One year after its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. FREE on NFB.ca and Facebook! Patrick Bouchard’s award-winning NFB stop-motion animated short The Subject debuts online May 15.

May 15, 2019 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada

Starting May 15, Canadians can experience Patrick Bouchard’s powerful National Film Board of Canada (NFB) stop-motion animated short The Subject free online on NFB.ca and Facebook.

This online premiere comes one year after its international debut at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was the only Canadian film selected for the 50th Directors’ Fortnight. Since then, The Subject has been selected to more than 35 festivals and named to Canada’s Top Ten for 2018 by the Toronto International Film Festival.

It’s also received the SICAF Choice Award at the Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Film Festival, the Prix Guy-L.-Coté for best Canadian animated film at the Sommets du cinéma d’animation, the Prix MTL Grande for best Quebec short film at Montreal’s Festival Longue Vue sur le court, the award for best animated short at the Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma—and is currently nominated for a Prix Iris at the Gala Québec Cinéma, to be awarded June 2.

About The Subject

The act of creating is about delving into the deepest part of one’s self. Artists engage in a process of introspection from which they never emerge unscathed—digging and searching within themselves, seeking the source of their fears and, in so doing, yearning to find liberation.

For his fifth collaboration with the NFB, stop-motion master Patrick Bouchard dares to place himself on centre stage, confronting his alter ego in the form of a life-size cast of his own body—beginning a physical confrontation between human and clay puppet. Pierced, slashed, chiselled, the body yields its secrets, revealing itself to be an intricate mechanism as it disgorges various objects: a microscope affording views of coursing vital fluids, or a fantastical merry-go-round evoking pleasure and ecstasy—but also fear.

Bouchard is a three-time winner of Quebec’s Prix Iris, for The Brainwashers (2003), Dehors novembre (2005) and Bydlo (2013). The Subject is produced and executive produced by Julie Roy for the NFB’s French Animation Studio in Montreal.

About the NFB

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) produces groundbreaking animation at its studios in Montreal and at NFB centres across Canada, as well as via international co-productions with many of the world’s leading auteur animators. The NFB is a leader in developing new approaches to stereoscopic 3D animation and animated content for new platforms. The NFB has created over 13,000 productions and won over 7,000 awards, with NFB animation accounting for 7 of the NFB’s 12 Oscars, as well as 6 grand prizes at France’s Annecy International Animated Film Festival, 4 Palmes d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and 2 Golden Bears at Berlinale. To access acclaimed NFB animation, visit NFB.ca or download its apps for mobile devices.

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Related Products

Electronic Press Kit | Images, trailers, synopses: The Subject

Associated Links

Cannes Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival.
Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Film Festival
Sommets du cinéma d’animation
Festival Longue Vue sur le court
Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma
Gala Québec Cinéma

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