Watch: Award-Winning Swiss Animated Short Film ‘The Lonely Orbit’

Loneliness… we all experience it, we all dread it. And it’s especially tough now with the pandemic, everyone separated at home. This beautiful animated short film from Switzerland called The Lonely Orbit is about loneliness and everyone’s eternal struggle with it. The filmmakers visualize this powerful feeling following a satellite drifting in orbit quietly, lonely, around Earth. And the story wonders what happens one day when a satellite tech accidentally forgets to keep the satellite in working order and it comes crashing down to Earth. The animation in this short is utterly gorgeous – it most recently screened at last year’s Annecy Film Festival in their short film competition (and it originally premiered in Switzerland at the Neuchâtel Fantastic Film Festival in 2019). I adore the color palette (that blue!!) and the various object and character designs. It’s by the Swiss animators Team Tumult and is now available to view online thanks to Short of the Week. Enjoy.

Thanks to Short of the Week for debuting this. Original description from YouTube for the short: “Leaving for his dream job, a satellite technician keeps solitude at bay by constantly texting with his old friends. After neglecting his duties a satellite leaves its orbit which causes the worlds network to collapse.” The Lonely Orbit is co-directed by filmmakers Frederic Siegel & Benjamin Morard of the animation studio Team Tumult based in Zurich – visit their official website to see more of their work and learn more about them. Produced by Team Tumult and Marwan Abdalla Eissa. In co-production with SRF Swiss Radio & Television. Featuring original music by Luc Gut. The inspiration for the short comes from Siegel when, after graduating university, he was “struck with the reality of how ‘hard it is to keep friendships alive over a distance.'” For more info on the short, visit SOTW or the Team Tumult website. To see more shorts, click here. Thoughts?