Feature preceded by short film A Crab in the Pool
A CRAB IN THE POOL (Alexandra Myotte and Jean-Sébastien Hamel, Québec, 2023, French with English subtitles, 11 minutes)
In a run-down neighborhood, Zoe and her little brother Theo are left to fend for themselves. A young adolescent, Zoe is a ball of anger haunted by an intimate terror. Theo, still a child, flees reality into a fantastical world. During a scorching summer day, the two children will have to burst the abscess of their relationship so as not to lose each other.
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL (Adam Elliot, Australia, 2024, English with French subtitles, 94 minutes)
Fifteen years after the unforgettable Mary & Max, Australian filmmaker and animator Adam Elliot returns with the equally poignant story of Grace Pudel, a lonely woman caring for her eccentric friend Pinky, who has reached the twilight of her life. As Grace reflects on her chaotic childhood, her estranged brother and her alcoholic, paraplegic father, she particularly remembers what sparked her obsession with snails. Retaining his magical and expressive artistry that perfectly blends absurdity and bittersweet melancholy, Elliot presents a wondrous and surprising ode to beauty in his second stop-motion feature. (FNC 2024)