The National Film Board of Canada was honoured with its 70th Academy Award(R) nomination today, for the animated short Madame Tutli-Putli.
Madame Tutli-Putli is the first professional film by Montreal-based directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. The film is produced by Marcy Page, who also produced the Academy Award-winning films Ryan (2004) and The Danish Poet (2007).
Renowned throughout the world for its excellence in auteur animation and point-of-view documentary, as Canada's public film producer, the NFB has garnered more Oscar(R) nominations than any production company or organization outside Hollywood. Since its first Academy Award in 1941, for the short documentary Churchill's Island, the NFB has won a total of 12 Oscars, which it shares with pride with all Canadians. The NFB, through its Filmmaker Assistance Program (FAP), also participated in the completion of I Met The Walrus, directed by Josh Raskin and produced by Jerry Levitan with the financial assistance of Bravo!FACT. The NFB would like to congratulate the filmmakers on their nomination.
Madame Tutli-Putli
This stunning, animated, stop-motion 17-minute film takes audiences on an exhilarating existential journey. Boarding a night train, the film's main character, Madame Tutli-Putli, finds herself caught up in a desperate metaphysical adventure, adrift between real and imagined worlds, drawn into an undertow of mystery and suspense. This powerful film introduces groundbreaking visual techniques and is supported by a haunting and original score. Painstaking care and craftsmanship give life to a fully imagined, visceral world unlike anything seen on screen before.
Since its world premiere during Critics' Week at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival where it picked up two prizes, international awards for Madame Tutli-Putli include the Digital Pictures Award for Best Animated Short from the Worldwide Short Film Festival and the Best Animation Award from both the Palm Springs Film Festival and New York International Short Film Festival. The film was also chosen in December 2007 as one of Canada's Top 10 short films by the Toronto International Film Festival Group.
