Nov 12, 2024

Oscar short film candidates for 2025: - Maybe Elephant director Trill Cov

Cartoon Brew focuses on an animated short that was nominated for an Academy Award in 2025. Films in this series have been certified on one of several routes, including winning an Oscar at a film festival, exhibiting in a theater or winning a Student Academy Award.

Today's film may be the elephant of the Norwegian director Trill Cov. The short story won the qualification of the Academy Award through a theatrical exhibition.

Maybe Elephants is a 2d animated short co-produced by Norwegian studio Mikrofilm and the National Film Commission of Canada. Oscar・winning film director Trill Cobb (Danish poet) recalls childhood memories in Kenya, where she moved in with her parents and teenage sisters in the 1970s, and her happy memories clash with the attitude of her mother, who appears to have fallen into a melancholy and restless state.

Cartoon Brewing: In the movie, you tackle the subject of adult depression. Why was it important to be part of the film along with your own experience?

Torill Kove: Initially, I was mainly focused on the separation of my family and the idea that external and internal forces can hold the family together and pull it apart. While writing, I looked for clues: What happened in Kenya - our bubble burst because we were outside our comfort zone - my sister and I, too, were "hard" - my mother was bitter because her career stopped screeching during my father's prosperity - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to another culture - we could adapt to It was cracked under stress-

My mother's cloud was in the story from the beginning. Gradually, the cloud became the anchor of the story; it followed the rule of 3 and made my mother the heroine of the story. I hesitate to talk about "my mother's depression" because I don't know much about it. All I know is that my mother grew up in a family plagued by grief and afraid of the effects of war, and maybe it's where her clouds formed I suspect the clouds formed her to some extent, and it affected some people near her because it went with her everywhere. It was a great experience. In real life, my mother fought with the crowd: believing that she was the only woman in a male-dominated profession, she insisted that she could pursue a career in society in the 1960s - 1970s, who said that she could have several children and that she should not.She was an idealist hungry to contribute to the world. My mother was, in other words, the first feminist of my life.

What was forced to connect with you and direct a film about this story or concept-

I wanted to make a film about my family time in Kenya and the separation of the family in the wake of it. Maybe the elephant is a somewhat autobiographical story about "everything went well, but something happened.""Writing as an adult and looking back, I wondered what exactly happened and how reliable the memory of events almost 50 years ago was. As I fiddled with the story, it became increasingly layered. It's about a family leaving its comfort zone and moving to another country. But below it is the story of a woman looking for a place without a "cloud" and her husband, who is obsessed with her and wants to be with her. It's about teenagers exploring big cities, testing boundaries, and the strength and vulnerability of connections between people.

Living in Kenya when I was 10 had a huge positive impact on my life. It instilled in me the idealism that as long as humanity is shared, I can connect with people anywhere I don't share history. In a sense, elephants are, among other things, a note of gratitude to my family and Kenya for their memories, even if I don't know if I remember them correctly.

What did you learn through the experience of making this film, production Wise, filmmaking Wise, creatively, or on the subject-

Production Wise, maybe Elephant had a bigger team than I'm used to, especially in the animation and art direction departments. I'm not a control freak, but I admit, with so many people involved, I was afraid to lose the grip of my vision for the film, what I learned was that my vision was sharp because I had to clarify it to others and discuss it in many different contexts.

It's no exaggeration to say that I've learned something from everyone who worked on the film; I've also learned that I love working with teams of people. I like the collegial "participatory efforts" and the community aspect. We are grateful to all the great producers and all the outstanding artistic talents who have contributed to making this film with Norwegian Microfilm and Canadian NFB.

Can you explain how you developed a visual approach to cinema - why did you settle for this style/technique-

Building a visual universe of stories is an exciting part of the process. That's when I start exploring the possibilities with my thoughts and any drawing tools I have in my hands. I wanted a direct connection between the first sketch and the final film. I wanted the simplicity of the drawing and the complexity of color and depth. We wanted a drive-by scene from the outskirts of Nairobi where we lived. I wanted a teenager on a motorcycle at night, a large starry sky and crickets and flamingos, purple Jacaranda trees and reddish-brown soil. I wanted a teenage girl with some magic and some realism, and too much eye makeup.

After a while, heaps of sketches depicting characters from the Norwegian towns of Kenya and Nairobi were drawn, partly from memory and partly from photographs. We also invited Norwegian animator and graphic novel author/illustrator Magnhild Winsness as art director. Magnhild and I took these intuitive bits and fragments of visual thought and graffiti and translated them into our concept for the film.