‘Maybe Elephants’ Producers from NFB & Mikrofilm Discuss the Partnership Behind Torill Kove’s Oscar-Qualified Short

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In the world of independent animation, few partnerships are as enduring — and as fruitful — as the one between Norway’s Mikrofilm AS, the National Film Board of Canada and acclaimed independent animator Torill Kove, who has earned three Academy Award nominations and won the Oscar for The Danish Poet in 2007. Over the past 18 years, this powerhouse team has co-produced four remarkable short films, including their latest, Maybe Elephants, a deeply personal story exploring family dynamics and the gap between memory and reality.

Rooted in a shared commitment to nurturing independent voices and telling stories that transcend borders, Maybe Elephants is the product of a truly international collaboration. With 36 team members from Mikrofilm and 46 from the NFB, including Kove herself, the film’s production spanned two continents. Preproduction began in January 2022, and the final picture was delivered in October. Despite some unforeseen setbacks, the film was completed in exactly two years, including postproduction.

Common Visions

This cross-border partnership, which blends creative strengths and shared values, has been a cornerstone of Mikrofilm and the NFB’s long-standing relationship — the longest-running co-production partnership the NFB has had with any studio. “Even if Mikrofilm and the NFB are very different in terms of size and type of organization, we share the same values and attitude,” says Mikrofilm producer Lise Fearnley.

The production was split between both countries, with art direction, compositing and sound design done in Norway, while animation, coloring and voice acting were done in Canada.

“Torill laid out some of the broad strokes that became our guide for planning the production,” recounts NFB producer Maral Mohammadian. “She wanted the art direction to be done by Magnhild Winsnes, with whom she worked on her previous films, since The Danish Poet. Magnhild was based in Oslo, and so the design team would be in Norway. And since Torill lives in Montreal, we decided to hire only local animators who would work at the NFB studio,” she continues, adding, “We could have opted for an all-remote production, which is common of course. But we were all fatigued from that and missed the joy and immediacy of working side by side.”

The filmmakers had initially hoped to assemble a small team of three or four animators. “But we ended up with a much larger team of 10 Canadian animators working in different intervals,” says Mohammadian, which had an impact on the production’s rhythm and schedule.

“Every artist we approached jumped at the opportunity to work on a Torill Kove film, but they were all juggling multiple gigs and could only work part-time,” she notes, pointing to the post-pandemic explosion in animation production. “Animators were in high demand, and they were coming out of the precarious economy of the pandemic, so they couldn’t turn down any gigs.”

Fearnley adds that, although the pandemic itself didn’t significantly affect the production, the length of the film ended up being longer than expected, creating additional costs. “The film turned out to be a bit longer than the animatic,” she says. “We did our best to make an efficient film, but in the end this story cannot be rushed too much. It is a delicate balance, and we were not willing to compromise on the storytelling. We cut some shots but still ended up with a film that was longer and therefore a bit more expensive.”

One of the biggest advantages of co-productions is the shared knowledge and experience, says Fearnley, which is often not the case between competing studios. “As a result, we find solutions that are better, and we inspire each other on all aspects of a production, be it technical, artistic or other. In this sense, two is more than one plus one.”

Supporting unique, independent voices such as Kove’s has always been central to Mikrofilm’s mission. “For us at Mikrofilm, the director’s vision has always been at center stage,” says Fearnley. “We look for original, different, personal, weird or innovative stories. The artistic vision is the key to making a great short film, but directing animation is so complex. It can take time to find one’s artistic voice. For most directors, at least — Torill is a rare example of an extremely talented and capable director right from her very first film.”

Standing Against Commercialization

Mohammadian echoes this sentiment, emphasizing that such short films as Maybe Elephants are often labors of love, driven by an artist’s vision rather than commercial success. “There is no real business model for shorts, so they are, by definition, passion projects — an exercise in self-expression, an attempt to connect to others by offering your view, especially when it’s one you don’t often see in the mainstream,” she says.

She adds, “For the NFB, and I would say for Canadian cinema in general, auteur filmmaking is a matter of cultural survival. It’s our resistance to the massive commercialization and Americanization of popular media. Intimate, creator-centered storytelling is our way of being seen and understanding our society with a sense of autonomy.”

 

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You can learn more at nfb.ca/film/maybe-elephants and in Animation Magazine‘s interview with Torill Kove here.