Madame Tutli-Putli
Madame Tutli-Putli is a 2007 Academy Award nominated stop motion-animated short film by Montreal filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). It is available on the Cinema16: World Short Films DVD as well as from the NFB. Plot
Madame Tutli-Putli boards a night train for a mysterious and suspenseful journey. [edit] Research and production
The filmmakers researched the film by traveling on The Canadian, north of Lake Superior, living on the train for two weeks, collecting stories. The stop motion animation took them more than five years.[1] [2] [3] Critics lauded the film for its groundbreaking stop-motion animation techniques. Portrait artist Jason Walker created the technique of adding composited human eyes to the stop motion puppets.[4] [5] [6] [edit] Awards Chris Lavis at the Prix Ars Electronica 2008
On May 28, 2007, the film won the Canal + Grand Prize for best short film along with the Petit Rail d'Or, chosen by a "group of 100 cinephile railwaymen," at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.[7] [8] In June 2007, Madame Tutli-Putli won best animated short at the Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto, qualifying it for Academy Award consideration.[9] It received an Oscar nomination in January 2008. In late June 2008, Madame Tutli-Putli won the "Best of the Festival" award at the Melbourne International Animation Festival. At the Ars Electronica Festival 2008 Chris Lavis received a Golden Nica in the category "Computer Animation/Film/VFX" of the Prix Ars Electronica.[10] It was also included in the Animation Show of Shows. [edit] "NFB at the Oscars" contest and promotion
In early 2008, before the 80th Academy Awards, the NFB began a promotion campaign entitled "NFB at the Oscars", commemorating the 12 awards and 70 nominations that NFB productions have received. To celebrate the nomination of Madame Tutli-Putli for Best Animated Short Film, the NFB announced that it would make the film freely available for viewing online, but with a caveat—each of the 23,287 frames had to first be unlocked, one by each visitor from a unique IP address. Once the entire film was unlocked, it was made available for viewing at CBC.ca.[11]