School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents “ANIMATION CELEBRATION,” an exhibition of the animated thesis films by the BFA Animation class of 2021. Curated by BFA Animation staff and faculty, the exhibition will be on view from Friday, May 21, through Thursday, June 3, online at galleries.sva.edu and in the SVA Flatiron Gallery windows, 133/141 West 21st Street.

In a year unlike any other, fourth-year BFA Animation students finished their final year of study and their culminating thesis film projects in an entirely remote context during the COVID-19 pandemic. They tell incredibly rich stories from their home studios all around the world, exploring themes such as friendship, family, isolation, extraterrestrial life, paranormal activity and gender identity.

In the SVA Flatiron Gallery windows, the public can watch this year’s thesis films on a loop on four monitors safely from the sidewalk. An accompanying online exhibition consists of a selection of film posters and short film trailers for the selected students’ thesis films.

Highlights from the exhibition include:

Ella Cesari’s Slam Poet, a lyrical short animated film about Antonia, a mellow spoken-word poet who lives a secret double-life as a notorious pro wrestler called Acetoni. In this comedic short, we watch her scramble between her two lives when she accidentally double-books one night.

In SHOTS, a short animated film that takes clips from over 30 hours of audio interviews, Zoe Lyttle weaves together the experiences of those living with chronic illness and disability in the United States. It touches on many aspects of this experience, including issues around body dysmorphia and the struggle of finding affordable care and medication.

Created by Kiana Caines, Lone tells a story about a novice space explorer who becomes stranded without her crew on an alien planet and must survive as long as she can with her computer assistant, Atlas, as she waits for rescue.

In Rose Kang’s animated short film JUNK, Amy visits her mother’s home to confront her about her hoarding issue and to address their strained relationship. However, things take a turn for the worse as they get swept into a junk realm and the pair must resolve their misunderstandings to escape.

King FunGuy is a collaborative film by Will Colpoys and Taylor Holloway, where a young man is dragged into the occult when he is mistaken for a god by a tribe of hungry sentient mushrooms. What disasters await him when he brings their leader back with him to his day job at the grocery store?