Montreal – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences appreciated Oscar winner Torill Kove’s Mikrofilm/National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short Maybe Elephants.
A playful and loving autobiographical homage to family, adolescence and the therapeutic power of memories, however unreliable, Maybe Elephants reunites the cast of Kove’s previous Oscar nominee, Me and My Moulton.
This shortlist selection is the latest honour for Torill Kove, who recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award from SPARK ANIMATION in Vancouver, Western Canada’s largest animation fest. Since its world premiere at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, the film has been selected by more than 30 festivals around the world.
Maybe Elephants marks the fourth collaboration of the NFB and Norway’s Mikrofilm AS with Montreal-based animator Torill Kove—a stellar run of animation excellence over two decades, encompassing three Academy Award-nominated shorts, including her 2007 Oscar winner, The Danish Poet.
Maybe Elephants by Torill Kove (Mikrofilm/NFB, 16 min 43 s)
Producers: Lise Fearnley (Mikrofilm), Maral Mohammadian (NFB), Tonje Skar Reiersen (Mikrofilm)
NFB executive producers: Robert McLaughlin and Michael Fukushima
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/maybe-elephants
- In the ’70s, three rebellious teenage daughters, a restless mother, a father struggling with potatoes, and maybe some elephants, find themselves in bustling Nairobi—and the family will never be the same.
- Narrated by Torill Kove, the film wraps rich nostalgia around memories of eventful family trips, timeless teen antics and those inevitable moments of adolescent epiphany—bursting with wit, a joyful colour palette and an energetic soundscape.
- Maybe Elephants was made with the collaboration of several Kenyan Canadians who played the roles of Kenyan characters and with whom Kove consulted on Swahili language and Kenyan culture.
- Torill Kove is a Norwegian-born filmmaker and animator living in Canada. Three of her films (including My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirtsand Me and My Moulton) have been nominated for Academy Awards, with The Danish Poet, narrated by Liv Ullmann, winning the coveted golden statue in 2007. Kove’s films are known for her expressive designs and playful and poignant autobiographical themes.
Awards for Maybe Elephants
- Canadian Film Prize, SPARK ANIMATION, Vancouver (2024)
- Audience Prize for Short Film, Bucheon International Animation Festival, South Korea (2024)
- Best Nordic-Baltic Animated Youth Film, Fredrikstad Animation Festival, Norway (2024)
- Prix animé TVA Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Rouyn-Noranda (2024)