Festival Zlin Dog, Czech Republic
2010 Best Animated Short Film
26th European Film Festival of Lille, France
2012
5th Balkan Snapshots Festival, The Netherlands
2011
27th Interfilm: International Short Film Festival Berlin, Germany
10th Kecskemet Animation Film Festival and, Hungary
7th Festival of European Animated Feature Films and TV-Specials, Hungary
41st Hungarian Film Week, Hungary
10th Rome Independent Film Festival, Italy
SUPERTOON International Animation Festival, Croatia
2010
33rd Göteborg International Film Festival, Sweden
NEU NOW Festival Live Nantes, France
7th Animateka: International Animation Film Festival, Slovenia
17th Etiuda&Anima International Film Festival, Poland
Istanbul Express Workshop, Bratislava
5th Annual San Francisco International Animation Festival, United States
Festival of Film Animation in Olomouc PAF, Czech Republic
JamesonCineFest: 25th Miskolc International Film Festival, Hungary
8th shnit International Short Film Festival, Bern, Cape Town, Cologne, Vienna, Switzerland
CinemaView: Kraťasy Screening, Slovakia
8th World Film Festival of Bangkok, Thailand
9th Open St.Petersburg Student Film Festival, Russia
13th Brooklyn Film Festival, United States
54th BFI London Film Festival, United Kingdom
3rd Stoke Your Fires Festival of the Moving Image, United Kingdom
Cannes IFF Screening: Hungarian Block, France
15th Ourense International Film Festival, France
26th European Film Festival of Lille, France
34th Annecy International Animation Film Festival, France
6th AnimaBasauri: Basauri-Bizkaia International Animation Festival, Spain
7th International Student Film Festival Zlin Dog, Czech Republic
9th AniFest: International Festival of Animated Films, Czech Republic
3rd Early Melons International Student Film Festival, Slovakia
13th Brussels Short Film Festival, Belgium
29th Anima: Brussels Animation Film Festival, Belgium
6th Akbank Short Film Festival, Turkey
9th Monstra: Lisboa Animated Film Festival, Portugal
23rd Singapore International Film Festival, Singapore
Magma Short Film Festival, New Zealand
39th International Student Film Festival sehsüchte, Germany
6th International Short Film Festival Detmold, Germany
17th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film, Germany
Emergeandsee Media Arts Festival, Germany
12th Wiesbaden International Weekend of Animation, Germany
3rd International Animated Film Animator, Poland
11th Circuito Off Venice International Short Film Festival, Italy
21st Sao Paulo International Short Film Festival, Brazil
13th Hiroshima International Animation Festival, Japan
17th Krok International Animated Film Festival, Ukraine
International Film Festival of Fine Arts, Hungary
20th Mediawave International Film and Music Festival, Hungary, Austria
14th Ismailia International Festival for Documentary & Short Films, Egypt
Director: Tünde Molnár
Producer: Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design
Script: Tünde Molnár
Story: based on Dave Eggers’s short novel After I Was Thrown in the River
and Before I Drowned
Simon: Attila Dolmány
Editor: Judit Czakó
Dramaturge: Rita Domonyi
Music: Dávid Lovas, Oleg Borsos, The Cab You Know
Sound Design: Ádám Jávorka, Zsolt Hammer
Production Manager: Orsolya Sípos
Animation: Zsolt Baumgartner, Ervin B. Nagy, Beáta Kiskéry,
Zoltán Fritz, Martynas Juchnevicius, Andrea Miskédi
Design, Compositing, LayoutT, 3D Animation, Camera: Tünde Molnár
Consultants: Rita Domonyi, József Fülöp
Special Thanks: Korponai Gábor, Kovács Titusz, Cservenka Ferenc, Pacsay Attila, Ruska László, Ormándlaky Zsolt, Góg Emese, Stohl András, Tóth Norbert
Dave Eggers is the author of six previous books, including Zeitoun, winner of the American Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. What Is the What was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award and won France’s Prix Medici. Eggers is the founder and editor of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco that produces a quarterly journal, a monthly magazine, The Believer, a quarterly DVD of short films and documentaries, Wholphin, and an oral history series, Voice of Witness. In 2002, with Nínive Calegari he cofounded 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center for youth in the Mission District of San Francisco. Eggers now lives in Northern California with his wife and two children.
