‘Playing God’ Director Matteo Burani Discusses His Award-Winning Stop-Motion Creation

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A clay sculpture comes to life and is plagued by his imperfections in Playing God, one of the most haunting stop-motion projects of the year. Directed by self-taught Italian writer, director, designer and puppet creator Matteo Burani, the short introduces an unforgettable world of sculpted figures who are too aware of their shortcomings. The short, which has won several prestigious festival prizes this year (including top awards at Animayo, Tribeca and Corto Dorico) is bound to become a strong Academy Award contender as well.

“Playing God was born from my desire to explore creation not only as an artistic act but also as a metaphor for human fragility through the medium of stop motion, with the challenging idea of combining three different animation techniques — puppet animation, clay animation and pixilation — into a single film,” Burani tells Animation Magazine. “The material itself, clay terracotta, was a tribute to one of the masterpieces of my hometown Bologna, Niccolò dell’Arca’s Lamentation Over the Dead Christ, a sculpture that has haunted me since childhood.”

Born of the Same Clay

The director says the project was initially conceived as a few-minutes-long short focusing on the dialog between the creator and creation. “It started almost as a personal redemption project, during a period of burnout in our stop-motion career,” he recalls. “We were working as a puppet maker for other productions, never fully satisfied, reflecting on our role as creators and on our abandoned creations. Over time, though, the story grew with a deeper awareness: It wasn’t only about the bond between a sculptor and his creature but about the unavoidable presence of ‘the others.’ From this, the world of the film expanded: Soon, a fragile community of figures appeared around the sculptor and his creature, all born from the same clay.”

According to Burani, the short began development back in 2017. “For years, the project advanced in a stop-and-go rhythm, mostly due to lack of funds. The COVID-19 pandemic made things even harder. But instead of giving up, we reacted by founding our own company — Studio Croma Animation — in 2021. Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign and the support of Italian national and regional funds, the project finally gained momentum. The partnership with French production [company] Autour de Minuit, along with CNC (French National Center for Cinema) support, completed the budget. The animation itself took 15 months of nonstop work, followed by three months of postproduction. In total, Playing God was nearly seven years in the making — a true odyssey, but one that eventually led us home.”

The short was made by a highly dedicated team of six. All the animation was done by a single animator, Arianna Gheller, who was also the producer of the short. Burani also performed as the pixilation actor on set, as well as contributing as a set dresser, puppet maker and production designer. Gianmarco Valentino worked on the visual development, animatic and co-wrote the story, supporting the project from the very beginning. Guglielmo Trautvetter, the director of photography, brought the aesthetic vision to life. Sole Piccinino crafted over 90 clay puppets, and Pier Danio Forni provided the memorable music for the dialog-free short.

“The most important lesson we learned is patience and persistence. Believe in your dreams and your ideas, no matter how long or hard the path. But above all, we’ve discovered the power of the right people around you, how a few committed hearts can move mountains and turn the impossible into reality.”

— Director Matteo Burani

“The secret of Playing God was a collaboration based on friendship, respect and mutual support, working together to create something meaningful when most people deemed the project an insanity. We feel this spirit perfectly reflects the core message of the film itself,” adds the filmmaker.

The production made 90 puppets using terracotta-colored clay and built with complex internal ball-and-socket armatures. All of them, including the main character, stood around 22.8 inches tall, which is quite unusual for a stop-motion production. “We wanted to truly bring each creature to life, making them tangible and closer to us,” says Burani. “Every puppet has its own personality, a specific character design and even an imagined backstory that helped us create a deeper connection with the audience.”

Burani further explains that the main character has an unusual story. “His design didn’t actually exist when we started shooting,” he admits. “We couldn’t settle on his face, yet we had already begun filming. The first scenes we shot were the morphing clay sequences during the creation scene, so at the beginning we worked with just an undefined armature. Step by step, as we animated frame by frame, eyes, mouth and facial features began to emerge. In the end, the character naturally took shape out of the raw material itself.”

Animating sequences that combined clay animation, puppet animation and pixilation was by far one of the most difficult challenges for the artists. “Working with these huge clay puppets meant that every single frame took an enormous effort,” says Burani. “Sometimes it took us 40 minutes just to capture one image. In the end, every frame was literally a different sculpture, making consistency while embracing clay’s natural imperfections a constant struggle. Some takes lasted for weeks and seemed endless. One of the most surprising discoveries for me was how meditation helped: By convincing myself I wasn’t really there at that moment, I could bring blood flow back into my limbs after they started going numb within the first 40 minutes. Believe it or not, it works … sometimes!”

The Gift of Life

As his creation finds new audiences around the world with each festival screening, Burani says he’s most proud of the expressive humanity he and his team achieved. He notes, “The characters truly breathe with emotion, like tears, saliva, subtle muscle movements, all crafted frame by frame in camera without any CGI. For me, that’s real magic: watching the impossible come to life, connecting the world of puppets with that of human beings.”

Burani says he hopes his short leads to a bittersweet reflection on identity, marginalization and self-awareness. “The film shows how the pursuit of perfection can lead to rejection, but also how accepting oneself and others can provide a sense of belonging. I see the short as an anthem for the marginalized, the overlooked and the outcasts: Those who, together, may one day awaken as the true majority. My greatest hope is that the film not only evokes strong emotions but also sparks a deep reflection on who we are, how we relate to each other and how we navigate the pressures and illusions imposed by the world we live in.”

Playing God has qualified for Oscar shortlist consideration. For more info, visit autourdeminuit.com and studiocromaanimation.com.