Hothouse
Aquasnazz
This short film is a marvellous example of extreme animation. Jacob Bauming shows us a whirling dervish of sensory overload, with a tenuous connection to snazzy “aquatics,” using them as …
An Aqueous Solution
This short animation is bleak and apparently grim, but it is an assertive statement on self-determination and the fundamental need for both dark and light. This is the first professional …
Baaaad Dream
Emerging filmmaker Jesse Gouchey's animated short pokes fun at selectively-bred mammoth sheep, whose out-of-proportion form makes them vulnerable to tipping over, and a very fat Farmer who tries to save …
Balloons
This short animation film is about two little men floating into the deep blue sky, tied to balloons. But then each decides the sky belongs to him.
Produced as part …
Batmilk
In this animated short, an oafish ghoul and his soft exposed brain are met with ruin when the brain is unexpectedly killed. Though paralyzed, the ghoul attains a fresh brain …
The Big Swing
The macabre tale of a child trying to overcome her fear of the swing.
Produced as part of the 7th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
Biology Made Un-easy
This short animation film is a close look at the microscopic world that surrounds us. Within each basic human interaction there is something strange festering under the surface, and we …
Black Gold
This animated short employs hand-drawn animation layered over stop-motion sequences of moving ink on drumskins to create a striking, mournful portrait of the Alberta tar sands.
Produced as part of …
Blind Evolution
Transformation, technology, higher powers, breath. These ideas and elements roil around inside Toronto artist and filmmaker Zane Kozak's CG-animated short, taking us on a somewhat troubling but eerily mystical journey …
Bones & Boats
This short animated tale of Victorian-era folly ends in tragedy. Kevin Langdale's graphic style brims with the majesty of human ambition and the indomitable and sometimes destructive power of the …
A Cloud's Dream
Watch as one cloud’s imagination soars from the familiar to the unknown on a captivating journey from dusk until dawn. Animated using partial audio waveform data, A Cloud’s Dream is …
Cumulus
This short animation film is a multi–layered story of an accumulation of encounters between black clouds.
Produced as part of the fourth edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
Don't Blink
This is a combination of stop-motion puppet and drawn animation. We observe a forlorn woman on a Halifax dock, whose loneliness is lifted by the passing of a fishing trawler. …
Eaude
In this short animation Thea Pratt explores the exhilarating moment of a poetic dive. The movement of the puppet diver is influenced by Norman McLaren, Leni Riefenstahl and Busby Berkeley. …
False Saints
This experimental animation film examines society's deification of architecture and urbanization in the modern world and the impact on our relationship to nature. This is Sutherland’s first professional film and …
Family Album Number One
In this animated short, a layered narrative exploring memory and family history is constructed using a collage of family photos, photocopies and personal audio recordings. The film explores the fragility …
Feather
In this short animation a little creature watches the transformation of a feather and follows a whale to where icebergs melt, leaving birds with nowhere to land. The materials used …
Flee
A man wakes in a sea of sand dunes. He clutches a metal suitcase as if it holds something of great value. In the distance looms a distorted and inhuman …
Git Gob
In this animated short from the Hothouse 5 series, two creatures wonder, What is a hole? They have different points of view. Their debate leads to an idea, an idea …
Glou Glou
In this short animation film Marielle Guyot uses her computer skills with great artistic sensibility to bring the sea to life, death, and hopefully, life again.
Produced as part of …
Grace Fall
Grace Fall is about the struggles and joys of trying to perform impossibly well in a circus whose troupe members aren’t really visible, but can certainly be perceived regardless.
Produced …
Ice Ages
Seeking shelter from a thunderstorm, a man sits in a pub watching the ice in his glass melt away. Howie Shia marries his graphic illustration style with subtle animation and …
Immersion
In this short animation film Megann Reid evokes the solitude and warmth of a bath. Drawn with water colour pencil crayons on frosted acetate, the animation was done under a …
Interoculus
In an infinitely vast space, a woman, a man and a fish illustrate a flow of questions about perception. Pixillation and stop-motion animation enhance audience doubts about reality in Marie …
Itch
Itch is an abstract expression of what it feels like to experience an eczema flare-up.
Produced as part of the 9th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
The Kiss
A slow, agonizing, juicy exploration of the oldest form of affection.
Produced as part of the 7th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
Liberation
Tormented forms struggle to break free of their bonds in this abstract animated short.