www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/about-dave-eggers
Rita Domonyi is a freelancer script editor, who is working on animation films with Hungarian animation studios. She started her carrier in animation at Varga Studio, where she became the Creative Development manager of the company. She is also the teacher of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, and gives script editing lectures on the Faculty of Animation Studies.
www.mome.hu
József Fülöp is animation film director, illustrator and visual communication designer. József has worked as an art director for several TV channels and animation studios in Hungary (Minimax, Varga Studios, etc) and as freelancer producer for various projects. (e.g. TV ads, moving images, corporate identities, interactive applications). He has been leading MOME Animation since 2005, and produced some award winner animated shorts, for instance Life Line by Tomek Ducki, I am Simon by Tünde Molnár, Orsolya by Bella Szederkényi.
www.mome.hu
Attila Dolmány is actor. In 2001 he graduated from the University of Theater and Film Arts Budapest. He’s currently a member of the Budapesti Kamaraszínház. Attila first appeared in theater in the performance of Vígszínház in the Twelfth Night, Or What You Will in 1997. He received the following awards: in 1992 the Hungarian Student Theatrical Association Award, in 2004 the Sári Ráday Award, in 2008 the Hungarian Theatre Critics Award. He double awarded by the Playwright Festival Award and multiple nominated for the Gundel Jászai Award.
www.imdb.com/name/nm1565927
Dávid Lovas is a young, Hungarian media designer. He currently resides in Austin, TX, where he is contributing to documentary, fine art and music projects.
cargocollective.com/lovasdavid
Ádám Jávorka and Zsolt Hammer are musician artists, composers, sound designers. They have worked for several TV channels and film studios in Hungary since 2002. Some of the films where they have contributed: in the animated movie The District in 2004, in the contemporary opera Piknolepszia in 2005, in the movie Just Sex And Nothing Else 2006, in the documentary film Game Is The Playground in 2012. They are performer artists in the Moscow Square Band called also Mox Band. Ádám Jávorka plays on keyboards, sampling and Zsolt Hammer on guembri and oud. The band’s first album was released in 2001 and the fifth in 2012.
mox.minima.hu
Orsolya Sipos has been working in animation film business since 2003, first at Varga Stúdió and later at Stúdió Baestarts. As a production manager she worked in TV series and commercials for Minimax, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and as a production coordinator in several animation feature films. At MOME she participates in organizing international projects and has coordinated diploma films since 2007.
www.imdb.com/name/nm3588492
Zsolt Baumgartner is animator. He deals with the most classical animation. He works together with a 10-12 member crew since 2003. Their studio undertakes animation and storyboard works for movies, cartoons, and commercials.
www.imdb.com/name/nm2861063
Ervin B. Nagy is animator, visual artist and designer. He’s a Hungarian freelancer who’s working since 2007. He graduated in 2011 at Moholy-Nagy University of Art & Design Budapest. He spent his internship at Cartoon Network Turner Broadcasting London. He had further experiences at Pannonia Film Studio, Cinemon Studio and Kecskemet Film Studio. He received the KAFF 2007 Special Jury Award with animated short called Borders. He was a Cartoon Forum participant in 2010 with the animated series project called Patrick & Theo.
www.patrickandtheo.com
Zoltán Fritz graduated in 2002 from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. In 2003 he founded the Art7 Studio where he directed TV series, video clips and advertisements. He’s currently working as an art director, lead animator, storyboard and comics artist. He’s also an Adobe Flash instructor since 2005. He’s the founding member and from 2012 the president of the Hungarian Comics Academy.
www.zfritz.hu
Since 1988 Martynas Juchnevicius creates cartoons and illustrations for various newspapers, magazines, cartoon exhibitions. He started as a 2D animator in his native Lithuania’s animation studio in 1997, located in Vilnius. He has over 14 years experience in classical 2D animation and in variety of handmade or digital illustration. He had also worked in other roles as an animator, layout and storyboard artist, art director and background supervisor. From commercials to television series to feature films, he had operated in co-production with different countries all over Europe. Apparently he’s in development of new illustrations and design ranges for greeting cards.
www.martoonz.blogspot.com
Andrea Miskédi started her professional career in 1989 at Pannonia Film Studio. After Loonland Animation Studio and several other she cooperated in series, individual and feature-length films as a freelance animator and designer. Between 2002 and 2009 she worked as an animation manager of the Toon Boom Digital department at Cinemon Studio. At the present as an independent filmmaker she primarily participates in the preparatory and production works of films applying digital techniques.
www.andreamiskedi.blogspot.com
Tünde Molnár studied visual communication and animation in Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. Since then she's working as a freelancer designer, art director and animation director.
by Zuzanna Kochańska 20 October 2010
How did you get into animation? How ones became an animator like you in Hungary?
