International Competition

CRYPTOZOO

• Director: Dash Shaw
• USA / 2021 / DCP / Colour / 95’ / English; Turkish s.t.

• Screenplay: Dash Shaw
• Editing: Lance Edmands, Alex Abrahams
• Music: John Carroll Kirby
• Animation: Emily Wolver 
• Voices: Lake Bell, Michael Cera, Angeliki Papoulia, Alex Karpovsky, Zoe Kazan, Louisa Krause
• Producer: Kyle Martin, Jane Samborski, Bill Way, Tyler Davidson
• Production Co.: Electric Chinoland, Fit Via Vi, Low Spark
• World Sales: The Match Factory
• Turkish Rights: MUBI

**This film is screened as part of the International Competition.**

2021 Sundance NEXT Innovator Award
2021 Berlin Special Mention–Generation 14+

Taking its audience on a psychedelic journey through a zoo full of magical creatures, Cryptozoo is uniquely funny, visually stunning, and politically charged. The film takes place in a zoo called “Cryptozoo,” which rescues and gives refuge to fantastical creatures. Lauren Gray, one of the employees of the zoo, goes on a mission to track down Baku, a dream devouring chimera and starts questioning if it makes sense to keep these creatures hidden. This is comic book artist and director Dash Shaw’s second film following the brilliant comedy My Entire High School Sinking into Sea (2016), and is inspired by dreams and imaginary beings that can only be depicted through drawing. The film uses a collaged process of animation techniques, turning physical drawings to digital. The production process spanned five years.

This film was a Meetings on the Bridge participant.