Trio of acclaimed NFB animated shorts heads to Sundance
Skwigly
The National Film Board of Canada is back at the Sundance Film Festival—the premier showcase for U.S. and international independent films, taking place January 18–28, 2018—with three films chosen for the festival’s shorts program: Diane Obomsawin’s I Like Girls, Chintis Lundgren’s Manivald (Chintis Lundgreni Animatsioonistuudio/Adriatic Animation/NFB) and Eva Cvijanović’s Hedgehog’s Home (NFB/Bonobostudio).
It’s the latest honour for these films, which share a staggering 40 awards to date. The choice of these three films from the NFB is also a testament to the world-class reputation of its legendary animation studios, as well as to the NFB’s commitment to producing groundbreaking works by women.
Hedgehog’s Home
Winner of more than 25 international awards and honours, including an Annie Award nomination for Best Animated Short Subject, the Young Audiences Public Prize at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and the Short Film Audience Award at Animafest Zagreb, Eva Cvijanović’s Hedgehog’s Home is a sumptuous and delicately choreographed stop-motion fable reviving the timeless and timely notion of cultivating our own place of safety, dignity and comfort, no matter how big or small.
Narrated by Kenneth Welsh (Twin Peaks), this international co-production is produced by Jelena Popović (NFB) and Vanja Andrijević (Bonobostudio, Croatia), with Michael Fukushima as executive producer.
I Like Girls
Montreal cartoonist and animator Diane Obomsawin, a.k.a. Obom, adapts her latest graphic novel for the screen, using endearing anthropomorphic figures to tell real-life stories of first love in I Like Girls.
Winner of seven awards to date, including the Nelvana Grand Prize for Independent Short Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival and Best LGBT Short at the New York City Short Film Festival, this eight-minute film was produced by Marc Bertrand, with Julie Roy as executive producer for the NFB’s French Animation Studio.
Manivald
Manivald the fox has just turned 33. Overeducated, unemployed and uninspired, living with his mother, he has an easy life but not a good one. But all this starts to change when the washing machine breaks down and Toomas, a sexy wolf repairman, arrives to fix it—and them. Narrated by comedian and writer Trevor Boris and featuring the voice of singer and actress France Castel, Chintis Lundgren’s Manivald has garnered nine awards, including the Program A Audience Choice Award at the New York City Short Film Festival and the Award for Best Script at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
It is produced by Lundgren (Chintis Lundgreni Animatsioonistuudio, Estonia), Draško Ivezić (Adriatic Animation, Croatia) and Jelena Popović (NFB), with Michael Fukushima as executive producer.
For more info on the NFB visit nfb.ca