INTERMISSION
  

Short Talk with Milo Bonnard (director)

BEST SHORT ANIMATION FILM Category

22nd IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival 2025

United Kingdom, Animation, English, 00:09:50, 2024

Synopsis: A young man goes to a concert with the hope of being moved - only to feel more detached than ever before.

Biography: Milo Bonnard is a French filmmaker & a recent graduate of the National Film and Television School (UK). Using stop-motion, he crafts stories full of irony and warmth, capturing the absurdities of everyday life—its social discomforts, fleeting joys, and occasional transcendence.

Milo Bonnard, director

Toma Manov: Milo, the animation is incredibly intricate. How long did it take to complete the entire film?

Milo Bonnard: It was a long process from August 2023 to May 2024. I never actually counted the exact number.

Toma Manov: The character design is so unique. Did you draw inspiration from any specific art styles or films?

Milo Bonnard: I really like animating every frame, I try to keep the characters constantly moving. In the puppet design, the clothing is not fixed to the puppets, so it’s always floating or shifting slightly. That means you also have to animate the clothes, which gives the film a breathing, living quality that I really like. As for inspiration, I draw from a wide range of films and styles, to be honest.

Toma Manov: The film centers on a young person feeling disconnected during a cultural event. Is it a kind of parody of people overperforming at these events, showing exaggerated emotional reactions that don’t match the protagonist’s inner state?

Milo Bonnard: That’s something I was thinking about. When we go to these events, we start to question our own emotionality. Am I not being touched by this? Am I emotionally numb? I based the film on my own experience working in a concert hall. I remember wondering if I was the only one who felt out of place, while everyone else seemed deeply moved. But then, there’s a disconnect too, you see people being expressive but maybe not fully aware of what’s happening around them. I liked exploring that tension, how people try to connect. Performative behavior can feel pretentious, but it’s also kind of sweet, because it shows how people are just trying to reach one another.

Toma Manov: You mentioned working in a concert hall, so are there parallels between you and the protagonist?

Milo Bonnard: Yes, absolutely. In the film, there's a cloakroom attendant, that was actually my job in real life. I based the film on a combination of real moments, observations, and experiences, not just from the concert hall, but from everyday life. Like any filmmaker, I drew from what I knew.

Toma Manov: There are several quiet glances exchanged between the protagonist and the cloakroom attendant. In the end, the protagonist is the last one to leave. Is it fair to say that, despite feeling disconnected during the event, he leaves having found something he was looking for?

Milo Bonnard: Yes, personally, I think so. The fact that he made the effort to go out, to attend the concert, that’s already meaningful. He might have felt detached during the experience, but by the end, I think there’s a small but real connection. And that makes the whole journey worth telling.

Interviewer: Toma Manov

Editor: Martin Kudlac