As an animator, I specialise in old-school oil on glass technique, that was quite popular in the Soviet Union and where each frame is painted individually. I got familiar with it in a documentary animation class at Bauhaus University Weimar, where we got introduced to it among other experimental techniques. From that course on I also developed my interest and love for documentary animation, which resulted in me becoming one of the Factual Animation Film Festival organisers and the producer of the Berlin event.

However, I also love experimental animation and work with mixed media – collage, video, digital postproduction. One of my works, “Ghost memories”, was recently exhibited at Fringe Arts Bath festival 2022, UK and another one, “1933: The story of Chelyuskin and Shavrov“ was also exhibited in London.

In 2017 I have completed an internship as a motion designer, and started working with digital animation as well, I have created visual assets for real estate image films at my work at Lemon One, as well as animated instructions on photography and other explainer videos. I am also currently taking a 9 month long extensive Motion Design course in order to expand my knowledge in the field.

After EffectsDragonframeFlashPremiere ProMotion designLotti

BALAGAN!!!!

2015, duration 01:47
Animation and postproduction: Marina Belikova
Voice acting: Ian Bowden, Brandon H’Arezzo, Jeni Fulton, Patrick Littlewood, Ludwig Müller, Rachel Rits-Volloch, Becca Sparkes

This work was created in 2015 for the BALAGAN!!! Contemporary Art from the Former Soviet Union and Other Mythical Places exhibition by Momentum and was displayed at Kühlhaus Berlin alongside the other works. It is a visualisation of a poem by David Elliott BALAGAN!!! (the full text may be found on the website of the exhibition).

Screenings:
  • ART from ELSEWHERE: Danube Dialogues (Selected Artists from the MOMENTUM Collection, 2022)
  • “Taking Flight: Birds & Bicycles Berlin” Exhibition by MOMENTUM Berlin (2022)
  • “oh my data” exhibition, Berlin (2022)
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  • Buskopolis Festival of Cinematic Oddities, USA (2020)
  • BlackBox Shortfilm Festival, Switzerland (2017)
  • “Beyond BALAGAN!!! HERO MOTHER: Contemporary Art by Post-Communist Women Rethinking Heroism” at MOMENTUM Berlin (2016)

The Astronaut’s journal

2016, duration 05:19
Animation, story and production: Marina Belikova
Music: Bert Liebold
Voice acting: Becca Sparkes

A Master Thesis animation. Bauhaus University, 2016.
“Man has gone out to explore other worlds and other civilizations without having explored his own labyrinth of dark passages and secret chambers, and without finding what lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed.”

― Stanisław Lem, Solaris
Screenings:
  • 2020
  • Prize-winner of the Sound And Vision International Film & Technology Festival, USA
  • Screening & panel discussion participant at Mobile Animation Film Festival
  • Screening at Hidalgo Film Fest, USA
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  • Screening at Ridgewood International Film Festival, USA
  • Screening at KinoDUEL International Film Festival, Russia
  • Screening at SACRAMENTO UNDERGROUND FILM & ARTS FESTIVAL, USA
  • Screening at St Albans Film Festival, USA
  • Screening at Rome Independent Prisma Awards, Italy
  • Screening at UK Monthly Film Festival, UK
  • 2019
  • Semi-finalist of the Independent Talents International Film Festival
  • The winner of the Emerging Voices Division Animated Short Film category of the 2019 Mosaic Film Festival
  • Miami Independent Film Festival, USA
  • Dumbo Film Festival, USA
  • Winner of the audience’s award at the Watford Short Film Festival, UK
  • Semi-finalist of the jellyFEST – Season 4, USA
  • Les Femmes Underground Film Festival, USA
  • Santiago Independent Film Awards, Chile
  • The best jury choice award of the month at Red Wood Film Festival
  • Cinefern (September 2019 edition)
  • LONG STORY SHORTS | International Film Festival, Romania
  • 2018
  • Finalist of the European Cinematography AWARDS (ECA), Poland
  • Semi-finalist of the Hollywood Screenings Film Festival, USA
  • Semi-finalist of the Eurasia International Monthly Film Festival
  • Los Angeles Short Film Festival, USA
  • Fantaspoa International Fantastic Film Festival, Brazil
  • Days of German and Russian short films VKRATZE!, Russia
  • the Independent Days International Filmfestival, Germany
  • iChill Manila film fest, Philippines
  • The Backup festival, Germany
  • Capital City Film Festival, USA
  • LifeArt Festival, Greece
  • Semi-finalist of the Euregion Film Festival, Netherlands
  • 2017
  • The finalist of the Near Nazareth Festival
  • Nomination for the Short Film Festival Beveren, Belgium
  • The best screen play award at The Great Message International Film Festival, India
  • Cinema Sotterraneo at the Bauhaus University Summaery
  • Sommernachtstape at Bauhaus University Summaery (2017)
  • The prize winner of “Barcelona Planet Film Festival” (Best Animation Short Film)
  • Finalist of European Cinematography AWARDS (ECA)
  • Semi-finalist of the Eurasian International Monthly Film Festival
  • Semi-finalist of “AniMazSpot International Animation Feedback Festival”
  • Nomination for the “Move Me Productions” Film Festival
  • “The West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival”, USA
  • “Gold Reel Student Film Festival”
  • “SHORT to the Point” film festival, Romania

