Short Films

As we celebrate Haligonian Ellen Page’s Academy Award nom for Juno, the Canucks up for "Best Short Film (Animated)” enjoy relative anonymity while their remarkable creations vie for America’s top cinematic honour. I Met the Walrus is a visual rollercoaster based on a 1969 reel-to-reel John Lennon interview, conducted by intrepid 14-year-old fan Jerry Levitan in a Toronto hotel. Its wordless counterpart is a breathtaking animation first, Madame Tutli-Putli, about a woman confronting her demons on a surreal train voyage. Timeless and contemporary, the respective Bravo!FACT and NFB-assisted films are endlessly imaginative and, according to Toronto-based Walrus animator Alex Kurina, have brought the hoser Oscar rivals together. "We actually promised each other that, if one of us won, we’d have a fist-fight in the aisles,” he says. "That was during the writer’s strike when we thought the Oscars would be starved for entertainment.”