Shoes and Hooves Makes Its Mark at Annecy Festival – A Surreal Tale of Identity and Acceptance

The Annecy Festival, the world’s premier animation event, has unveiled its short film competition lineup for June, which includes Viktória Traub’s latest work, “Shoes and Hooves.” Traub’s recent film unfolds in a surreal, hybrid world populated by human-animal beings, delving into themes of connection, conformity, and self-acceptance, as highlighted in the film’s press release.

“Shoes and Hooves” features Paula, a centaur girl working as a pedicurist in a small town, who longs for human feet. Her encounter with Arnold, a crocodile man, leads to an immediate mutual affection. The film raises questions about the journey towards self-identity, the costs of conformity, and the sacrifices of self-denial, all depicted through 2D animation.

The film boasts textures painted with specially created digital brushes, lending a natural, mature, material feel that complements and authenticates its surreal characters.

“The narrative revolves around the doomed love story of the two protagonists. While the centaur girl dreams of human feet, denying her horse identity, the crocodile man suppresses his predatory nature. The film is preoccupied with the anatomy of suppression and the compulsion to conform, questioning which prevails when love and self-acceptance are at odds,” shared director Viktória Traub, a 2008 graduate of the Animation Department at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design.

Traub‘s previous films, “Iron Egg” and “Mermaids and Rhinoceroses,” have enjoyed success at festivals worldwide, with the latter being honored as the Best Animated Film of 2018 by the Hungarian Association of Film Critics.

“Shoes and Hooves” was produced with the support of the NFI by Pi Production, in co-production with Solaz Media and Paprika Studios, and with additional support from TV Paint. The film’s music was composed by Csaba Kalotás, with the screenplay written by the director in collaboration with Zsuzsanna Bak and Polett Dus. The film’s sound design is by Zoltán Vadon, and it is produced by Polett Dus.

The Annecy Festival is scheduled to take place from June 9-15 this year.