Produced as part of the 9th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
Lost Monster Hop
In this short animated film, a little banjo-picking monster is trying to find her way at a signpost by the railway tracks. She sets out and finds what she is …
Margins
This short animated film looks at the relationship between social spaces and taboos surrounding mental illness and other forms of marginalization. The film is intended as a mood piece, a …
Marvin Parson’s Inner Wild Wilderness
Filmmaker Fred Casia, inspired by the iconic '50s-vintage View-Master stereo viewer and '60s-era TV nature shows, takes us on a weird and wacky 3-D safari through the jungle that is …
Meltdown
In this short animation, a polar bear must try his luck finding a job in the big city when the last of his Arctic ice environment disappears. It’s hard fitting …
Meta Pre Ptolemy
In this whimsical animated short, filmmaker Rachel Peters asks: "what if the laws of physics suddenly ceased to apply?" Peters explores this question through the tale of a man and …
Missed Connection
In this animated short, a delusional young man spots the girl of his dreams in his favourite café and weaves a self-indulgent fantasy story of their imagined life together. Missed …
Observer
Smartphones cannot feel, smell or taste, yet they are not without their own senses. Using raw data from the low-level sensors of a cell phone, this film offers a unique …
One
This minimalist piece of animation explores the origin of life.
Produced as part of the fourth edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
Orange
This animated short poses some interesting questions: what if buildings pulsed, trees tapped out beats, or shadows could whistle a tune? Through the creative interpretation and animation of the city's …
PFFF
A revolution is kicked off when one little cloud has enough of the sun’s tyranny.
Produced as part of the 8th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
Pearl
In this animated short from the Hothouse 5 series, a lonely old lady sits in an empty room knitting. As her thoughts wander, her dreams take the shape of fanciful …
Pierogi pincé
As a young woman finds herself lost in daydreams while clumsily performing the tradition of making pierogies, she invokes the presence of her grandmother, who guides her through the messy …
A Prairie Story
In this short animation film a prairie landscape undergoes a metamorphosis from rural idyll to over-urbanized dystopia. Director Anne Koizumi laments the changing face of her hometown of Calgary in …
Reflexion
Two prisoners are trapped in a void. Trying separately to escape, they discover each other and have to overcome their fear in order to connect and find a way out. …
Reverie.exe
A sleeping computer dreams of humans forms, transforming their digital data into abstract and playful shapes. Movements, emotions, and musical lines are added layer upon layer until the complexity overloads …
Roy G Biv
In this short animation film Dale Hayward brings to life his watercolour on paper.
Produced as part of the fourth edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
Scientifiq Piqniq
An adventure through the cosmic unveiling of the beautiful and strange macro/micro structures that unite us with the Universe.
Produced as part of the 9th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse …
Sick
The body is a magnificent system. But its harmony can be interrupted, sometimes by subversive agents within. Sick uses stop motion to bring to life a knitted body in a …
A Single Tear
This short animation film is an “epic” adventure and a magical environmental fairy tale. Amy Lockhart uses cutouts, drawings and collage (captured and manipulated as digital multi-plane animation) to conjure …
Square Roots
In this short animated film a robot rambles about frenetically, receiving countless electronic messages through his antenna every second. Despite his fatigue and stress, he never slows down. The only …
The Squirrel Next Door
This stop-motion animation is about a spider who professes its love for a squirrel. An interspecies courtship unfolds between the two doe-eyed neighbours. This short film is a testament to …
Submerge: Kami No Yu
This short animation film is a “water poem,” set in a Japanese ofuro hot bath. It explores water as a medium and repository for collective stories and was created in …
Swims
In this animated short a figure floats in landscapes and spaces without a ground plane. There is only water. The reflected skies are endless and mirrored interiors are doubled in …
System Error
This short animation film is a pithy critique of society's commercialization of water, abetted by an utter disregard for the future. The film is a mixed media whirlwind of hyperactive …
Unlaced
A myopic woman walks, then boogies, through a wintry urban landscape, her world view altered suddenly by a beat from within herself, transporting her to a rich and lush place …
Vimy-Ridge
In this short animation Damien Hess attempts to connect with the tragedy of the First World War, a conflict that helped define Canada. In this film he uses imagery of …
The Visitor
A small boy is left alone to play in a large and empty house. A dark cloud starts to seep in from behind the mail slot at the front door. …
Wake
A woman looks out across a lake, where each drop of water contains a memory of a pioneer in women’s sports, preserved forever.
Produced as part of the 9th edition …
Wiggles and Giggles
In this animated short, a playful group is dancing when they become aware they're being watched by a huge, menacing head. When the head interrupts their good time, they take …