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Get Animated

  • Oscar
    Oscar
    Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre 2016 12 min
    Mixing animated sequences and archival footage, Oscar is a touching portrait of virtuoso pianist Oscar Peterson at the twilight of an exceptional career, as he wistfully meditates on the price of fame and the impacts of the artist’s life on family life.

    From the young prodigy’s beginnings in Little Burgundy to his triumphs on the international scene, this animated documentary by Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre explores the profound solitude of an artist constantly on tour. Set to the tunes of Peterson’s sometimes catchy, sometimes melancholy-tinged compositions, the film tells a heartfelt story about a life in jazz.
  • The Tooth
    The Tooth
    Guy Delisle 2017 3 min
    In this brilliant yet simple animated short, Quebec cartoonist Guy Delisle brings us the story of a young boy, a lost tooth, and an MIA tooth fairy. During increasingly difficult breakfast conversations with his young son, a father must continually come up with reasons for why the fairy has refused to show. Featuring the father from Delisle's popular French series, Le guide de mauvais père (A User's Guide to Neglectful Parenting).

    This film is part of the Comic Strip Chronicles, a collection of shorts celebrating the strong affinity between comic strips and animated film. Inspired by moments of everyday life, these films showcase the playful imaginations of renowned artists Guy Delisle, Zviane, Aude Picault, Lewis Trondheim, and Jean Matthieu Tanguy. Produced by the NFB, Canal+, and Sacrebleu.
  • The Weatherman and the Shadowboxer
    The Weatherman and the Shadowboxer
    Randall Lloyd Okita 2014 9 min
    This short animation presents the haunting story of two brothers who share the scars, though not the memories, of an untold history that has driven them to existential extremes. Combining high-speed camerawork, striking art direction and intricate animation sequences, acclaimed visual artist and filmmaker Randall Lloyd Okita crafts a poetic elegy to connectedness and survival.
  • Threads
    Threads
    Torill Kove 2017 8 min
    In her latest animated short, Academy Award®-winning director Torill Kove explores the beauty and complexity of parental love, the bonds that we form over time, and the ways in which they stretch and shape us.
  • Shaman
    Shaman
    Echo Henoche 2017 5 min
    This animated short tells the story of a ferocious polar bear turned to stone by an Inuk shaman. The tale is based on emerging filmmaker Echo Henoche's favourite legend, as told to her by her grandfather in her home community of Nain, Nunatsiavut, on Labrador's North Coast. Hand-drawn and painted by Henoche in a style all her own, Shaman is the first collaboration between the Labrador artist and the NFB.
  • Deyzangeroo
    Deyzangeroo
    Ehsan Gharib 2017 4 min
    “Deyzangeroo” is a ritual performed in the Iranian port city of Bushehr. Influenced by the city’s colonial rule by the British and Portuguese, and the African slaves that followed, it is imbued with the terror and magic of the lunar eclipse. The ritual is believed to ward off evil spirits and take back the moon. It works every time. Directed by Iranian-Canadian filmmaker Ehsan Gharib, this animated short features hand-painted animation, time-lapse photography, trick photography using mirrors, and the haunting music of virtuoso percussionist Habib Meftah Boushehri.
  • Free Love
    Free Love
    Aude Picault 2017 3 min
    This animated short presents two friends who meet in a Paris café – one single, the other in an open relationship. As they catch up on each other's lives, it becomes clear that the real story is playing out in what's not said. The result is a penetrating look at female friendships, and the sometimes-complex amorous relationships of modern times.

    This film is part of the Comic Strip Chronicles, a collection of shorts celebrating the strong affinity between comic strips and animated film. Inspired by moments of everyday life, these films showcase the playful imaginations of renowned artists Guy Delisle, Zviane, Aude Picault, Lewis Trondheim, and Jean Matthieu Tanguy. Produced by the NFB, Canal+, and Sacrebleu.
  • Panoramic Chronicle
    Panoramic Chronicle
    Lewis Trondheim  &  Jean-Matthieu Tanguy 2017 3 min
    Ride the commuter train with this animated short that questions what goes on it the hearts of minds of the train's silent passengers. Filmmakers Lewis Trondheim and Jean Matthieu Tanguy take a common, humdrum experience and turn it into a captivating journey tinged with some delicious, deadpan humour.

