March 15, 2024 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The National Film Board of Canada is making a strong showing at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival with four short films, including three in official competition. The latter are the highly anticipated Maybe Elephants (Mikrofilm/NFB) by Torill Kove; Le tableau (The Painting) by Michèle Lemieux, made using the Alexeïeff-Parker pinscreen; and Ryo Orikasa’s astonishing Miserable Miracle (Miyu Productions/NFB/New Deer). Filmmaker Jo Roy breaks new creative ground in her unique film, Corpus and the Wandering, which will screen in the Off-Limits Competition. All of these productions and co-productions have been inspired and informed by different art forms, from poetry to dance and the visual arts.

Taking place June 9–15, 2024, Annecy is an essential event that welcomes animation creators and professionals annually—the world’s largest festival dedicated solely to animation.

Quick Facts

Short Films – Official Competition

Maybe Elephants by Torill Kove (16 min 43 s)
A Mikrofilm/NFB co-production
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/maybe-elephants

• Three rebellious teenage daughters, a restless mother, a father struggling with potatoes, and maybe some elephants, find themselves in Nairobi. What could possibly go wrong?

• Torill Kove is a Norwegian-born filmmaker and animator living in Canada. Three of her films (including My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts and Me and My Moulton) have been nominated for Academy Awards, with The Danish Poet, narrated by Liv Ullmann, winning the coveted golden statue in 2007.

Le tableau (The Painting) by Michèle Lemieux (11 min 56 s)
An NFB production
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/the-painting

• Animated on the pinscreen, this troubling yet tender film revisits the tragic fate of Queen Mariana of Austria and her 1652 portrait by painter Velázquez.

• Michèle Lemieux (Here and the Great Elsewhere, Stormy Night) is one of the few artistic heirs to this legendary animation technique. The instrument she uses, dubbed the NEC (for nouvel écran or “new screen”), comprises 240,000 pins set into a 52 x 39-centimetre screen. There are only two working Alexeïeff-Parker pinscreens in the world today.

Miserable Miracle by Ryo Orikasa (8 min)
A Miyu Productions/NFB/New Deer co-production
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/miserable-miracle

• Inspired by the poems and drawings of Henri Michaux, Miserable Miracle takes animation to the breathtaking limits of language and perception, with Denis Lavant’s feverish voiceover in French and Tony Robinow’s in English. The film won the Grand Prize for Short Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF).

• Born in Ibaraki, Japan, and now based in Tokyo, Ryo Orikasa first came to prominence in 2015 with Datum Point, winner of the Golden Zagreb at Animafest Zagreb and Best Experimental or Abstract Animation Award at OIAF.

Short Films – Off-Limits Competition

Corpus and the Wandering by Jo Roy (7 min)
An NFB production
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/corpusandthewandering

• One dancer, one body, one phone. In a time of collective alienation and technological mass control, one woman rediscovers her soul and reclaims her mind in this experimental film using mixed techniques: video compositing, body close-ups filmed with iPhone, and stop-motion.

• Jo Roy is an award-winning director of bold, high-concept films that have been recognized by Cannes Lions, the British Council and CNN Create, among others. Jo’s interdisciplinary training combines a lifelong, intensive study of dance with technical filmmaking facility, resulting in a rare instinct for natural performance and intentional use of movement. This is her first film with the NFB.

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French version here | Version française ici.