Two short films by Latvian directors will be screened during the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, which runs June 8-13 in France.

The films are Spārni un airi (Wings and Oars) by Vladimir Leschiov and Birth by Signe Baumane.

In Spārni un airi, a former pilot examines his life. All work on the film, except for sound and music, is by Leschiov.

Leschiov was born in 1970 in Daugavpils and in 2007 started his own business, Lunohod Animation Studio, in Rīga. Leschiov’s first professional film, Bezmiegs (Insomnia), was completed in 2004 and has won several awards, according to his studio’s Web site.

Baumane’s Birth tells the story of a 17-year-old girl, Amina, who is pregnant. The film is a U.S. and Italian co-production.

Born in 1964 in Auce, Baumane grew up in Tukums and on Russia’s Sakhalin Island. She started her professional career in 1989 at the Dauka Animation Studio in Rīga, according to her Web site. Since 1995, she has lived in New York. Besides work on a several award-winning animation films, she also does illustration for children books and other publications, including Utne Reader.

A schedule for screenings has not yet been announced. For further information about the festival, visit www.annecy.org.

One of the 16 people on board a helicopter that crashed April 1 into the North Sea was a resident of Latvia, police in Scotland have confirmed.

Mihails Žuravskis, 39, is the last person whose identity was released by Aberdeen-based Grampian Police. He was an employee of KCA Deutag Drilling Ltd., police said.

KCA Deutag, which has its headquarters in Aberdeen, confirmed Žuravskis’ identity in an April 3 press release. He was one of 10 company employees traveling in the helipcopter.

“One of KCA Deutag’s management team has been mobilized to Latvia to join the local authorities in supporting Mihails’ next-of-kin,” the company said in the press release.

The cause of the crash is under invesigation, but KCA Deutag said in a press release that weather conditions were not good at the time of the accident.

The helicopter belonged to Bond Offshore Helicopters. Grampian Police said the aircraft, a Eurocopter AS332L2 Super Puma helicopter, crashed in the North Sea approximately 14 miles from Rattray Head, or 38 miles northeast of Aberdeen. The helicopter, chartered by energy company BP, was returning to Aberdeen from the Miller platform in the North Sea.

The others on board, including the pilot and co-pilot, were residents of the United Kingdom. Eight of the bodies have been recovered, police said. At one point, 30 boats and helicopters were involved in the search, which ended April 2. The U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch is now working to salvage the wreckage and recover the helicopter’s cockpit voice and flight data recorder.