Produced by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis, The Flying Sailor, produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. The announcement of the selections in the 23 categories of the 95th Academy Awards took place early Tuesday morning.
Posted at 10:48 am
“We’re totally stunned right now. Amanda Forbis, co-director of the short film Le matelot volant, couldn’t find a better way to express the emotions that filled her on this Tuesday morning, when the two Canadian animators just found out the big news: their film is in the running for the Oscars in the Best Animated Short Film category.
With a smile in her voice, Wendy Tilby tells us that she didn’t have high hopes for the announcement. “We already knew that we were in the first selection [de 15 films]that we had a good chance, she said. But it was far from certain! »
Sundance getaway
It’s not yet seven in the morning in Park City, Utah, when La Presse speaks to the two artists who are in town for the Sundance film festival for which The Flying Sailor was selected. Later in the day they will also present their film to the festival audience in Salt Lake City.
PHOTO SUPPLIED BY AMANDA FORBIS AND WENDY TILBY
Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby
The announcement of the finalists at the 95th Academy Awards began at 6:30 am (Salt Lake City time). Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis say they had a hard time falling asleep the night before. The adrenaline makes up for the lack of rest and the two employees from Calgary exude good humor and punctuate our interview with big laughs. Their complicity is also heard, working together for more than 20 years.
The Flying Sailor (original version) is the third film they are signing together. And all of their collaborations have earned them an Oscar nomination.
The eight-minute short film is inspired by the incredible true story of a man who was thrown two kilometers through the air after the explosion in a Halifax harbor in 1917. It was the most powerful accidental non-nuclear explosion the world had seen, killing more than 1,500 people.
“The question we asked ourselves while making the film was, ‘What was it like being him on this journey through the skies?’ says Amanda Forbis. And it was hard for us to articulate why we wanted to tell this story, but we kept coming back to it. In fact, it’s a film about a near-death experience, about that moment when everything changes. »
Produced by the NFB
This poetic story without dialogue, permeated by long moments of slow motion, a return to the past, was made with the support of the NFB. The Montreal-based Canadian content producer and distributor is at the forefront of animation and has been a “critical support” for all of Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby’s films. All post-production of The Flying Mate was performed in Montreal at the NFB’s studios.
IMAGE FROM THE FILM LE MATELOT VOLANT PROVIDED BY THE NFB
The Flying Sailor
“They have supported us in every way [pour ce film]both emotionally and financially,” says Amanda Forbis.
The flying sailor is therefore worthy of a third appearance at the Oscars for the tandem (after a selection in 1999 for When the Day Breaks and another in 2011 with A wild life).
Wendy Tilby also received this honor individually for her 1991 film Cordes. The animators are keen to share this new recognition with their producer, David Christensen, and with sound designer Luigi Allemano, an adopted Montrealer and teacher at Concordia University, whose work permeates the film from beginning to end.
Wendy Tilby speaks of making this short as one of the most enjoyable processes of her career. The filmmakers let themselves be carried away by the visual poetry that the story inspired within them and allowed the film’s content to take shape as it was being made.
Their work has earned them numerous awards and accolades since they were brought to light. In addition to being nominated for an Oscar and being selected by Sundance, the animator duo’s film has received praise at TIFF After Dark, the Los Angeles Animation Festival and the New York Short Film Festival, among others.
The Flying Glider will be broadcast on the NFB website.
The 95th Academy Awards will be held on March 12th at the Dolby Theater in the Ovation Center in Hollywood.