Catalogue
Animation
55 Socks
Based on a poem by Marie Jacobs, the animated short 55 Socks, by Oscar-winning director Co Hoedeman, pays tribute to the ingenuity of the Dutch people during a dark period ...
Alchemists
This short animation is a visual fantasy, a gripping tale that is "larger-than-life" in its themes: life, death and rebirth; creation and destruction; permanence and impermanence, spontaneity and control. Bold ...
Alter Egos
In this award-winning animated documentary we meet two unusual artists. Ryan Larkin was a brilliant filmmaker who ends up panhandling on the streets of Montreal. Chris Landreth is a rising ...
Animate Everything!
Spaceships soar into space. Dots dance on a page. Rocks and twigs transform into expressive faces. Kids can easily create this kind of magic themselves, and all they require are ...
Antagonia
This short animation film takes place in a topsy-turvy land of ice, water and sky. What does the penguin think about on the barren ice floes? How can a cataclysm ...
The Apprentice
In this animated short from Richard Condie (The Big Snit), an old fool meets a young fool at a crossroads in the 14th century. The old fool stays behind while ...
An Artist
In this short animation, a girl is so carried away by her love of music that she forgets about her household chores. Her father tells her to finish the dishes ...
Assembly
Dedicated to the memory of Kathleen Shannon, this experimental short Assembly is inspired by the NFB's Studio D filmmakers. Featuring a rhythmic soundscape and paint-on-glass animation, the film shows ...
Asthma Tech
In this animated short, young Winston, who suffers from chronic asthma, isn’t able to participate in the everyday activities of his peers and classmates. He copes with the predicament ...
Banquet of the Concubine
In the year 746, during the Tang Dynasty, a banquet is given in the Imperial City in honour of Emperor Li’s favourite concubine. An unsatisfied craving, suspected infidelity and ...
The Barewolf
The werewolves that live in this secluded place are particularly savage: when not attacking anything that moves, they spend their time arguing and fighting. Driven by instinct, one young werewolf ...
The Basketball Game
This animated short tells the story of an epic basketball game between kids attending Jewish camp and students of a notorious local Holocaust denier. Nine-year-old Hart is attending Jewish summer ...
Bead Game
In this animated short, thousands of beads are arranged and manipulated, assuming shapes of creatures both mythical and real. They continually devour, merge, and absorb one another in explosions of ...
Big Drive
This short animation film tells the story of a family road trip across the Canadian prairies set in the 1970s. In an era before in-car movies and video games, 4 ...
Big Mouth
This animated short tells the story of Trudy, a little girl who is equal parts truthful and rude. A bright-minded and quick-witted child, Trudy has an unfiltered and deeply curious ...
Bob's Birthday
Surprise birthday parties can be risky. Especially when the guest of honor is turning 40! When Margaret plans a celebration for her husband, Bob, she underestimates the sudden impact of ...
Bonifacio in Summertime
Bonifacio in Summertime is an animated film for the whole family, a colourful tale that continues the adventures of Princess Molly and her three best friends. During her summer vacation ...
Bydlo
An allegory of mankind heading for disaster, this animated short is a tragic vision inspired by the 4th movement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Drawing on the composer ...
The Chinese Violin
In this animated short, a young girl and her father move from China to Canada, bringing only their Chinese violin along for the journey. As they face the challenge of ...
Christopher Changes His Name
This animated short for children tells the story of Christopher, a little boy who didn't want to be called Christopher anymore. Such a common name! When Aunty Gail from ...
Christopher, Please Clean Up Your Room!
This short animated film stars Christopher, a terrific kid with one major problem… he's messy! His shoes smell funky, his fish bowl stinks, and even the cockroaches can't ...
Circuit marine
"Dans la grande chaîne alimentaire de la vie, où il fallait que nous passions... ", aurait pu chanter un Raymond Lévesque facétieux, s'il s'était inspiré de Circuit marine, petite ...
The Circus
In the vestibule of a hospital room, a young boy waits to see his dying mother. The clamor and spiralling movements of bodies around him intensify, forming a grotesque circus ...
The Clockmakers
In this experimental animated short from Renaud Hallée, we travel inside a mysterious mechanism made up entirely of revolving gearwheels, triangles and lines. In this whirling, hypnotic world, dozens of ...
Concerto Grosso Modo
This short animation is a playful introduction to musical notation. Music notes, suddenly infused with life, begin building a score. Working like ants, they assemble one by one the many ...
