We are thrilled to announce that Angakuksajaujuq: The Shaman’s Apprentice has been accepted into the Toronto International Film Festival. As the largest public film festival in the world, TIFF has become an essential part of Canadian and global film culture. This year, the festival will run from September 9-15, and non-members can purchase individual tickets on their website beginning September 6. 

Angakuksajaujuq: The Shaman’s Apprentice will have its world premiere in France at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 15th! The Annecy Film Festival is one of the world’s leading animation festivals, and features some of the greatest animated films from all over the globe. You can access the full program for this year’s festival here. 

Production has started on our new show, Tundra Friends! Tundra Friends is a children’s animated series designed to help kids develop emotional literacy. It follows a group of anthropomorphic arctic animals (each representing a simple emotion/perspective) as they go to school, play games, and navigate life issues that are common among the target age range of viewers. The show is expected to air next year. 

We are so excited that Giant Bear will be a part of the CBC Short Film Face Off! Now in its 13th season, the CBC Short Film Face Off is a series that features short films from all across Canada, each one competing in front of a panel of judges. Tune in starting August 1st to watch Giant Bear and hear Louise Flaherty talk about it!

How Nivi Got Her Name, Giant Bear, and What’s My Superpower? have been selected to screen at the Māoriland Film Festival in Otaki, New Zealand. The Māoriland Film Festival aims to celebrate Indigeous storytelling by providing a platform for Indigenous filmmakers to display their work. This year, the festival will run from March 18-22. 

The Freeze Frame Film Festival for Kids of All Ages is Winnipeg’s platform for young film enthusiasts to access quality films from all over the world. What’s My Superpower? and The Orphan and the Polar Bear will be among the many great films to be screened at this year’s festival.

We are so excited that What’s My Superpower? and How Nivi Got Her Names is included in this year’s Children’s Film Festival Seattle. The CFFS showcases films from all over the world. In focusing on diversity, racial equity, inclusivity, social justice, and global awareness, the CFFS works hard to bring some of the greatest and most impactful films to the next generation of movie-lovers. The CFFS will run from February 27th to March 8th, 2020. 

Unikkaaqtuat is a live-action performance that blends music, theatre, poetry, and circus arts in a captivating rendition of traditional Inuit stories. The show is a co-production by Taqqut, The 7 Fingers, and Artcirq. Last Friday, Unikkaaqtuat premiered at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Ontario. Following the premiere, Unikkaaqtuat was featured in the Ottawa Citizen, and was described as “a feast for the senses, not only beautifully executed and gracefully performed, but also important.” You can read the full review here.

Our very own Nadia Mike will be speaking at the Youth Media Alliance’s Children, Youth & Media conference on Wednesday, November 6th. She will be a guest speaker on the “Growing up with Indigenous Stories” panel which will run from 1:15 – 2:30 PM and will speak alongside Monika Ille (APTN) and Jerry Thevenet (Indigenous Writer, Director & Producer, JerryCo Animation). For more information on the conference and where to buy tickets, please visit the Youth Media Alliance website. 

Taqqut’s Melody McMullan and Leslie Pulsifer will be heading to Ottawa to pitch our new show Tundra Friends at the Ottawa International Animation Festival’s Pitch THIS! competition. As semi-finalists, we will be competing with ten other semi-finalists for the chance to win the grand prize. Our pitch will occur on Wednesday, September 25th, and you can visit the OIAF website for more information. 

Located in Montreal, the Fantasia International Film Festival is the leading genre film festival in North America. At the ceremony on July 21st, it was announced that Giant Bear has received a special jury mention in regards to the Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees! You can view the complete list of winners here.

The Nunavut Children’s Film Festival 2018 is an Inuktitut literacy initiative developed by the Nunavut Bilingual Education Society (NBES) to support Inuktut LanguageMonth. The festival consists of a 40-minute program of Inuit language films. We asked the participating children to vote for their favourite film and they did! The winner for best short film is The Owl and The Lemming. The film The Fox and The Chickadee is the Honourable Mention.

Construction is underway for The Owl and the Lemming, a short puppet film by Roselynn Akulukjuk that will begin filming in November!

In the tundra, there was a young owl whose parents thought it was time for him to learn to hunt by himself. When they saw a lemming nearby, they sent the young owl to hunt it, but the lemming was clever. She tricked the owl by playing a game that she knew she would lose to enable her escape.

Check out some photos below from the first stages of set and character construction for this new film based on a traditional Inuit story.

