Monday, December 22, 2014

Nassos Vakalis is an animator and storyboard artist, working for the feature animation development unit of DreamWorks Animation Studios. Since 2009, he has been working on his own short animated films. First came Human Nature (2009) and a few years later came Dinner for Few which was presented at the Animasyros animation festival and is currently participating in a number of festivals worldwide. The set is a dinner table sitted by anthropomorphic pigs. The only human figure is the service which makes sure there is enough food on the table.

Under the table, leftovers are thrown to cats, circulating around the table, looking out for their bite. "It is as if the world moves by inertia and everyone looks indifferent and reluctant to change" says Vakalis describing this allegorical depiction of society. The point is what happens when the cats start jumping on the table and start grabbing what they want. In 2006 Nassos was awarded by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with an Emmy for outstanding achievement in content. The 10-minute animation Dinner for few is funded and co-produced by Nassos Vakalis and his wife Katerina Stergiopoulou.