The Conquerors
In this animated short, a young couple washed onto a strange, inhospitable shore, attempts to transform the land into an Eden. Through great effort they prosper, learning to conquer nature ...
A Cow's Tale
Does technology make our lives easier?
Audrey works away at her computer and she encounters a problem. Nothing seems to help: neither a co-worker's advice, nor the user manual ...
The Danish Poet
Can we trace the chain of events that leads to our own birth? Is our existence just coincidence? Do little things matter?
The narrator of The Danish Poet considers these ...
The Day Is Listening
A man loves a woman; both of them love literature. Their affection for the written word accompanies the murmur of their lives and the harmony of their feelings. The fruitful ...
Deep Threat
Zlatko Grgic's short animated film depicts how humans evolved from the sea and the problems that ensued. Using humour, he shows how industry leads to waste and pollution, which ...
Dominoes
Dominoes animates the tiles of this age-old game to illustrate an oddly shaped domino's struggle to belong. Set to tunes inspired by Brazil's chorinho music, the film gives ...
Edmond Was a Donkey
This animated short about social conformity tells the story of Edmond - a very "different" sort of guy. When his co-workers jokingly crown him with a pair of donkey ears, Edmond ...
Elephantrio
In this zany tale, three storybook characters experience the dangers and temptations of life while trying to maintain physical and moral integrity. Three well-known animators collaborated to create this potpourri ...
The End of Pinky
This short animation adapted from a short story by writer Heather O’Neill tells the story of 3 fallen angels seeking companionship in Montreal’s red-light district. The survivor of ...
Fair Phyllis
Fair Phyllis affirms to all women 'You're not alone!' in the craziness of busy, multi-tasking lives--what with the demands of career, the kids or just trying to get a ...
Falling in Love Again (3D)
This animated short unfolds to Marlene Dietrich's rendition of "Falling in Love Again." When two cars travelling in opposite directions careen around sharp curves, the meeting of their occupants ...
Flawed
Flawed is nothing less than a beautiful gift from Andrea Dorfman's vivid imagination, a charming little film about very big ideas. Dorfman has the uncanny ability to transform the ...
The Formation of Clouds
Childhood is a private, fragile terrain in which the marks of our explorations are inscribed. A delicate, sensitive evocation of burgeoning desire, The Formation of Clouds follows the steps of ...
Forming Game
This animated short from Malcolm Sutherland is an engaging dance of shapes and sounds. The "game" is played by opening the box, unfolding the board and placing shapes on it ...
The Fox and the Chickadee
This charming stop-motion animated fable tells the story of a starving fox, who stumbles upon a lone chickadee caught in a farmer’s trap. Despite his hapless predicament, the chickadee ...
The Friends of Kwan Ming
This animated short tells the story of Kwan Ming, a man who left China to live and work in the New World. Once at destination, Kwan Ming and three traveling ...
From Far Away
This short animation tells the story of Saoussan, a young girl struggling to adjust to life in Canada after being uprooted from her wartorn homeland. She has come to seek ...
From the Big Bang to Tuesday Morning
Propelled by Claude Cloutier’s signature drawing style and absurdist humour, this animated short offers an overview of the evolution of life on Earth from rock to human, with some ...
The Girl Who Hated Books
This animated short about literacy introduces us to Meena, a young girl who hates books even though her parents love to read. Books are everywhere in Meena's house, in ...
Gloria Victoria
Recycling elements of surrealism and cubism, this animated short by Theodore Ushev focuses on the relationship between art and war. Propelled by the exalting “invasion” theme from Shostakovich’s Leningrad ...
HA'Aki
In this short abstract-impressionist film the animation and music were made simultaneously in an organic process of symbiotic creativity. Filmmaker Iriz Pääbo tells the highly subjective story of a complete ...
Here and the Great Elsewhere
This abstract yet compelling philosophical tale uses the Alexeïeff-Parker pinscreen as a metaphor for the particles that make up the universe. Through 4 tableaux that explore her character’s thoughts ...
Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life
Once Jennie had everything. The terrier had two food bowls, two pillows, and for cold weather, a red wool sweater. She even had a master who loved her. But Jennie ...
Hollow Land
A story about the eternal human search for home, Hollow Land begins, as all such searches must, with the dream of utopia. Solomon and Berta are two seekers who arrive ...
How People Got Fire
In the village of Carcross, in the Tagish First Nation, Grandma Kay invites the local children into her kitchen and tells them the traditional tale of how Crow brought fire ...
