Contrary to the laurels ensconcing every independent movie poster and advertisement, not every film festival presentation is going to be a winner. Once you cut through the glitz of celebrity and flashing lights over the red carpet, sometimes these movies simply aren’t very good. I was pleased, then, that of the fourteen or so films I caught this year at London Film Festival, most have something to recommend them — even if the final product doesn’t always hang together.

Perhaps not coincidentally, my standout of this year’s LFF is a film with no A-list celebrities on hand to promote it. Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat’s Olivia & the Clouds is the first animated feature to come out of the Dominican Republic. It hits the scene with such aplomb that I struggled to shake its imagery for days afterward. The film is led by emotions rather than narrative, a controlled chaos of clashing styles and modes. Thick oil paints become watercolors, and 2D animation gives way to a lonely, dancing, stop-motion figure. Pichardo-Espaillat and his team of artists draw out the inner life of everyday inanimate objects, imbuing them with meaning and conviction.

Read the full article on RogerEbert.com. You can read Søren’s preview of the 2024 London Film Festival here.