Academy Award nominated and Palm d’Or winning Calgarians Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby are flying to ever higher heights, as their short film The Flying Sailor has been nominated for an Academy Award.
The film depicts the 1917 Halifax Explosion and the imagined story of a real-life sailor who survived being thrown several kilometres by the event.
“We are absolutely blown away by this fabulous news and, like our sailor, we’re flying high!” wrote the animators in a statement sent out following their Oscar nod.
The film was produced by the National Film Board of Canada’s North West studio.
“The National Film Board of Canada has our endless gratitude for their unwavering support, and for making films like ours possible in the first place. We share this honour with our stellar creative team, especially producer David Christensen and sound designer Luigi Allemano.”
The film is playing this week from Jan. 24 through 29 at Sundance.
Forbis and Tilby received Academy Award nominations together for the films When the Day Breaks in 1999, and Wild Life in 2011. Tilby was also previously nominated for an Academy Award for 1991 film, Strings.
Together the pair have won 21 major industry awards, and have been nominated for an additional 16.
The Flying Sailor has been nominated for 10 major awards, including the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, and was the winner of the Best Canadian Film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. The film was shown at the Calgary International Film Festival last year.
“Congratulations to Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis, to producer David Christensen and to the crew who helped bring The Flying Sailor to life,” said Suzanne Guèvremont, Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson for the NFB.
The Flying Sailor can be watched for free from the NFB at www.nfb.ca/film/flying-sailor-the.