This was my hidden desire from the beginning. Since I was a kid I was interested in telling stories, principally about persons. Briefly I was inquired with communication and visual language. Accordingly I ended up in the Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design. And here, after 5 years study I made my first mature like short film I am Simon.
As a kid I loved to watch animation and films and loved to listen and read stories, both literature and visual ones. Afterwards the visual part became more determinative. So obviously I was drawing a lot and still I do a lot. When I was little and saw an animated film, but I disliked its story and characters, the same time I saw a perspective in its world I just simply rewrote it. I re-adapted the main plot and the character’s interaction, and create my own “dream” version of the story. Sometimes I added artworks and sketches about the characters, costumes, environments, creatures, animals, vehicles, and also a map about the bonds between the characters. Sometimes I wrote draft treatments, but that time I didn’t know this is called like this. And of course I had, still have, my own stories. Briefly this attitude led me to get into animation.
In Poland we don’t know much about animation in Hungary in general. In our country its not a popular medium, it’s hard to say if it’s even appreciated, but things are getting better with our new creators. How is it in Hungary in your opinion?
I think it’s much more the same in Hungary. I think after the last five years we get a better notion of media but still not that much appreciated and concerned. The public opinion changed after some remarkable successes, like the feature animation film District directed by Áron Gauder, the Oscar nominated short film Maestro directed by Géza M.Tóth, and some former student works like Tomek Ducki’s Life Line and Éva Maygarósi’s Hanne trilogy. Above I just mentioned the fresher works. Formerly we had a significant animation culture with illustrious creator’s (like György Kovásznay, Marcell Jankovics), which decade altered with the system change in 1989. In the last four years it’s started to became better. Sadly we don’t have that much possibility to work in feature animation productions but we have some excellent native studios with nice projects. At the moment I just know about the process of Áron Gauder’s co-production feature animation, called Egile, which is close to be finished and released.
In my opinion, as an east European country, examining the fresh produced works, which we nearly don’t have, we are in a quite similar situation. But it’s getting better.
What are your favorite animated movies or short film?
I saw many great valuable animation features and shorts. Mostly in all animation I appreciate something. Hard for me which one are my favourites. I just mention some.
I like a lot of Japanese movies, some from Studio Ghibli (Grave of the Fireflies, Tales from Earthsee), form Masaaki Yuasa the Mind Game, from Mamoru Hosoda The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and the codirected Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion by Hideaki Anno and Kazuya Tsurumaki from 1997. And my latest favourite is the excellent Mary and Max by Adam Elliot. From short films I admire David O’Reilly’s works, all of them. The best I like is the remarkably elegant Please Say Something.
Are you inspired by other animated movies or maybe something else? What are your main inspirations?
Yes, I do inspired by other directors and films. I don’t think I can get near by what they did in their life, but anyhow I love to watch the films from Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, Nikita Mihalkov, Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Thomas Anderson, Mike Nicols and Cristian Mungiu. Their works definitely inspired me.
What comes next for you? Next festivals with “I Am Simon” screenings? Or maybe projects for a new movie or other developments?
Yes, I Am Simon has been selected to other festivals, in the next month I will visit some. I’m really glad to hear it. I put my expectation high and underestimated the film at the beginning. I never expected that it will be selected to that much festivals or won any prize. I think creators can’t hold back themselves, there will be always some new projects for the future. But sadly after the film I needed to focus on something else instead of a new project. Which seems to be close to its end and getting better. I intend to develop an idea for a project, I plan this for few years. That’s all what I can tell, it’s not so clear at the moment.
“I Am Simon”, as I found after festival, is based on a short story by Dave Eggers called “After I Was Thrown In The River And Before I Drowned”. Why choose such a story, based more on feelings, quick emotions and reflections, for an animated movie?
