RejectedInternet comedy
My spoon is too big
Pirated copies of Rejected spread across the early web, and its lines became catchphrases of the era's deadpan, surreal humour.
Independent animation
Animation made outside the studios, usually by one person or a small team, and often released by the filmmakers themselves.
Since 1960, festivals such as Annecy, and later Ottawa, have given independent animators a circuit of their own, apart from the cartoon and feature industry. The work runs from abstract experiments to personal, often very funny storytelling.
Don Hertzfeldt is its best-known self-publisher. He releases his films through his own company, Bitter Films, tours them to cinemas and has turned down advertising work. Rejected was nominated for an Academy Award.
Films to start with
In the order they were made. Runtimes are approximate.
Rejected
An animator's commissioned cartoons keep getting rejected and grow more unhinged, until the paper they're drawn on crumples into a void. It was nominated for an Oscar.
World of Tomorrow
A small girl, voiced by his four-year-old niece, is visited by an adult clone of herself from the future. It won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and was nominated for an Oscar.
Where it led
Lines from these films into work you may already know.
RejectedNearby
Movements, forms and techniques that share filmmakers or methods with this one.