Team members of Kaboom Animation Festival have created free film packages, especially for all our animation-loving-friends. Gems you won’t find on Netflix, but that are definitely worth your time. Maarten and Dario have already shared their favorites.

This week Luuk van Huët, one of the founding fathers of the KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival and member of the Kaboom programming team has selected five films from the festival archives, taking a trip down memory lane.

Everything Will Be Okay (Don Hertzfeldt, US, 2006) This film was one of the main winning films of the very first festival (along with the next one in this selection). Everything Will Be Okay by Don Hertzfeldt is the first film in a trilogy about disease, mental illness and death. You’d assume that makes for a morbid viewing experience, yet they are the most life-affirming and moving shorts I have seen.

La Marche Des Sans Nom (Jean Constantial, Lucas Vigroux and Nicolas Laverdure, FR, 2007) Another film that was one of the main winning films of the very first festival, which also still holds up beautifully. La Marche Des Sans Nom tells a timeless tale of war for profit with some impressive visuals, setting a high bar for student films to come.

The External World (David OReilly, IE, 2010) David OReilly dropped by the festival wearing a horse mask and showed us how to party BoJack-style before BoJack was a thing. This short is drenched in his trademark dark, twisted sense of humor, but ends on an uplifting beat.

Arcadian Fever (Tea Stražičić, HR, 2015) Tea was our guest during one of the most memorable editions of our Midnight Madness event, when we screened this trippy short about lesbian parasitic alien panda bears accompanied by a live dance performance by two amazing dancers, which was the experience of a lifetime. This time, you’ll have to do the dancing yourself, though.

Decorado (Alberto Vázquez, ES, 2016) This Gothic send-up of Disney, animation, artificiality and the stage was one of the best winning films I’ve seen. The film speaks for itself, so the less I say about it, the better.