Ann Oren is an artist and a filmmaker. Her films and video installations feature characters existing in the liminal space between performers and audience. By dissolving distinctions between plant, animal and human, she asks what it is to be human in an ecosystem immersed in digital culture. Questions about intimacy, identity, and the lack thereof keep emerging through various audio-visual approaches. In her process she explores gender, fictosexuality, animality, interspecies and other forms of hybridizations. Through an initially narrative language, she leads the spectator emotionally into a space that engages critical thinking.
Her work’s institutional presentations include The Moscow Biennial for Young Art, The Hammer museum, The Tel-Aviv Museum, Anthology Film Archives, Apexart, Künstlerhaus Bethanien and Kindl - Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst.
After moving to Berlin in 2015, her artistic focus started to shift towards cinema. She directed PASSAGE in 2020, which premiered in Oberhausen Short Film Festival, and won many awards including Best Experimental Short at Slamdance. Her first narrative feature film PIAFFE won the Junior Jury Awards at Locarno Film Festival and currently tours in festivals around the world including San Sebastián, BFI London, and a long line up on the way.
Born in Tel-Aviv (1979), Ann studied Film (BA) and Fine Arts (MA) at The School of Visual Arts, NY. She lives/works in Berlin.
Studio contact: here
RECENT NEWS & PRESS:
PIAFFE screens at
BFI London
October 5 -16
PIAFFE screens at
San Sebastián Film Festival Zabaltegi-Tabakalera
September 16-24
PIAFFE wins First Prize @ Junior Jury of the International Competition
Locarno Film Festival
August, 2022
PIAFFE review, Clarisse Fabre, LE MONDE
"In this erotic and sexual neo-Bunuélien "pas de deux"... Ann Oren's Piaffe lit up the final days of the competition, deploying its surrealist material from a part of the cinema craft: foley artistry..."
"Néo-bunuélien, ce « pas de deux » érotique et sexuel... Piaffe, d’Ann Oren, l’un des dix-sept longs-métrages qui concourent pour le Léopard d’or, aura illuminé les derniers jours de la compétition, déployant sa matière surréaliste à partir d’un métier du cinéma : le bruitage."
PIAFFE review, Paul Attard, IN REVIEW ONLINE
"This is about as radical and forward-thinking as contemporary cinema gets."
PIAFFE review, Nicholas Bell, IONCINEMA
"A fantastical homage to the magical attributes of cinema and the untapped eroticism lurking within our primordial brains, Oren constructs a hypnotic exercise of metamorphic hedonism."
PIAFFE review, Sophie Monks Kaufman, INDIE WIRE
"Piaffe is its own playful and majestic beast."
PIAFFE review, Daniel Kothenschulte, FRANKFURTER RUNDSCHAU
"Rarely has one seen such free, undefined eroticism in the cinema. At the same time, it's one of the most beautiful Berlin films, making neglected monuments like the Hufeisensiedlung in the Britz district shine. What a gift: if Maya Deren, the great American avant-garde pioneer, were alive today, she would probably make a film like this."
"Selten hat man im Kino eine so freie, undefinierte Erotik gesehen. Zugleich ist es einer der schönsten Berlin-Filme, der vernachlässigte Denkmäler wie die Hufeisensiedlung im Ortsteil Britz zum Strahlen bringt. Was für ein Geschenk: Wäre Maya Deren, die große amerikanische Avantgarde-Pionierin, heute noch am Leben, dann machte sie wohl einen Film wie diesen."
PIAFFE review, Muriel del Don, CINEUROPA
"..Ann Oren captures the audience’s imagination by way of an elegant and poetic work which urges us to take a critical look at our relationship with “normality”.
10 Must-See Movies at the 2022 Locarno Film Festival, Sophie Monks Kaufman, INDIEWIRE
"This is a sexy, queer and questioning gem."
PIAFFE premieres at
Locarno Film Festival
August 11
PASSAGE
Bucharest International Dance Film Festival
September 8-11
PASSAGE
Festival ephémère Kunst
Lichtspiele-Theater, Olten
August 19+20
BLUE and THE MIDDLE–SCHOOL SYNDROME
on view @ Electronic Language International Festival – FILE
Galeria de Arte do Sesi, São Paulo
July 13th- to August 28th
PASSAGE
wins first prize @ Shortwaves Film Festival, Poznań
Dances with camera competition
June, 2022
Jury's statement:
For the compelling disruption of the relation between body, sound and camera. The director well managed to shape an alluring character that strongly connects to the audience. The cinematography discloses with subtlety the texture of the body.
DEAD BODY POSE
will screen at Hamburg Short Film Festival / DEUTSCHEN WETTBEWERBS 2, 2+3 June