Watch This: One Left
Paris's prestigious animation school Gobelins is one of the world's most respected further education institutions for animation filmmakers. It's turned out generations of incredibly talented filmmakers many of whom have gone on to find success in the industry- and people from all over the world travel to attend it. The school has over recent years released each year's graduation films online via their YouTube Channel, and many of them have featured in our Web Animation Watch round-ups.
Austrian animation Sebastian Doringer is a Masters degree student currently attending Gobelins and working on his graduation film. In 2020, Sebastian graduated from The University of Applied Arts in Vienna and his graduate film One Left went on to be selected at over 100 festivals worldwide and won 15 awards. The film has now been released online.
One Left has an inspired premise where people are able to attend a doctor's appointment to tell them how long they have left to live. In most cases, the answer isn't what they were hoping for. The film follows several patients, including one who works out how to beat the system. The concept is brilliantly visualised by showing video game like icons above each person's head.
With a cheerfully cartoony style, Doringer's film uses a fantastical concept to address some universal concerns and also works as something of a satire of medical bureaucracy, something that anyone who lives somewhere with a national healthcare program will probably have had to deal with at some point in their life. It's reminiscent at times of works such as Terry Gilliam's 80s classic Brazil or the work of the late great Douglas Adams.
Most importantly, it is just very funny, as the patients all react in different ways to the bad news. It runs the gamut from anger, frustration, confusion and disbelief... to some uh.. different responses. The film also features some excellent music and sound design from Artur Aigner that really helps create the distinctive atmosphere. We can't wait to see Sebastian's Gobelins film!
Find out more about the film and Sebastian's work at his website.
ONE LEFT from Sebastian Doringer on Vimeo.
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