The professional Master of Animation (MAAN) is a full-time, one-year (September-August) intensive master level programme that focues on individual creative potential.
We offer students a unique multidisciplinary programme informed by art and design activities (performing arts, digital media, situated design, interaction and aesthetics) within a much broader spectrum of animation practices. Our alumni have won numerous awards and have often started succesful animation studios and worked on internationally recognized animation films, VR projects and games.
Doortje Schoonbrood – Harmonies
When humanity arrives on Earth, they soon find a way to take advantage of her. She does not want to hurt them, but Mother Earth is sick and her body will fight the pests. Harmonies explores humanity’s disconnection from nature and our inevitable self-destruction. This graduation film combines animation, poetry, narrated by Hannah Lau-Walker and music by Kyarah Martens. Harmonies was produced at the Master of Animation.
Ilja Bertrand – In het Zand
Among the scattered pebbles of its silent hall, a woman carefully takes a seat in an abandoned theater. Inspired by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, ‘In the Sand’ takes place in an abandoned theater. With minimalism in both music and image, the film reflects on erasure, the act of looking away from pain, and the responsibility we carry as artists and as human beings.
Lara Verschuren – How Beautiful You Are
On an island shaped like a woman’s body, playful tiny eyes arrive with grand plans to reshape the landscape. This animated short film explores the cultural obsession with women’s beauty. By combining raw, graphical content with soft, surreal landscapes, I want to create an unsettling yet poetic world that invites the viewer to reflect on beauty obsession.
Lucas Petersen – Tunnel Vision
Tunnel Vision is a 2D animated short film about a thrill seeker, who constantly pushes his limits. In the film, we see his latest obsession: exploring caves. This time, things go terribly wrong when he underestimates a cave that seems to be getting narrower and narrower. Against his better judgment, he continues until he gets completely stuck. At that moment, he is overwhelmed by fear of death. The film explores the feeling of panic and pushing boundaries, even when you know better. I use my own experiences with fear and panic attacks to make a film that visually conveys the feeling of panic.
Meike van Son – Home
From the warm memories of childhood to the cold moments experienced on the street, observe the different places people call home. By visualising the familiar and relatable feeling of home and comparing it to life on the streets, this film hopes to explain what people with unstable living situations are missing. This film also touches upon on the impact of anti-homeless architecture like spikes and railings on benches. It shows how they take away the little space homeless people have left.
Paula Socías Villanueva – Cases
‘Cases’, houses in English, is an animated short film that explores feeling at home in more than one place. The story showcases the emotional journey of creating a new home and the challenges that come with it. By using a simple style, the viewer can interpret it in different ways and bring it to their own experiences. The film experiments with mixed media, using marker textures to bring a more physical look to it.
Yen-Ling Chen – Souvenir
Souvenir is a simple yet poetic short animation that blends 3D with hand-drawn 2D textures. It’s a light, gentle story about collecting memories. how everyday objects can carry memories, and a way to preserve them – whether by keeping them or letting them go.
More about Avans Master of Animation: avans.nl