    This film is part of the Comic Strip Chronicles, a collection of shorts celebrating the strong affinity between comic strips and animated film. Inspired by moments of everyday life, these films showcase the playful imaginations of renowned artists Guy Delisle, Zviane, Aude Picault, Lewis Trondheim, and Jean Matthieu Tanguy. Produced by the NFB, Canal+, and Sacrebleu.
  • Hollow Land
    Hollow Land
    Michelle Kranot  &  Uri Kranot 2013 13 min
    This animated short is a story about the eternal search for home. Hollow Land begins, as all such searches must, with the dream of utopia. Solomon and Berta are two seekers who arrive—their treasured bathtub improbably in tow—in a land that promises respite from their many journeys. From the first optimistic moments after their arrival, to the final haunting scene at sea, Hollow Land captures the state of being displaced—whether by circumstance or by choice.
  • Sweet Childhood
    Sweet Childhood
    Zviane 2017 3 min
    In this animated short, cartoonist Zviane comes across an old audiocassette while packing up before a move. Just the sight of the tape plunges her back into her childhood fantasies and her perceptions of the world. But the reality of what's on the tape results in a hilarious episode that questions just how "sweet" childhood really is.

    This film is part of the Comic Strip Chronicles, a collection of shorts celebrating the strong affinity between comic strips and animated film. Inspired by moments of everyday life, these films showcase the playful imaginations of renowned artists Guy Delisle, Zviane, Aude Picault, Lewis Trondheim, and Jean Matthieu Tanguy. Produced by the NFB, Canal+, and Sacrebleu.
  • Minotaur
    Minotaur
    Munro Ferguson 2014 6 min
    In this short animation, the archetypal hero takes a journey through seven stages: birth, childhood, mission, labyrinth, monster, battle and death/rebirth. Through purely abstract, moving images, the corresponding emotional states are conveyed: calm, love, joy, surprise, fear, anger/hate, and death/rebirth leading again to calm. The cycles continue until the stars burn out and there is nothing left. Minotaur was created stereoscopically in IMAX® Sandde (Stereoscopic ANimation Drawing Device) , the world's first freehand stereoscopic 3D animation software.
  • BAM
    BAM
    Howie Shia 2015 5 min
    A modern adaptation of the myth of Hercules, BAM tells the story of a young boxer struggling to negotiate between his shy, bookish nature and a divinely violent temper.  Where does this rage come from? Is it psychological or environmental - or is it something altogether more primordial?
  • The Mountain of SGaana
    The Mountain of SGaana
    Christopher Auchter 2017 10 min
    In The Mountain of SGaana, Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter spins a magical tale of a young man who is stolen away to the spirit world, and the young woman who rescues him. The film brilliantly combines traditional animation with formal elements of Haida art, and is based on a story inspired by a old Haida fable.
  • Inspector Street
    Inspector Street
    Emmanuelle Loslier 2013 8 min
    This short animation begins with a newspaper, discarded on a public bench, whose headlines warn of unusual phenomena. A gust of wind animates the paper's pages, conjuring strange and fantastical creatures: a bridge that becomes a caterpillar, a steeple turning into a bird, a dome transformed into an octopus. Elemental forces have been unleashed. Skilfully wielding paper cut-outs, origami, and a healthy dose of humour, filmmaker Emmanuelle Loslier plunges us into a fantastical world in which Montreal’s urban landscape has never been so alive.
  • Subconscious Password
    Subconscious Password
    Chris Landreth 2013 10 min
    In this short animation, Oscar®-winning director Chris Landreth uses a common social gaffe—forgetting somebody’s name—as the starting point for a mind-bending romp through the unconscious. Inspired by the classic TV game show Password, the film features a wealth of animated celebrity guests who try to prompt our beleaguered protagonist to remember his old pal's name. Finally, he realizes he must surrender to his predicament and jump head-first into his subconscious to find the answer.
  • Nadine
    Nadine
    Patrick Péris 2017 4 min
    From out of nowhere, the most beautiful girl in the world sits at the table across from me at the library. Is this a stroke of good luck or bad? Her smile paralyzes me…

    How will Sam win Nadine’s heart? Must he seek out his inner samurai to fight the monster of his anxiety? Real courage is conquering your fear.
  • Bus Story
    Bus Story
    Tali 2014 10 min
    This funny short animation was written and created by Tali (At Home with Mrs. Hen) and is inspired by the filmmaker’s misadventures as a school bus driver in the Eastern Townships. Our protagonist dreams of becoming a bus driver in order to cruise down quiet country lanes and connect with nature, her young charges and their parents. But her idyllic view of her new job is sorely tested after she meets her surly boss, named Killer, and discovers that winding roads can prove treacherous in winter, especially with a faulty clutch. Through her cheeky humour and oblique look at the reality of people living in the Quebec countryside, Tali delivers a film that is unique, witty and touching.
  • Third Page from the Sun
    Third Page from the Sun
    Theodore Ushev 2014 5 min
    Heralding the “end of paper,” this experimental animated short is an abstract exploration of a number of big issues, from the ephemerality of the digital age to the practice of recycling. To create this painting in motion, Theodore Ushev took an animation film festival catalogue and set its pages alight with the broad strokes of a paintbrush.