NFB Greenlights New Animated Shorts From Theodore Ushev, Michèle Lemieux, Mochi Lin

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has greenlit three new animated shorts from filmmakers Theodore Ushev, Michèle Lemieux, and Mochi Lin.

The films are part of a newly announced slate of 16 NFB productions and co-productions, including feature and medium-length documentaries, documentary shorts, and a three-part series.

Animation projects include:

Hostel la Vista

Director: Mochi Lin

Producer: Maral Mohammadian | English Animation Unit | 100% NFB

• A decrepit Mile-End hostel in Montreal transforms into a microcosm of modern-day alienation, connection, courage and survival.

Polka

Director: Michèle Lemieux

Producer: Mélanie Boudreau Blanchard, Christine Noël | French Animation Unit  | 100% NFB

• An animated short film created using the legendary Alexeïeff-Parker pinscreen, Polka invites us on a journey into the raw materials of a painted work, prompting us to reflect on its physicality.

Les Villes Inconnues des Mères Disparues

Director: Theodore Ushev

Producer: Mélanie Boudreau Blanchard, Christine Noël | French Animation Unit  | 100% NFB

• In a world where cities are named after the first mothers who settled there, a young adopted girl writes a postcard to her birth mother. She entrusts it to a postman, who sets out on an epic journey to find her.

The three filmmakers have markedly different relationships with the NFB. Ushev is one of the organization’s most prominent contemporary animation directors. His extensive body of work with the public producer includes the Oscar-nominated Blind Vaysha, The Physics of Sorrow, and The Man Who Waited.

Lemieux has spent decades experimenting with the Alexeïeff-Parker pinscreen. Her previous NFB films made with the device include Here and the Great Elsewhere and The Storm. The NFB is home to the last original pinscreen built by inventors Alexandre Alexeïeff and Claire Parker.

Lin previously worked with the NFB on the 2024 short The Last Tango, produced through its Hothouse emerging-animation program. Her earlier stop-motion film Swallow Flying to the South won the Grand Prix at the Osaka Asian Film Festival and made the 2023 BAFTA animation shortlist.