The story based on Dave Eggers’s short novel. The reason I adapted it as my first serious project was exactly the mentioned emotional and reflectional part which drove me to write the script. This opportunity was a great impulsion which pointed on that I’m not yet a matured director and must learn a lot more about the profession. Initially I was under a pressure to handle a brilliant and sensitive work, Dave Eggers’s story. In the other hand objectively this was what functioned as an engine and let free the creation for the images. After the film was accomplished I saw its weak points and have learnt from the failures. Besides was a great pleasure to work with it.
I would like to note a simple purpose why this story was a convenient content for an animation. Generally people would think to make a story about a running dog is easier in animation then motion picture. Technically it is. It was a point of view to convince myself if I’ll have any doubts in the initial hardness. Fortunately I had none of it.
The drawing is the most intense and certain tool of communication in my days. This could answer the best your question. While the hero’s story concerned me a lot, it was sure to use drawn images as the main visual language of the film.
The story in your interpretation is it a bit lighter and accessible, but still leaves the viewer with various thoughts, especially right at the end. It’s not exactly a “happy end”, and yet it feels very bright-how do you perceive the ending?
Indeed, the story in my interpretation is more accessible. My point was to use a classic narrative language which is clean and devoted to the pure nature of the story. I meant under the word classic to be unambiguous and not to be presented in the film as the creator. Which is a hard job and couldn’t accomplished fully.
It’s so interesting, that I received the most attention by the end of the film. I received a lot of feedback about Simon’s accident as the fact of death is an unpleasant experience for the audience. Yes, the scene of death could be but in the content of the story it isn’t. To be precise, I think just the experience of the death is traumatic for the outstanding observer, both in life, both in art, but the fact of it isn’t negative. It’s normal. Even it’s my point of view, this is not accepted socially, not a common aspect conceive of death between people. Why I found the end bright it was exactly this. Simon is a pure person who lives his life fully. For him his death is just another level of his existence. These are my thoughts about ideal living through Simon’s character. I idealised Simon’s role in our world. I would live and act the same way like he does. As he lived his life, after an unpredictable action, his existence stays the same, and after his “loss”, his mind remains free.
Why is the main dog‘s name Simon, and not –Steven, as in the original? Is there any special meaning to it?
This has an easy explanation. We changed the name because of a practical reason.
The Hungarian word for Steven was not flexible to the character. In Hungarian Steven means “István”, which we pronounce as ”iʃtvaaːn”. The name Steven is balanced and attractive, which is a strength name and fits to the hero of the short novel. To use the Hungarian version was not appropriate. I searched a name where the difference is bare between its writing and pronunciation. As bare as it is possible. The name of Simon proved to the best. Its writing is similar and its pronunciation has just some sound differences. In Hungarian it’s “ʃimon”. And of course the name of Simon matched to the characteristics of Steven. So the name change has decided.
As a cat fan, I have to ask this (and there is actually a cat on my lap right now) – is there a chance there is a movie with cats as the main characters scheduled in your plans?
How kind. I love animals, both cats and dogs. Since I’m a kid I had them at home and had a bond with them. Living in the downtown and having a flat without any garden let me to don’t have any animal. Besides of this I don’t plan to make a project with cats, but if it happens to find a nice story then it could be. But a similar toned animation film already exists. A friend of mine mentioned it after the diploma presentation. The film is She and Her Cat by Makoto Shinkai from 1999 who also directed the The Place Promised in Our Early Days, the Voices of a Distant Star, and the 5 Centimeters Per Every Seconds. The last one is a really kind to me. I know the other films before, also saw some of them, just this drama was a new piece from his works. So someone already made it.
Nemzeti Kulturális Alap
Hungarian National Cultural Foundation
Magyar Mozgókép Alapítvány
The Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary
Animációs Diplomafilmek Megvalósításáért Alapítvány
Foundation of Animated Graduation Film
Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design
www.mome.hu
anim@mome.hu
+ 36 1 392 1193
+ 36 1 392 1190
Zugligeti út 9-25, Budapest, 1121, Hungary
Tünde Molnár
contact.tundemolnar@gmail.com
+ 36 30 203 2002