Mindscape

A little frog jumps out of the pond and wants to see the world. He is excited about new discoveries, not yet knowing about the danger of the stork. He almost gets eaten by the stork, but the frog saves himself at the last minute.

This documentary is a portrait of the animator of Le Paysagiste, from his childhood in Eastern Quebec to his career at the NFB. Trained at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Drouin became in some ways the heir to Alexandre Alexeïeff when he began working with the Alexeïeff-Parker pinhole screen in 1974. Recounting his relationship with the filmmaker and inventor, coming back with lucidity and precision on the whole of his own filmography, Jacques Drouin delivers here a precious testimony on creation. Enriched with numerous excerpts and unpublished images from the filmmaker's personal archives, Jacques Drouin en relief is both the adventure of a lifetime and a valuable lesson in cinema.

Every week, two friends born 67 years apart share their life stories in a senior home's living room. The younger friend convinces the 107-year-old lady to join her in an adventure: a road trip to the sea.

Two creatures meet on a tree. Their encounter goes deep down to the roots and beyond.

Sam, a grumpy raccoon is stuck sharing a cell with Bob, a sweet but dim manatee. Sam hatches an escape plan. In their chaotic jailbreak Sam’s hardened edges soften as Bob’s loyalty shines. Will they escape? Maybe. But together, they’ve already cracked something bigger: trust.

A little boy plays kaiju to terrorize his sister but things get real when she exacts her revenge.

A cocky man plays skittles and tries different methods to throw the ball. But then he goes berserk when he starts losing.

A father and his son are losing the race. To win, the boy turns himself into a car tyre. Sierra looks at toxic masculinity through dark irony, while pulling us into the surreal car racing world. Loosely inspired by the director's childhood, this animated black comedy includes fragments of a stop motion film animated by the director's father during Soviet Estonia.

An animated film based on one of the renku (collaborative linked poems) in the 1684 collection of the same name by the 17th-century Japanese poet Bashō. The creation of the film followed the traditional collaborative nature of the source material – the visuals for each of the 36 stanzas were independently created by 35 different animators. As well as many Japanese animators, Kawamoto assembled leading names in animation from across the world. Each animator was asked to contribute at least 30 seconds to illustrate their stanza, and most of the sequences are under a minute (Yuriy Norshteyn's, though, is nearly two minutes long).

This animated puppet film based on Russian folk tales tells the story of the hero Svätohor and his battle with the dragon Goryn Gorynych.

Marcel the shell gives an outline of his life.

A bar joke goes awry, unraveling into a surreal tale that explores the acceptance of self, others, and queer identity.

Fragile clay Sculptures come to life in a bare workshop, craving more than just existence. When their Sculptor abandons them, they must discover the power of belonging.

On summer vacation a young teenager finds himself hanging out alone on the streets of his neighbourhood, all his friends having gone to the country with their parents. Near his home he meets a disturbing character, a drug pusher looking for clients, who introduces him to an artificial paradise. The teenager discovers a seductive and terrifying world that frequently draws him back to his neighbour.

The story of a young boy and his father, both of whom are enlisted to fight in the war. The boy's pride soon turns to fear as the bullets whistle overhead. His father takes his place and is immediately shot and killed. Horrified, the boy understands that war is not a game.

Inspired by the poem Hamza by the great Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan, compares and connects the mystery of the fertility of the Palestinian land to the mysterious power of it's women.

This one has it all, the apprentice, the multiplying brooms, the buckets of water, everything that the Fantasia sequence has.

“God is a Pelican” follows two queer middle-school girls, Madi and Josie, who both recognize they are different from other students, and don’t fit into the religious white suburbia around them. They decide to create their own religion, a religion for the weirdos and “others” of the world.

Stop-motion animated short film. Junior hears a sound coming from the piano, decides to investigate, and discovers a magical world.

When a man becomes blind, his life is all turned around. He can only use his touch to get around in his house. The objects become enemies. But an angel is looking over him.