Hungu
Under the African sun, a child walks in the desert with his kin. Death is prowling, but a mother's soul resurrected by music will return strength and life to ...
I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors
I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors is director Ann Marie Fleming’s animated adaptation of Bernice Eisenstein’s acclaimed illustrated memoir. Using the healing power of humour, the film ...
Impromptu
Impromptu takes a look at the redemptive power of food, wine, music and love through the eyes of a modern man. Chuck is in his element, cooking and listening to ...
In Pieces
Paule Baillargeon is 37 years old, 11 years old, 65 years old. . . In this film composed of fragments, she tells her story: the story of a woman, a filmmaker, a ...
Inspector Street
It would be a mistake to doubt the front page of a newspaper left on a bench, its headlines warning of unusual phenomena. A gust of wind animates its pages ...
Islet
Combining figurative abstraction with magic realism, this animated short depicts a world in which whales fall out of the sky and fish turn into balloons. It is a black and ...
It's a Dog's Life
FFifi the dog dreams of interstellar travel and seeking out strange new worlds. While doing whatever it takes to please Mom, Dad and the kids, he tries to make off ...
Jaime Lo, small and shy
In this animated short, Jaime Lo's father is sent to Hong Kong for a year-long work assignment. A shy Chinese-Canadian girl, Jaime Lo must use her creativity to cope ...
Kali the Little Vampire
This animated short tells the story of Kali, a young vampire who suffers from not being able to live in the light. Living in the shadows and inspiring fear, he ...
Kaspar (Inspired by the Life of Kaspar Hauser)
This animated short by Diane Obomsawin tells the story of Kaspar, a young man who discovers life - and light - after spending his entire life in a dark cave with a ...
Land of the Heads
This animated short tells the tale of a vampire forced go out every night to separate children from their heads. The reason? His vain wife wants to replace her wrinkled ...
Léon in Wintertime
In this short puppet animation we meet Léon, an 8-year-old adopted bear suffering from an identity crisis. The distraught cub runs away from home in wintertime and embarks on many ...
Lights for Gita
This animated short is the story of Gita, an 8-year-old girl who can't wait to celebrate Divali - the Hindu festival of lights - in her new home in Canada. But ...
Lipsett Diaries
This animated short by Theodore Ushev depicts the maelstrom of anguish that tormented Arthur Lipsett, a famed Canadian experimental filmmaker who died at the age of 49. His descent into ...
Loon Dreaming
This animated short makes us see the world through the eyes of a loon. We dive down deep into the waters in pursuit of fish, launch skyward from the water ...
The Lost Town of Switez
In 19th-century Poland, a traveller loses his way in the forest one stormy night. He witnesses the last days of a medieval town under attack by ruthless warriors. The grandiose ...
Louise
This animated short is an ode to Louise, a fiercely independent 96-year old inspired by animator Anita Lebeau's grandmother. Speaking in her own voice, Louise takes us through a ...
Mabel's Saga
This short animation celebrates menopause through the story of Mabel. She’s juggling work, teenagers and an elderly mom. Now she’s got hot flashes and chin hairs! Before you ...
MacPherson
This animated film by Martine Chartrand (Black Soul) recounts the friendship between a young Félix Leclerc and Frank Randolph Macpherson, a Jamaican chemical engineer and university graduate who worked for ...
The Magic of Anansi
This animated short tells the story of Anansi, a little spider who is tired of being snubbed by other the jungle animals, especially Mr. Tiger. As Anansi plots and schemes ...
Mamori
Mamori transports us into a black-and-white universe of fluid shapes, dappled and striated with shadows and light, where the texture of the visuals and of the celluloid itself have been ...
The Man Who Slept
A young woman shares her life with a sleeping ghost. She lives in the denial of a loss that has left her all alone. This vibrantly textured animated film is ...
Maq and the Spirit of the Woods
This animated short tells the story of Maq, a Mi’gmaq boy who realizes his potential with the help of inconspicuous mentors. When an elder in the community offers him ...
Mary & Myself
This short animated documentary tells the story of 2 Chinese Canadian women making their theatrical debut playing “comfort women” in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. Jia Tsu Thompson and ...
Mind Me Good Now!
In this animated short 2 children, Tina and Dalby, disobey their mama with almost tragic consequences. Having strayed away from home, they run afoul of a local "cocoya," a wicked ...
