Chris Landreth’s stop motion animation short THE SPINE, produced by the National Film Board of Canada in association with 3D animation studio Copperheart Animation and C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, was honoured with the Best of the Festival award — the top prize — at the 2009 Melbourne International Animated Festival on Sunday, June 28. Landreth received this same honour in 2005 for his Academy Award winning short RYAN.
The Melbourne International Animation Festival is one of the largest animation festivals in the world. It usually screens around 350-400 films each year in competitive, student, curated & retrospective programs.
About THE SPINE
For THE SPINE, Landreth joins forces again with producers Steve Hoban (Copperheart Animation), Mark Smith (Copperheart Animation) and Marcy Page (National Film Board of Canada), who had collaborated with him to make RYAN (2004) — Oscar winner for best animated short. THE SPINE is a poignant story of redemption that takes us into the relationship between a man and a woman trapped in a spiral of mutual destruction. Dan and Mary Rutherford, married 26 years, sit unhappily in a couples’ group counselling session. Angela, another troubled participant in this group, wonders why their marriage has become so lopsided, so twisted. But when Mary leaves Dan, he undergoes a beautiful transformation. What will happen when she returns? Director and scriptwriter Landreth has created an insightful and daring look at the ways individuals evolve, adapt and break.
THE SPINE was produced by the National Film Board of Canada in association with Copperheart Animation and C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, with the creative participation of Autodesk Canada Co. and Seneca College School of Communication Arts. NFB.ca/thespine.
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