Winter Days

A film adaptation of a collaborative linked poem ("renku") from a 1684 collection by the 17th-century Japanese poet Bashō. Staying true to the original work's collaborative spirit, the animation brings together 35 different artists-each tasked with visualizing one of the 36 stanzas. Alongside many Japanese animators, director Kawamoto enlisted renowned international talents. Every contributor provided at least 30 seconds of animation for their stanza, with most sequences running under a minute (though Yuriy Norshteyn's segment lasts nearly two minutes).