Madame Tutli Putli

Plot

Madame Tutli-Putli boards a night train for a mysterious and suspenseful journey. When train robbers cut open a man's stomach and steal his kidneys, she tries to escape.

Research and production

The filmmakers researched the film by traveling on The Canadian, north of Lake Superior, living on the train for two weeks, collecting stories. The stop motion animation took them more than five years. Critics lauded the film for its groundbreaking stop-motion animation techniques. Portrait artist Jason Walker created the technique of adding composited human eyes to the stop motion puppets. For the lead character, actress Laurie Maher was recorded acting out the motions, but only her eyes and eyebrows were ultimately visible in the final film.

Awards

On May 28, 2007, the film won the Canal + Grand Prize for best short film along with the Petit Rail d'Or, chosen by a "group of 100 cinephile railwaymen," at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. In June 2007, Madame Tutli-Putli won best animated short at the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto, qualifying it for Academy Award consideration. It received an Oscar nomination in January 2008.

In late June 2008, Madame Tutli-Putli won the "Best of the Festival" award at the Melbourne International Animation Festival. At the Ars Electronica Festival 2008 Chris Lavis received a Golden Nica in the category "Computer Animation/Film/VFX" of the Prix Ars Electronica. Madame Tutli-Putli received the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Award for Best Animated Short at the 28th Genie Awards. It was also included in the Animation Show of Shows.

"NFB at the Oscars" contest and promotion

In early 2008, before the 80th Academy Awards, the NFB began a promotion campaign entitled "NFB at the Oscars", commemorating the 12 awards and 70 nominations that NFB productions have received. To celebrate the nomination of Madame Tutli-Putli for Best Animated Short Film, the NFB announced that it would make the film freely available for viewing online, but with a caveat—each of the 23,287 frames had to first be unlocked, one by each visitor from a unique IP address. Once the entire film was unlocked, it was made available for viewing at CBC.ca.