133 - Hiroshima Animation Season 2026 : Tribute Screening to André Martin in Japan !
- Clément Martin
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
The Hiroshima Animation Season (HAS), the International Animation Film Festival, will take place at Aster Plazza Medium Hall from August 19 to 23. This festival’s artistic director is none other than a master of Japanese animation and animated poetry: Kōji Yamamura!
Gamca Animation is delighted to announce that a special screening will be dedicated to the animated films of André Martin!
Yuuki Arai
This screening is scheduled for August 22 at 16:45 (Hiroshima time), thanks to the initiative of Yuuki Arai, a PhD student at the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University.
Yuuki Arai, a graduate of Ritsumeikan University with a Master's degree, is currently conducting research on the history and theory of European animation. As part of her studies, she has developed a particular interest in French animation culture and the writings of André Martin. Yuuki Arai has published:
"André Martin and the 'Idea of Animation' — From 1955, the Birth of Animation Cinema: A Study on Animation" (アンドレ・マルタンと「アニメーションの理念」――1955年〈アニメーション映画の誕生〉を手がかりに).
This publication includes a precise chronology of André Martin's work on animation, primarily during the 1940s and 1950s, and provides the first synthesis of the formalization of animation cinema in Martin's writings.
This year, she was awarded a research grant for a project focused on André Martin's writings during his time in Canada. This project allows her to gather texts from that period and prepare a new publication on the subject.
Thank you to Yuuki Arai, whose work promotes André Martin's legacy in Japan.
The Program
The festival will showcase all of André Martin's animated short films, including 4 films digitized and restored by the CNC and VDM Laboratory in honor of the centenary of André Martin's birth. In this article, the films are illustrated with photograms taken from the restored versions.
"Radio clinique : Poste en souffrance" by André Martin, Michel Boschet, René Rios, and José Piquer – 46" – 1948 – CITIA-CNC
The first film was screened at the Annecy Festival last June. This film, which had not been screened for several decades, is a work deposited by CITIA at the CNC Film Archives in Bois d'Arcy and was digitized by the CNC from a 35mm copy.
This first known film by André Martin is an advertisement for a Bordeaux radio repair shop, created by a group of cinema enthusiasts who were making their first forays into animation (1). In the 1930s cartoon style, the film illustrates the shared passion of André Martin and his friends Michel Boschet, René Rios, and José Piquer, for animated cinema.
Patamorphose, or The Painter’s Despair - André Martin and Michel Boschet France, 1960 – Short Version (11 min) - Music: Geneviève Martin - Les Films Roger Leenhardt – FRL Productions
For this screening, we will also have the privilege of seeing a version restored by the CNC and VDM Laboratory for the event! A painter in the Luxembourg Garden depicts the palace. The painter, played by Michel Boschet, struggles to complete his painting.
"Patamorphose" presents a series of scenes showcasing various frame-by-frame filmmaking techniques, always in a burlesque and entertaining style. It reflects André Martin’s enduring interest in technique, whether in animation or in all forms of image production.
André Martin collaborated with the Research Department of Radio Télévision Française (RTF) from its creation by Pierre Schaeffer at the end of 1959. There, he gave lectures, produced experimental broadcasts and reports, and created two animated films. Extensive excerpts from "Patamorphose" were featured in two television programs, "Le septième art Bis", produced by the Research Department and hosted by Michel Boschet and André Martin. These programs are a treasure that reflect the spirit of the "Journées du Cinéma" and we hope to showcase them soon in this centenary year.
1959 – Demain Paris by Michel Boschet and André Martin - 16 min – Les Films Roger Leenhardt – FRL Productions - Music: Guy Bernard
This commissioned film, made for the French Ministry of Construction, traces the history of Paris's development and presents projects for the urban planning of the Paris region. It offers a forward-looking vision of the urbanization of Île-de-France at that time.
This film, produced by Roger Leenhardt, already brought together the future team of "Films Martin-Boschet", including René Foin, Michel Roudevitch, Julien Pappé, Jacques Leroux, and Manuel Otero.
In this film, we recognize André Martin’s distinct interests:
His love for history, arts, and architecture;
His affection for writing, as seen in the film’s poetic verses;
His fascination with the future and forecasting;
His consistent use of humor.
This film features an animation style reminiscent of UPA during its golden years in the early 1950s, a period that preceded the studio’s shift toward mass production for television.
"Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?" by Michel Boschet and André Martin | 1962 | 16 min - Music : Geneviève Martin
An ethnographer travels to a small African village, where he records local sounds and music to exploit them for his own profit. This film is about defending authors' rights and cultural diversity. It reflects André Martin’s love for carefully crafted texts, passion for cultures, and humor. You’ll even find a technological nod with the surprising appearance of a rocket!
The subject of this film follows in the footsteps of the work André Martin carried out in the early 1960s for UNESCO on folk music in cinema.
It will be presented in its restored version as a world premiere at the Hiroshima Festival. Previously, it had only been screened in its restored version on a flat screen as part of the André Martin exhibition.
The film's graphic style—particularly its backgrounds—recalls the work of Faith and John Hubley, especially the animations they created for The Seven Lively Arts, CBS's cultural television series (1957–1958).
Maison Vole (Flying House) André Martin, Philippe Quéau | France | 1983 | 2 min | Colour | Music by Geneviève Martin
A passionate advocate of the emerging field of computer-generated imagery at a time when most animation professionals paid little attention to it,(2) André Martin, in collaboration with the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA) and Sogitec, created a 3D animated demonstration film that is both narrative and poetic, produced entirely through digital synthesis (both images and music). The visuals were generated using a flight simulator, while the soundtrack, composed by Geneviève Martin, was created with IRCAM's 4X digital sound processing system.(3)
This film was created using Sogitec's flight simulator, a system that was never intended to produce animation. By today's standards, the available tools could be considered rudimentary. Yet Sogitec's engineers successfully adapted the simulator to make this film, combining their technical expertise with André Martin's skills as a filmmaker to develop a narrative that could be achieved within the system's constraints.
At a time when few people believed in the future of digital imagery, André Martin was determined to demonstrate the creative potential of computer animation. In 1981, he founded the Forum des Nouvelles Images in Monte Carlo, which later became Imagina. History has shown that he was right.
One cannot help but wonder what André Martin would have thought about today's generative AI technologies for image creation. Do these new tools not call for a fresh creative vision—one capable of integrating them into artistic practice while preserving the unique contribution of the human hand and creative gesture? It is up to today's artists to invent that vision… or perhaps not.
Many thanks to the HAS Festival team !
GAMCA Animation warmly thanks :
the festival team—Kazuki Ogawa and Doi Nobuaki,
Yuuki Arai, curator of this program
for all the work that went into preparing this screening, which pays tribute to André Martin in one of the world's great countries for animated cinema.
I would also like to thank all the rights holders and producers whose support has made this screening possible.
If you are in Hiroshima, don't miss this rare opportunity to see these exceptional films on the big screen. Join us on August 22 at 4:45 p.m. (Hiroshima time)!
The festival program is available here:
The presentation of the André Martin programme in English:
The presentation of the André Martin programme in Japanese:
More to come...
References (In french)
(2) 16 Naissance-du-cinéma-informatique-1ère-partie Des pionnières et des pionniers
et 23 Naissance du cinéma Informatique 2e partie : Les années 60 et les pionniers du numérique.
(3) 46 Maison Vole : L'envolée a 40 ans !
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