Arts

Watch the most amazing animation to come out of Canada this year

Fairy tales, childhood memories and the meaning of life: these are 2017's Canadian Screen Award nominees for best animated short.

These are 2017's Canadian Screen Award nominees for best animated short

Still from "I Like Girls." Like animation? We've got clips from the CSA nominees for best animated short. (NFB)

On every episode of Exhibitionists, we pick an "Exhibitionist in Residence" and share that featured artist's work throughout the show. But it's Canadian Screen Awards week! It's time to go big! So come Sunday, we're making time for not just one artist, but five — and they happen to be the top animators in the country.

The CSA nominees for best animated short will turn up throughout the program, and you can watch clips and trailers from each of them right here, too — a sort of last-minute cram session before the show airs on CBC (and our CBC Arts Facebook page) Sunday at 8 p.m.

Starting with...

Blind Vaysha

Director: Theodore Ushev

Did you know... It's the 16th film by Montreal animator Theodore Ushev, but it's the first to earn him an Oscar nomination. He talked to CBC about the Academy Awards — and this fairy-tale film — in February.


 

I Am Here

Director: Eoin Duffy

Did you know... The film aims to find the meaning of life...in under five minutes. Whether or not it succeeds, it's a visually compelling trip. Filmmaker Eoin Duffy started as a graphic designer, and he's known for his minimalist style. Can he streamline the secrets of the universe into a few minutes of shape, sound and colour? Or, more pressingly, can he win a CSA for his effort?

I Like Girls

Director: Diane Obomsawin

Did you know... Montreal filmmaker Diane Obomsawin is also an acclaimed comic-book artist, and this film spun out of a graphic novel. In this case, the book was J'aime les Filles, a collection of joyful personal memoirs — coming-of-age stories about love and sex.


 

Mamie

Director: Janice Nadeau

Did you know... The story, which is told through the perspective of a young girl visiting her emotionally distant grandmother in Gaspesie, was based on the animator's own childhood memories.


 

Red of the Yew Tree

Director: Marie-Hélène Turcotte

Did you know... This poetic film screened at TIFF last fall. Using the Yew tree as a symbol of life and death, it meditates on connections and legacies shared between generations of women.

Watch the 2017 Canadian Screen Awards Sunday, March 12 at 8pm local time (9pm AT/9:30 NT) on CBC TV or stream them live on the CBC Arts Facebook page starting with the red carpet at 7:30pm ET.