Photoshoot guidelines

2018, duration 04:50
Animation and postproduction: Marina Belikova
Voice: Becca Sparkes

Video tutorial for photographers, shooting beauty/hair/spa salons for LemonOne, containing technical requirements, dos and don’ts, as well as amount of pictures to be taken, submission details etc.

SmartMusic! An Audiovisual Adventure II – THE MIGRANT

2022, duration 09:10
Animation and postproduction: Marina Belikova
Violin: Stephen Mayer (US)
Bandoneón: Kaspar Uljas (EST)
Drums: Luis Mora Matus (CH)
Electric Bass: Giuseppe Bordasco (IT)
Sound engineering, edit, mix: Nacho Maquieira (ARG)
Piano, composition, arrangement, original idea: Aleksandra Tonelli (ARG)

What is ‘SmartMusic! An Audiovisual Adventure’ by Aleksandra Tonelli?
This is the name of a new way of musicking, or experiencing music, from home, from your screen. Primarily through social media and video conference apps, this project aims to provide a concert-wise narrative audiovisual experience. Longer than a song and shorter than a film, this new artistic device aims for new types of art-consuming and artist-public relationship. This audiovisual piece of art can be considered a short-film, being the music composed in such a narrative way that can be translated into an animated video design to tell you a story.

Screenings:
  • Z-inema Berlin (2022)
  • Austin Lift-Off Film Festival (2022)


Ghost memories

2015, duration 01:17
Photography & animation: Marina Belikova

Ghost memories”, is a mixture between slides and animation. When I was a child and my family used to go to visit my grandparents in Ukraine, the film we used in our small analogue camera when was not then turned into usual photos – instead they were developed into small so-called “slides”, that were then framed in small plastic cases. When I was missing my grandparents, I would ask my parents to show them for me and it almost felt like going to a theatre: we would wait for the evening, close the curtains (since in Moscow it was still pretty bright due to the light pollution), my parents would hang a small screen and take out the projector. Then we would choose the slides we would want to see and load them one by one. The projector would get hot very fast and make this unforgettable buzzing sound – when I to hear it as an adult it brings me back to a warm room with dust particles dancing in the light and slightly blurry snapshots of my childhood projected on the screen, always hanging on a slight angle.

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Also before the appearance of VHS films we used to have so-called “diafilms” with fairy tales and other kid stories – strips, which would be inserted in the projector and parents would scroll them frame by frame to tell a story in a comic-like way (they also had text on each frame). In my childhood art school we did not have computers at the time, so they also used this kind of projectors to show us the paintings and buildings we were studying at the time. They would keep switching in front of our eyes with this loud clacking sounds, showing us the glorious ancient Greece and Rome buildings, nowadays remains of those, landscapes from the countries that no longer existed, portraits of people from the past, kings and queens, as well as ordinary people with unknown names, running their errands. When I was doing my Master Degree in Bauhaus University, many of my friends graduated at different times, and we had to say a lot of extended goodbyes to each other and to the places we lived in. It overwhelmed me with nostalgia and brought back all these memories from my childhood. So I created a series of looped videos, which is a take on those slides from my childhood, dreamy sequences of places and people that were staying behind, switching with this clacking sound, announcing that it is time for the next slide. All of them feature significant people and places from that period of my life, that I wanted to preserve in this way.

