Rob Munday

Winner of the ‘Jury Distinction’ award at Annecy 2014, Luca Toth’s distinct animated short The Age of Curious is finally online for everyone to revel in its unique style and story. Adopting a dreamlike approach to its story, Toth’s 8-minute film transports its viewers through a bizarre universe where three teenagers embark on a journey of discovery when they decide to peek under the hair of God.

As that description should correctly imply, The Age of Curious doesn’t really follow a “traditional” narrative arc, instead it presents an atmospheric storyline that’s bound to delight as many as it will frustrate. A coming-of-age tale of sorts, that its creator describes as “an association-based psychological journey”, Toth’s film orbits around notions of sexual awakenings – although its dreamlike quality could produce multiple interpretations of its unrestrained, wandering story.

Toth’s work is something we’ve had an eye on for a while here at SotW HQ, its bold style, vivid palette and unusual sound design really making its entry into the short film arena something that was hard for us to ignore. Taking a year to complete, from inspiration to export, Toth was able to bring her vision to life with the help from some of the first year students on her course at the Royal College of Art and credits a lot of the film’s atmospheric tone to the work of her composer Zuzia Ziolkowska.

Another graduation film from the Royal College of Art’s Class of 2013, following the recently featured The Dewberry Empire, The Age of Curious is another solid example of the challenging and innovative work that keeps coming out of the animation programme at the London school. With the class of 2015’s graduation show just around the corner (25 June 2015 to 5 July 2015), lets hope we see another fine selection of animated shorts hitting the festival scene in the near future (the films don’t reach online until at least a year after they’ve graduated unfortunately!).