Adam Elliot

Adam Elliot (born 2 January 1972) is an Australian

Elliot calls himself an

His company, Adam Elliot Clayographies, produces the films and Elliot's work practices adhere to the French auteur methodology. Each film has been voiced by notable actors including, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, Geoffrey Rush, Eric Bana, William McInnes, Barry Humphries and John Flaus. Elliot is also a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and in 1999 was awarded The Young Achiever of the Year for Victoria.^[3]

Biography

Elliot was born in

Made in 1996, Elliot's first short film was created at the Victorian College of the Arts under the tutelage of Sarah Watt,^[9] Robert Stephenson and Ann Shenfield. With a running time of six minutes Uncle won numerous international awards including an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Australian Animated Short.^[10]

The film was shot with a 16mm

Cousin has been shown at many film festivals and won Elliot his second AFI Award for Best Australian animation.^[10] Narrated again by William McInnes, the budget for Cousin was $42,000 AUD.

Brother (1999)

Thanks to the success of his first two shorts, Brother became the natural conclusion to what is now referred to as a trilogy. Funded by the

Brother marks the height of Elliot's

Running for 23 minutes, this next film marked Elliot's slow venture into colour and the establishment of much more complex, longer and dynamic plot structures. While still using the narrator to drive the story, his animation became more dynamic and the storylines more complex.

This film was made back at his father's storage facility and was the first time Elliot has substantial assistance from a full-time producer, Melanie Coombs, and two model making assistants, Michael Bazeley and Sophie Raymond. He also used the mentoring skills of Darren Burgess, an experienced animator from Adelaide. The film took over a year to shoot on a modified super 16mm Bolex and was the first time Adam used new digital software that assisted in the viewing of captured frames. This new software has since revolutionised stop motion animation, so animators no longer have to wait for dailies and can see their work played back in real time immediately after frames are gathered. They no longer have to animate "blind". On average Elliot shot between five and ten seconds of footage per day.

The budget to the film was AUD380,000; it was narrated by the Academy Award-winning actor Geoffrey Rush, with character voices by Kamahl, John Flaus and Julie Forsythe. In 2004 the film won an Academy Award for Best Short Animation.^[2] Harvie Krumpet has played at over 100 film festivals and won over forty major awards. In 2005 it was named as one of the top 100 animated films of all time by the board of the world's largest animation festival in Annecy, France.^{[citation needed]}

Mary and Max (2009)

Elliot's first feature film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009 and was the first animated film and first Australian film in the festival's 25-year history to screen in the coveted opening night slot.^[11] The 92-minute film was made in Elliot's hometown of Melbourne and took five years to complete at a cost of 8.3 million Australian dollars. The project required a crew of over 120 people and a team of six animators who shot continuously for 57 weeks.

For the narration, Elliot employed the services of the iconic comedian and stage performer

Elliot's most current clayography short, Ernie Biscuit, is a 20-minute black-and-white short animated stop motion film exploring the life of a deaf Parisian taxidermist.

In a similar style to his Academy Award-winning Harvie Krumpet, this film is a bittersweet biography that has both comedic and tragic elements. For the first time, Elliot has explored stronger themes of love, and the overall style is quite dynamic and fast-paced. It is lighter in tone to his other shorts and is narrated by long-time collaborator John Flaus, who has voiced Elliot's previous films Harvie Krumpet, Mary and Max and Uncle.

The film has been selected into official competition at the

Elliot's next upcoming feature film, Memoir of a Snail, centres on Grace Puddle, a lonely hoarder of ornamental snails who lives in Canberra.^[15]

The film stars Sarah Snook, Jacki Weaver and Kodi Smit-McPhee as the main characters, while Eric Bana will reunite with him after Mary and Max.^[15]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adam Elliot.

• Adam Elliot official website
• Adam Elliot at
  IMDb
• ISBN 978-0-240-52070-4