Fish Heads Fugue and Other Tales for Twilight is a 2005 mixed-media animated short film directed by Lauren Indovina and Lindsey Mayer-Beug while they were attending Rhode Island School of Design.

Critical reception has been favorable, and the film has received accolades from several noted commentators who have singled it out for its juxtaposition of music and evocative visual design.

After a brief musical performance, the theater rotates, displaying an ocean scenescape - amidst other themed props, a fish's head is depicted bobbing up and down in the water.

Lauren Indovina and Lindsey Mayer-Beug directed Fish Heads Fugue and Other Tales for Twilight as their thesis film, while attending Rhode Island School of Design.

[3] In her own words, she and Mayer-Beug bonded over "a mutual belief that getting up early to explore Ottawa is worth sleep deprivation", and while abroad, the two resolved to collaborate on their upcoming thesis film.

[4][5] In an interview a decade later, Mayer-Beug would note that elderly people with wrinkled faces - a recurring motif in this film - are one of her favorite subjects to draw.

[6] Although the film makes use of computer graphics, both directors carry a strong preference for traditional forms of animation, having once made reference to "the tyranny of software".

[1] The film is dedicated to Mayer-Beug's mother, Carolyn Beug, and grandmother, Mary Alice Wahlstrom;[1] both died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

This is the kind of film you can watch ten times and see twenty different things.Melissa Wolfe of Frederator called Fish Heads Fugue and Other Tales for Twilight "beautiful", naming it as a highlight of the 2005 Ottawa International Animation Festival.

[11][12] Smith called it a "macabre feast for the eyes" that evokes the works of Lemony Snicket,[12] while Fellerath likened the film's "interplay of music, images, and the imagination" to Corpse Bride and The Triplets of Belleville.

[11] Irene Gallo of Tor.com wrote that, although the film makes use of CGI, it still manages to exude "all the decay and style" associated with stop motion animation.

"[14] He pondered the meaning of the film, questioning whether the young girl should be interpreted as a captive or a performer, and likened it to the works of David Lynch.