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Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis’s The Flying Sailor (NFB) among the 15 films shortlisted for Animated Short Film at the 95th Academy Awards

PRESS RELEASE
21/12/2022

December 21, 2022 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has just announced that Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis’s acclaimed National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short The Flying Sailor is one of 15 films shortlisted for this year’s Oscar for Animated Short Film. Link to the Academy press release: bit.ly/3hLytV0

NFB productions and co-productions have garnered 76 Oscar nominations and won the big prize on 12 occasions: mediaspace.nfb.ca/oscars

More about the film

The Flying Sailor, directed by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis (7 min 45 s)
Produced and executive produced by David Christensen
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/the-flying-sailor

  • The Flying Sailor is the latest work by the Oscar-nominated and Palme d’Or-winning duo of Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby. These Calgary-based animators have previously shared Best Animated Short Film Academy Award nominations for When the Day Breaks (1999) and Wild Life (2011), with Tilby also nominated individually for Strings (1991).
  • The film is inspired by the incredible true-life story of a man blown two kilometres through the air by the 1917 Halifax Explosion—the largest accidental non-nuclear explosion in history—in an exhilarating meditation on the wonder and fragility of being.

Awards to date

The film has received nine awards and honours to date, including, most recently, two prizes in December 2022 at the Los Angeles Animation Festival:

Complete list:

  • Best Character-Based award, Los Angeles Animation Festival;
  • Experimental award, Los Angeles Animation Festival;
  • Best Animation, New York City Short Film Festival;
  • Canadian Film Institute Award for Best Canadian Animation, Ottawa International Animation Festival;
  • Best Animated Short, Calgary International Film Festival;
  • Silver Award for Best Canadian Short Film, Toronto After Dark Film Festival;
  • Audience Award for being one of the 10 favourite foreign films, São Paulo International Short Film Festival;
  • Best Narrative Film, Countryside Animafest Cyprus;
  • Honourable Mention – Audience Award: Top Canadian Short Film, GIRAF International Festival of Independent Animation, Calgary.

How to watch

Online:

The Flying Sailor is streaming now on The New Yorker’s digital channels and nfb.ca.

Sundance Film Festival:

The film will be presented online and in person at the Sundance Film Festival, January 19 to 29.

Canada’s Top Ten screenings, presented by TIFF:

The Flying Sailor will be screened as part of the short film program at TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 3 in Toronto on Saturday, January 28, at 1 p.m.

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French version here | Version française ici.

Media Relations

  • About the NFB

    The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is a leader in exploring animation as an artform, a storytelling medium and innovative content for emerging platforms. It produces trailblazing animated works both in its Montreal studios and across  the country, and it works with many of the world’s leading creators on international co-productions. NFB productions have won more than 7,000 awards, including seven Oscars for NFB animation and seven grand prizes at the Annecy festival. To access this unique content, visit NFB.ca.