Screenings:
  • Fringe Arts Bath, UK (2022)

My first day in Weimar

2014, duration 01:48
Animation and postproduction: Marina Belikova
Story & voice acting: Ludwig Müller

A documentary animation, based on the story by Ludwig Müller, who also did the voice acting. The work was created in 2014 during the Bauhaus University course “Animated memories”.

Screenings:
  • Factual Animation Film Fuss 2017, UK
  • Moscow Shorts, Russia

Looping Group animation

2018, duration 00:18
Oil animation and background: Marina Belikova
Postproduction: Looping Group

A logotype animation for Looping Group Berlin.

Titles for Factual Animation Film Fuss 2018

2018, duration 00:35
Animation & postproduction: Marina Belikova

Titles for different animation blocks, created for the Factual Animation Film Fuss 2018.

Screenings:
  • Factual Animation Film Fuss 2018, UK

1933: The story of Chelyuskin and Shavrov

2022, duration 06:00
Director & producer: Varvara Keidan Shavrova
Art & animation: Marina Belikova

This video is a demo for a game, based on the urban legend about the Chelyuskin, the Soviet steamship, reinforced to navigate through polar ice, that became ice-bound in Arctic waters during navigation along the Northern Maritime Route from Murmansk to Vladivostok, and sank.
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Chelyuskin

Screenings:
  • “Haptic codes”, Patrick Heide, UK

Trailer for Factual Animation Film Festival 2019

2019, duration 00:31
Animation and postproduction: Marina Belikova

A trailer for FAFF 2019 (Factual Animatil Film Festival).

Screenings:
  • The Factual Animation Film Fuss 2019, UK

Kukeri explanation video

2017, duration 00:52
Animation: Marina Belikova
Voice: Mihail Mihaylov

A short explanation video about a bulgarian annual festival Kukeri.
Every year in January and February in towns and villages around Bulgaria people gather to celebrate a special kind of festival – Kukeri. Kukeri are elaborately costumed Bulgarian men who perform traditional rituals intended to chase away the evil spirits.
These kukeri wear carved wooden masks made of fur, leather and wood, with the faces of beasts and birds, which connects them with the ancient Dionysius’s games. Some of the masks are double-faced. One of the sides is smiling and amiable, the other side is vicious, with a hooked nose. Those masks symbolize the good and the bad which inevitably exist in our world side by side.

Fitness App promo video

2020, duration 00:15
Graphics & Animation: Marina Belikova

A short promo video for a fitness app, showing the progress the app helps make and the typical excercises.

Berlin wall fall

2019, duration 00:10
Graphics & Animation: Marina Belikova

A short 10 second clip about people celebrating the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989.

Nordwind Festival Trailer

2015, duration 00:50
Video extract from: AES+F, Inverso Mundus, People and Donkeys, 2015
Concept and creative direction: Marina Belikova, Bureau N

A trailer for the Nordwind Festival. The 6th edition of the Nordwind Festival with its focus on exploring the North European and Baltic performing arts scene this time also throws a spotlight on Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union. It run under the title “BALAGAN!!! – Zones of Resistance” and took place in Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden and – for the first time – in Bern between 14 November and 23 December 2015.

CHA(hOpe)TIK Collection showreel

2013, duration 00:57
Animation & postproduction: Marina Belikova
Photos used: Livio Morabito

A showreel, presenting the works by a fashion designer Lucie Veyries, CHA(hOpe)TIK Collection.

Mimicry

2013, duration 01:06
Concept and postproduction: Marina Belikova
Model: Elahe Rostami

This is a short stopmotion, answering the question “What is fashion for you?”