Liu Jian x2

In a contemporary cinematic landscape clogged with mawkish lookalike, high-sheen CGI animations, Chinese filmmaker Liu Jian’s meticulously hand-drawn, searchingly intelligent works are a bracing gust of fresh air. To watch Liu’s films—we’ll be screening his noir odyssey Have a Nice Day and his playful, philosophical period piece Art College 1994—is to be in the presence of a master craftsman, a first-rate mind, and a shot in the arm for any lover of animation suffering from Pixar fatigue.