Amaqqut Nunaat: The Country of Wolves and The Orphan and the Polar Bear were both nominated for Best Animation at the Long Island International Film Expo, which ran from July 8 to 16 in Long Island, New York. We congratulate all the winners and nominees! For the full list, see here.

On June 18, Amaqqut Nunaat: The Country of Wolves screened at the Toronto Animated Image Society as part of Welcome to Kanata, a selection of short animated films by Aboriginal filmmakers. An initiative of the Ottawa International Animation Festival, the program was presented as part of National Aboriginal History Month and is currently on tour. You can watch the program trailer and read about the other included films here.

The Orphan and the Polar Bear will screen at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival! Comic-Con brings together over 100,000 fans of comics, video games, films, and television, making it one of the biggest conventions of its kind in the world. Director/producer/screenwriter Neil Christopher and animator Daniel Gies will be presenting at a panel following the screening on July 10. View the full film schedule here.

The Orphan and the Polar Bear screened for the first time in the Czech Republic at the Zlin Film Festival on June 2. The screening was part of the Competitive Animations program, which featured films from Israel, Germany, Moldavia, India, and all around the world. You can view the entire lineup here.

The Orphan and the Polar Bear and The Amautalik were both honoured with Golden Sheaf Awards at the Yorkton Film Festival in Yorkton, Saskatchewan! The Amautalik won Best Children’s and Youth Production, and The Orphan and the Polar Bear was awarded with Best Director (Fiction). You can see all the nominees and winners here.

The Orphan and the Polar Bear was named Audience Favorite, Animated Short at last weekend’s Roseville Festival of Film & Animation! We’re so thankful for everyone who viewed and voted for our film. Visit the festival’s Facebook page to see all of this year’s winning titles.

The Orphan and the Polar Bear has been named an Honourable Mention in the category of Canadian Short Drama at this year’s imagineNATIVE festival! Now in its 15th year, imagineNATIVE presents Indigenous-created film and art from around the world. Our earlier film, Amaqqut Nunaat: The Country of Wolves, won Best Canadian Short Drama at the festival in 2011, as well as the Cynthia-Lickers Sage Award for Emerging Talent. You can view all of this year’s winning titles here!

Amaqqut Nunaat: The Country of Wolves was named Best Animated Short at this month’s Los Angeles Fear + Fantasy Film Festival! The festival took place at Los Angeles’s historic Victory Theater, and director/producer/writer Neil Christopher was on hand to enjoy all the spooky and fantastical films on offer. We are thrilled to have been honoured at this great festival! You can view all the winners here.

Both The Amautalik and The Orphan and the Polar Bear will both screen next Saturday, September 6, at the Bay Street Film Festival in Thunder Bay! The festival takes place September 3-7 and features 16 blocks of programming. Learn more on the festival’s website.

The Orphan and the Polar Bear has been named Best Animation at this year’s Fort McMurray International Film Festival! The festival took place August 8 to 10 and featured over 80 hours of programming from Canada and around the world. The Orphan and the Polar Bear has also received award nods at the Montreal First Peoples’ Festival, the West Chester International Short Film Festival, SENE Festival, and the Mount Dora Family Film Festival. You can view all the winners here.

The Orphan and the Polar Bear, a short film based on our book of the same name, has been awarded Best Animation at the Montreal First Peoples’ Festival! The Amautalik, based on a story from our Stories of the Amautalik, was also honoured as a finalist. View all the winning and nominated titles here, and be sure to check out the trailers for The Orphan and the Polar Bear and The Amautalik.

All three of our completed films–Amaqqut Nunaat: The Country of Wolves, The Orphan and the Polar Bear, and The Amautalik–were official selections at this year’s FilmQuest Festival!

FilmQuest is a festival of the fantastic, featuring horror, science fiction, and fantasy films. The festival took place June 30 to July 5, 2014, in Salt Lake City. Learn more about the fest here, and view the trailers for our finished films here.

The Orphan and the Polar Bear has been named Best Animated Short at the Mount Dora Family Film Festival! This kid-friendly festival takes place in June in Mount Dora, Florida. View all the winning and runner-up titles here.

The Amautalik, our newest short film, made its world premiere in June 2014 at the Blue Plum Animation Festival. Part of the Blue Plum Music & Arts Festival in Johnson City, Tennessee, the Blue Plum Animation Festival highlights animated programs from all over the world. The Amautalik has since played at film festivals in Nepal, South Korea, and across North America.