SCREENING IN THE BERNARD OSHER FOUNDATION AUDITORIUM
“[A] truly perfect thing, an immaculate eruption of ideas that’s contained within a closed loop of continuous delight.”
100 minutes. Not Rated. Directed by Don Hertzfeldt. In English. DCP.
A little girl is taken on a mind-bending tour of her distant future.
Don Hertzfeldt is a two-time Academy Award nominee whose animated films include It's Such a Beautiful Day, the World of Tomorrow series, and Rejected. His work has played around the world, received hundreds of awards, and in 2014 made a special appearance on The Simpsons.
After animating for over twenty years using traditional tools - pencil, paper, and 35mm film World of Tomorrow was Hertzfeldt's first digital production.
Indiewire called the first episode of World of Tomorrow "one of the best films of 2015," while The Dissolve named it "one of the finest achievements in sci-fi in recent memory."
The A.V. Club described the film as "visionary" and "possibly the best film of 2015."
Rolling Stone ranked World of Tomorrow #10 on its list of the "Greatest Animated Movies Ever."
World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts was released in 2017, followed by World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime in 2020. Each film received rare “A+” reviews from Indiewire and were ranked by many critics as the best films of their year, despite their short film running times.
Of the "dreamy, beloved" ongoing series, The Film Stage wrote, "Hertzfeldt has crafted what might be the crowning achievement of modern science fiction."
The first film’s voice cast stars English illustrator Julia Pott alongside Hertzfeldt's four-year-old niece, Winona. Winona's voice was quietly recorded while she and Hertzfeldt drew pictures together and talked about the world. From these raw sessions, Hertzfeldt took her candid reactions and partially rewrote the story (and Julia's lines) to create their characters' seamless conversations.