Masquerade

This short children's film by Co Hodeman tells the story of 2 children and their encounter with an angry dragon, all represented by colourful building blocks.

Octopus-like puppets cut from foam rubber are the central characters in this delightful underwater fantasy with its message about ecology and conservation. Two Grotoceans sent on a special mission find all kinds of surprises awaiting them as they roam the sea in search of treasure.

This short animated film features the sandman and the creatures he sculpts out of sand. These lively creatures build a castle and celebrate the completion of their new home, only to be interrupted by an uninvited guest. Cleverly constructed with nuance, the film leaves interpretation open to the viewer. The film took home an Oscar® for Best Animated Short Film.

In Co Hoedeman's animated short about a troupe of marionette acrobats, everything that can go wrong does. No matter what the ringleader does, each act goes awry until we begin to wonder who's really running the show. Even when Marianne, the master puppeteer, emerges at the end of the show to take her final bow, those little acrobats still seem to have a mind of their own. Brilliantly executed, this film dissolves the boundaries between theatre and animated film to create a magical experience.

The protagonists of this animated short are Russian dolls, also known as matryoshka dolls, or babushka dolls - sets of beautifully painted wooden dolls of decreasing sizes that nestle one inside the other. Here, the dolls dance, twirl and swirl to Russian tunes before hopping back into the mother figure.

This animated short tells the story of a young boy who finds an injured snow goose and nurses it back to health. Constant companions through the sun-filled days of summer, the two sadly separate in the fall when the bird obeys the call to join its flock for the annual flight south. Will the friendship endure?

The NFB's 45th Oscar®-nominated film.

This short animation is a zany version of the classic fairy tale, with the leading role played by a mistreated, romantic penguin, with hilarious results. Cinderella Penguin loses her magic flipper as she runs to meet her midnight deadline, but all ends well when Prince Charming finds the right webbed foot and the nasty step-family is brought to heel.

This series of three 10-minute films features Peep the chicken, Chirp the robin and Quack the duck. On their travels, they meet a cat, a ladybug, a turtle and a frog who speaks from both sides of his mouth. Narrated by Peter Ustinov, these films are great for young children aged 3–5.

It's autumn in all its glory and Ludovic is playing in the park. A bigger teddy bear knocks him down, and the little cub is rescued by a little girl teddy bear. Her kind gesture teaches Ludovic that the magic of friendship can help him face the fiercest bully.

This animated short by Evelyn Lambart is a visual adaptation of the famous Aesop fable "The Lion and the Mouse," in which a mouse proves to a lion that the weak and small may be of help to those much mightier than themselves.

A fanciful story, done in paper cut-outs, of a boy's journey through the skies on the tail of a kite. He soars high above the earth, encountering birds, aeroplanes, the stars, a spaceship and other heavenly bodies before floating back to his starting point. An animated film for children. Film without words.