Michael Fukushima

Centered on a confrontation between the last monster bear and an Inuit hunter, Giant Bear is a chilling short that brings an ancient story out of the North.

Two little men float into the deep blue sky, tied to balloons. But then each decides the sky belongs to him. This film was made as part of the fourth edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.

Emile is an unhappy little vampire, doing a job he detests, in a world plunged into perpetual gloom. He serves a despotic mistress who loathes wrinkles, in the most extreme way.

It was the perfect hiding spot. No one would find him there.

Layering real-life details with an otherworldly magic, Thanadoula recounts the story of an end-of-life doula brought to her calling through the loss of her beloved sister.

A marvellous example of extreme animation. Jacob Bauming shows us a whirling dervish of sensory overload, with a tenuous connection to snazzy “aquatics,” using them as a trigger for his wild and manic imagination. This film was made as part of the first edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.

Based on the shamanic rituals in Mongolia and Siberia, this is a testament to the need to reclaim the ideas of animism for planetary health and non-human materialities.

An unapologetic confrontation of cultural appropriation and everything that’s wrong with hipsters in headdresses. The takeaway? Just don't do it.

Shannon Amen unearths the passionate and pained expressions of a young woman overwhelmed by guilt and anxiety as she struggles to reconcile her sexual identity with her religious faith. A loving elegy to a friend lost to suicide.

In this short animation, a young boy takes a flying leap away from normal, waves goodbye to his classmates, and disappears into the cityscape and beyond. At the same time, a young girl is inspired to reinvent her space with art.

Look out: Beryl's back. With Affairs of the Art, British animator Joanna Quinn recounts another gloriously unhinged chapter in the adventures of Beryl, the comic everywoman she unleashed upon the world with her debut film, Girls' Night Out, which took home three major awards from Annecy in 1987.

A young Canadian poet with Chinese and Persian parents travels to Iran to perform at a poetry festival.

Thea Pratt explores the exhilarating moment of a poetic dive. The movement of the puppet diver is influenced by Norman McLaren, Leni Riefenstahl and Busby Berkeley. Dancing light, frothing oceans, rolling rivers and calm lakes describe in photographic images the diver’s own stream of consciousness. This film was made as part of the second edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.

Little bald Léon loves his grandfather. He loves the old man's bushy black beard, which seems endowed with magic powers.

A little creature watches the transformation of a feather and follows a whale to where icebergs melt, leaving birds with nowhere to land. The materials used include old gloves, costume jewellery and Plasticine. Technique: puppet and object animation with drawn animation. This film was made as part of the third edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.

A bleak picture of sex in the digital age.

This experimental animation film examines society's deification of architecture and urbanization in the modern world and the impact on our relationship to nature. This film was made with the NFB Hothouse program for emerging filmmakers.

An unapologetic take on the vicious cycle of earning too little and consuming too much.

A pithy critique of society's commercialization of water, abetted by an utter disregard for the future. The film is a mixed media whirlwind of hyperactive animated collage. This film was made as part of the first edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.

Megann Reid evokes the solitude and warmth of a bath. Drawn with water colour pencil crayons on frosted acetate, the animation was done under a digital camera. This film was made as part of the second edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.

An imaginative boy suffers the stifling ordinariness of his family's weekly Sunday ritual.

A modern adaptation of the myth of Hercules, BAM tells the story of a young boxer struggling to negotiate between his shy, bookish nature and a divinely violent temper. Where does this rage come from? Is it psychological or environmental - or is it something altogether more primordial?

Director Theodore Ushev uses his own blood to animate struggles with injustice in the world.

An ode to what can happen when Man plays God.