'This Will Never Last' at the Annecy Film Festival

This Will Never Last, directed by Bachelor of Design in Animation (Honours) grads Julia Van Oppen, Katrina Lin, and Holly May Fletcher, is an animated short that details a summer night in the pubs of Newtown. 

Produced by Deb Szapiro, the project employs a distinct visual style and vibrancy reminiscent of the wild feeling that spread across Sydney after the ending of the 2021 COVID lockdown.

The Annecy International Film Festival (Festival international du film d’animation d’Annecy) began in 1960 in the French town of Annecy, a short drive from Geneva. The 2022 festival had over 300 screenings, with 3000 companies participating in the International Animation Film Market (MIFA). 

Julia, Katrina and Holly answered some of our questions about This Will Never Last, and the process of getting their film into Annecy.

Could you outline the process to get selected for the Annecy Festival for your animation, This Will Never Last?

Julia: Each festival has its own submission guidelines - but they do generally have similar requirements. Advertising material, the film, director information, etc. We already had most of our festival material together as we created a lot of it at the end of the honours year to promote the UTS end of year screenings. From there it's just to fill out all the info they need. Luckily, Annecy is one of the few large festivals that don’t charge a submission fee so we didn’t need to pay for this one!

Kat: Actually, I submitted our film without much thought. It was free entry so we thought there’s no harm, but I thought our chances were slim…  it’s Annecy! It’s a huge deal! I even started a free trial for Dropbox for this submission, and canceled it the day before the trial ended and thought “oh well, I hope they saw it in time!” Thankfully it seems they saw the film!

Holly: It was an easy process given entries were free, it was all a manner of gathering the materials we had organised since the end of our production to submit to the film festival. We are beyond excited we got through that process and they liked our film.

What was your inspiration for the animation style that you have chosen?

Julia: We all were already drawn to the loose and vibrant style that we ended up choosing. I think that sort of style is quite prevalent in a lot of student films - if you look at schools such as Gobelins you’ll find a lot of those films have a similar vibe. My personal style had already been influenced for years by Victoria Vincent, who is an indie filmmaker, and goes by ‘vewn’ online. She has risen in popularity alot in the last couple of years so most people recognise that style influence - or ‘vewn moment’ as we would joke with our peers whenever anyones film was influenced by her.

I personally also enjoy working with constraints, which is something we were encouraged to do throughout the UTS Animation degree throughout our assessments. I find it’s easier for me to push myself to create something more unique when I put constraints on myself. This is something I wanted to do with the colour palette as well. We ended up with 2 sets of 7 colours we used throughout the film - one for day time and one for night time. This could be challenging when we had busy shots, but I think it’s very striking and definitely helped keep the film more cohesive throughout. 

Kat: We definitely went with Julia’s amazing style; her being our main director. She has a strong individual style that we knew would be impactful and decided pretty early on that is what would be best for the film. It was a really unique experience; because while we make a great team, we have very different approaches to our art and animation styles. While the style we went with was a lot looser and fun, my way of drawing is extremely detail oriented, and it must’ve taken me over half the year trying to nail it down! But my individual skill was very useful for backgrounds when capturing the intricacies of Newtown. 

Holly: Julia was the backbone of this part of the project as the main director, she executed the vision we each had of the people in Newtown and the diversity we hoped to include across the many characters. 

As a group we went out many times to local pubs in Newtown that we had scouted previously and made observation drawings of the ‘characters’ we envisioned and took all our inspiration from real life people of Newtown. 

We visited throughout the week and many hours of the day to gather research on the typical patrons of the venues, along with our own extensive experiences visiting and living in Newtown throughout the years (which was the driving factor already for choosing this location to be the heart of our project).

What do you want to leave audiences feeling when they've watched your film?

Julia: Our film was born from our first meeting prior to honours where we realised we all wanted to create a film that was fun, especially after lockdown. 

We all knew that writing wasn’t our strongest skill, and knew we wanted to create something that was more of a feeling than a story. We want to commemorate the nights out you have on a Friday - a fun ritual. And the different types of people who experience that ritual in different ways. 

We were influenced by all these iconic venues around Sydney that were announcing their closures. We were really passionate about the joy these venues brought to the community, so we wanted to create something that showed what going out was like for us in these locations. Like a love letter. So that’s what we want the audience to feel - the fun, joy, and memories that are made on a Friday evening.

Kat: We want them to feel like they’re a part of the Newtown Friday night shenanigans. Our film was born from a desire to reconnect with not just our friends, but the random people we encounter on nights out after lockdown. I guess I wanted people to feel like they were part of something fun, even if it was something that seemed so insignificant or common like a Friday night out. 

Holly: It was really tough throughout the year to make sure what we ‘envisioned’ our film to be matched the final product, and in the end I am really proud of us, and the team we built around us, to get it there. We initially started based on the idea of Sonder (a sense that the people around you have their own unique complex experiences), this theme carries through our film by passing through the lens of different groups, locations, people, and times of day. We really just wanted to capture the human experience from all angles while also managing to keep the pace moving continually. Our second core emotion and idea driving the film is (of course) a big night out drinking; the culture around our friends, the fun to be had, and the general lively night in Newtown. If anything, this is like a small brochure that can capture the Aussie experience of a night out and we hope the love we have for Newtown, for our country and for a good party shine through. It might not speak for all experiences, but it hit the spot according to our peers after they watched our final production.

Where can we see the film if we can't make it to the Annecy Festival?

Julia: At the moment, we can’t publish it online as a lot of festivals require that it isn’t online anywhere when it’s being shown. So it probably won’t be available until sometime next year. We are planning to submit to Sydney Film Festival next year, so maybe you’ll see us there!

What's next for you?

Julia: Myself and Katrina are heading to Annecy ourselves to experience the festival - which I’m very much looking forward to! I'm not currently employed in the industry, so I’m hoping to knuckle down and find something when I get back. I’m looking to head into pre-production, things like storyboarding, or character design. I’ve ended up being the ‘director’ (as much as you can say that in a small, collaborative space) in the majority of my group projects at university, so I think that is a path I’m interested in following further down in my career. But that will take quite a few years to work up to, and I’m honestly just happy to try a lot of things out while I’m young.

Kat: Have a smashing time at Annecy and then figure the rest out later! I’m not in the industry yet, but I have a passion for creating films and telling stories, which I discovered through my time at uni. I also love visual development, particularly environment design, which is something I am looking to get into. 

Holly: It’s really hard to say actually! Job hunting is the main driving force here. I’ve had a passion since I began my animation degree to study Storyboarding and Cinematography. I want to learn everything I can about it and work on some truly fun and different projects with these skills. Something I did not anticipate along my journey was how much I enjoyed 3D modelling and animation. I have a tendency to enjoy problem solving and challenging myself, so I may combine my passions to seek out where they will take me in the future.

Where can we get in touch with you?

Julia: On social media, you can find me posting the most on my instagram @lukalunar, though I will say I’m not too active on it these days. My email is juliavoppen@gmail.com.

Kat: You can find me on my Instagram @tinytako, or email me at tinytakodraws@gmail.com!

Holly: Through my instagram @mawok where I post some animation examples or my email mawok666@outlook.com