SONDER – Neth Nom (United States, 2018) 13’08”

Unite Berlin 2018, Siggraph 2018, California Independent Film Festival 2018 – Best Animation, Canberra Short Film Festival 2018, Sioux City International Film Festival – Audience Choice: Best Animation, Edinburgh Short Film Festival and many more

 

Trailer / Website / Facebook

 

For years, Finn and Natalie walked the same path. But when their time together comes to an end, Finn finds himself lost in a mysterious land. Paralyzed by the fear of moving on, he is at risk of losing himself. Through self-discovery, Finn must gather the strength to forge a new path.

 

 

 

 

 

Neth Nom is an animator and director with a decade of industry experience. He has contributed as an animator on numerous films, including Toy Story 3, Brave, Monsters University and Bolt, at studios such as Pixar, Sony, Rhythm & Hues and Disney. He has animated on VR projects (Oculus Story Studio’s first short film, Lost, and Baobab Studios’ film, Asteroids!) and directed a VR game entitled LilyPad. Most recently, Neth was the lead animator at PullString, an entertainment and technology company. He currently works at Google Spotlight Stories as the supervising animator on John Kahrs’ VR project, and at Academy of Art University as an instructor.

Director Statement

‘Sonder’ is about the emotional journey we all experience following the end of a relationship — from grief and denial to acceptance and growth. With ‘Sonder,’ we really wanted to push the boundaries of animated storytelling, not only by exploring themes that are mature and complex, but also with a distinct look for the film, combining the familiarity of two-dimensional animation with the richness of fully-realized 3D environments.

We also wanted to break new ground with our production process. ‘Sonder’ is one of the first animated films to employ real-time rendering with the Unity game engine, which made our editing and production workflow far more efficient. And we created a unique pipeline, optimized for our team of dozens of professional artists and animators based around the globe, from the Bay Area to France to Malaysia.

The resulting film is cutting edge in so many ways, but at its heart is just a simple love story, well told. We can’t wait to share ‘Sonder’ with the world.

 

 


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