Molly in Springtime
It’s carnival in Balthasarville and the scoundrel Bonifacio is scheming to overthrow Léon and become King Quack. But he’s outsmarted by Molly Gingerbread and her friend Hedgehog, who ...
Monsieur Pointu
This animated short about virtuoso stage entertainer Monsieur Pointu (Paul Cormier) is screen magic at its best. Here, the man and his violin are literally taken apart - head, feet, limbs ...
Muybridge's Strings
Can time be made to stand still? Can it be reversed? Koji Yamamura’s Muybridge's Strings is a meditation on this theme, contrasting the worlds of the photographer Eadweard ...
The Necktie
A mixture of puppet and hand-drawn animation, The Necktie is the story of Valentin and his quest to find meaning in his life. Stuck in a dead-end job, he has ...
Noël Noël
In this animated short, a misguided billionaire falls in love with Beatrice, a bespectacled fairy. But thanks to little Zoey, her dog Snooze and a blue-eyed reindeer, his eyes are ...
Not So Different
A fable set in the Land of Same, where the law of the land is SAMENESS. Everyone has to behave the same, wear the same clothes, live in the same ...
Nunavut Animation Lab: I Am But a Little Woman
Inspired by an Inuit poem first assigned to paper in 1927, this animated short evokes the beauty and power of nature, as well as the bond between mother and daughter ...
Nunavut Animation Lab: Lumaajuuq
This animated short is a tragic and twisted story about the dangers of revenge. A cruel mother mistreats her son, feeding him dog meat and forcing him to sleep in ...
Nunavut Animation Lab: Qalupalik
This animated short tells the story of Qalupalik, a part-human sea monster that lives deep in the Arctic Ocean and preys on children who do not listen to their parents ...
Nunavut Animation Lab: The Bear Facts
In this animated short, a self-important colonial explorer emerges from a sailing ship and plants a flag on the Arctic ice, as a bemused Inuit hunter looks on. Then the ...
Oedipus
In this animated short parodying the Greek myth, director Paul Driessen offers a backwards tragicomic version of the classic tale. Oedipus is Driessen at his absurdist best.
Oma's Quilt
This animated short tells the story of Oma, who is moving from her house on Maple Street where she lived most of her life to a senior's residence where ...
Overdose
With school, tennis lessons, swimming lessons, art classes, homework and piano practice, a young boy leads such a regimented life that he has no more time just to be a ...
Paula
Inspired by a real-life news item, this animated short paints a pulsating portrait of a mixed-use, working-class neighbourhood where young families cross paths with prostitutes, their interactions leaving unpredictable ripples ...
Peggy Baker: Four Phrases
Built around an intimate interview with the acclaimed Canadian dancer and choreographer, Peggy Baker Four Phrases is an artful animation and documentary hybrid that travels through a variety of techniques ...
Petra's Poem
In this short film, Toronto artist Petra Tolley, who has Down syndrome, performs a soliloquy that encapsulates her distinctive take on the social self. Drawing from her emotional experiences, she ...
Pirouette
If we are what we eat, then we are having an identity crisis. Because food's journey from farm to plate is a strange one. An old woman has a ...
Poppety in the Fall
In this animated short, a terrible curse deprives Balthasar’s kingdom of its stories. Taking the unicorn’s horn back into The Belly of the Earth is the solution. Poppety ...
Private Eyes
This 3D stereoscopic animation tells the story of Matthew, a boy who is never afraid of the dark. Since he's been in darkness all his life, Matthew has eyes ...
Pumpkins and Old Lace
The perfect “Granny or Grandpa” poster face is what the photographer from Discra, an adult diaper company, hopes to find as he approaches a retirement home, camera in hand. A ...
Rains
As a sudden downpour lashes the city, all seek shelter. Just for a moment, time expands into immobility. Human activity slows down and almost stops. Some wait in a bus ...
The Real Place
Animator Cam Christiansen gives Texas-born playwright John Murrell's imagination free rein, suspending the laws of time and space to create a visual accompaniment to his flights of poetic fancy ...
Reflection
Reflection is an exploration of Montreal through an abstract lens. Director Sylvie Trouvé examines how reflected images pervade our surroundings, how our senses filter out these ghost images and, finally ...
Retouches
As waves break unceasingly on the shore, Retouches marks time with a perpetual round of movement, each one correcting and changing the environment. Georges Schwizgebel loves to steer us into ...
Robes of War
This animated short is a lyrical exploration of the impact of war on women, their bodies and their families. Bringing a feminist sensibility to a contemporary issue, it looks at ...
