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Torill Kove’s Mikrofilm/National Film Board of Canada co-production Maybe Elephants shortlisted for Academy Award for Animated Short Film. Acclaimed short advances to next round of voting for the 97th Oscars.

PRESS RELEASE
17/12/2024

(Image provided by the NFB)

December 17, 2024 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has just announced that Oscar winner Torill Kove’s Mikrofilm/National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short Maybe Elephants is one of 15 films shortlisted for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film at the 97th Oscars.

A playful and loving autobiographical homage to family, adolescence and the therapeutic power of memories, however unreliable, Maybe Elephants reunites the cast of Kove’s previous Oscar nominee, Me and My Moulton.

This shortlist selection is the latest honour for Torill Kove, who recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award from SPARK ANIMATION in Vancouver, Western Canada’s largest animation fest. Since its world premiere at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, the film has been selected by more than 30 festivals around the world.

Maybe Elephants marks the fourth collaboration of the NFB and Norway’s Mikrofilm AS with Montreal-based animator Torill Kove—a stellar run of animation excellence over two decades, encompassing three Academy Award-nominated shorts, including her 2007 Oscar winner, The Danish Poet.

Maybe Elephants by Torill Kove (Mikrofilm/NFB, 16 min 43 s)
Producers: Lise Fearnley (Mikrofilm), Maral Mohammadian (NFB), Tonje Skar Reiersen (Mikrofilm)

NFB executive producers: Robert McLaughlin and Michael Fukushima
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/maybe-elephants

  • In the ’70s, three rebellious teenage daughters, a restless mother, a father struggling with potatoes, and maybe some elephants, find themselves in bustling Nairobi—and the family will never be the same.
  • Narrated by Torill Kove, the film wraps rich nostalgia around memories of eventful family trips, timeless teen antics and those inevitable moments of adolescent epiphany—bursting with wit, a joyful colour palette and an energetic soundscape.
  • Maybe Elephants was made with the collaboration of several Kenyan Canadians who played the roles of Kenyan characters and with whom Kove consulted on Swahili language and Kenyan culture.
  • Torill Kove is a Norwegian-born filmmaker and animator living in Canada. Three of her films (including My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirtsand 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. Kove’s films are known for her expressive designs and playful and poignant autobiographical themes.

Awards for Maybe Elephants

  • Canadian Film Prize, SPARK ANIMATION, Vancouver (2024)
  • Audience Prize for Short Film, Bucheon International Animation Festival, South Korea (2024)
  • Best Nordic-Baltic Animated Youth Film, Fredrikstad Animation Festival, Norway (2024)
  • Prix animé TVA Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Rouyn-Noranda (2024)

NFB at the Oscars

  • To date, NFB productions and co-productions have garnered 78 Academy Award nominations and 11 Oscars.
  • The NFB also received a 1988 Honorary Academy Award for overall excellence in cinema.
  • For more information, visit: nfb.ca/oscars.

 

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Media Relations

  • About the NFB

    Founded in 1939, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is a one-of-a-kind producer, co-producer and distributor of distinctive, engaging, relevant and innovative documentary and animated films. As a talent incubator, it is one of the world’s leading creative centres. The NFB has enabled Canadians to tell and hear each other’s stories for over eight decades, and its films are a reliable and accessible educational resource. The NFB is also recognized around the world for its expertise in preservation and conservation, and for its rich and vibrant collection of works, which form a pillar of Canada’s cultural heritage. To date, the NFB has produced more than 14,000 works, 6,500 of which can be streamed free of charge at nfb.ca. The NFB and its productions and co-productions have earned over 7,000 awards, including 11 Oscars and an Honorary Academy Award for overall excellence in cinema.