I watched ‘Acid Rain’ 5 years ago at OIAF, and while I didn’t necessarily think about the film regularly after seeing it during the festival circuit (there were a lot of films), I certainly remembered the film immediately when the lights dimmed and Tomek Popakul’s short film screened during class.
I deeply appreciated Tomek’s candid discussion about how he developed his own style, and how he developed his own workflow to achieve that style. I have been struggling to find my own art style, and his suggestion to find inspiration from my favorite creative works – films, books, prints, etc. – and it certainly helped me get out of a major creative rut that I’ve been grappling with since starting the XA grad program.
I loved seeing how Tomek designed his films to be uniquely his, and how visually striking they are. There’s something to be said about an artist communicating so much by saying very little, and I believe Tomek’s films accomplish this.
“Zima” was a beautiful balance of lines, black and white, and minimal dialogue. I was particularly struck by how there was a fine balance between horror, humor, surreal, and the naturalistic mundane, and I so wish we could have had more time to watch “Moon” (I’ll just have to watch it on my own).
BIO:
Tomek Popakul is a Polish animation director, musician, graphic designer, and music video creator.
His 2019 animation, Acid Rain has garnered 35 awards, has screened at 90 international festivals, including Rotterdam and Sundance Film Festivals, received a prestigious nomination for the ASIFA Annie Awards, and was included on the long Oscar list.
In 2023, Popakul completed his newest short animated film, ZIMA, which was also longlisted by the Oscars.
In 2020, Popakul created a short hybrid animation, Moon for HBO's pandemic anthology "At Home." He has collaborated with Kasumi Ozeki on Acid Rain, Moon, and ZIMA.
He graduated from Lodz Film School studying direction animation, special effects, and scriptwriting. His graduate film Ziegenort screened at several international film festivals and gained many awards. He created the movie Black while he was an animation artist-in-residence organized by the Japan Image Council (JAPIC) in Tokyo, Japan.
As a musican, Popakul performs under the alias, ASTMA. He is the founder of record label Wysokie Pokrzywy and host of EXOZENTRYKIME mix series on the internet Radio Kapitał. He has released albums on various labels: Audile Snow, Pointless Geometry, Intruder Alert and is the creator of music videos and cover art for them.