The National Film Board of Canada is drawing a line-up of online premieres to celebrate International Animation Day.

This is the 15th year the NFB has participated in the event, held annually on Oct. 28 to honour the birth of animation, led by animation’s world body the International Animated Film Association (ASIFA) in Annecy, France.

Three online premieres include 4 North A by Jordan Canning and Howie Shia, Thanadoula by Robin McKenna and The Great Malaise by Catharine Lepage, supplemented by a pair of films that have won international acclaim: I, Barnabé by Jean-François Lévesque and Altötting by German animator Andreas Hykade, featuring design by Portugal’s Regina Pessoa.

Animation production decreased by 36.6% in 2019/2020 compared to 2018/2019, according to the CMPA’s Profile 2020, largely due to curtailed production as a result of pandemic lockdowns and isolation.

It estimated that there are more than 300 animation, VFX and post-production studios currently in Canada.

After peaking with an all-time high of $360 million in television animation production, the sub-sector plummeted to $224 million in 2019/2020: with English-language production falling to $214 million from $329 million and French-language animation dropping to $10 million from $31 million. Ontario contributed the majority of projects: 47% of Canadian, followed by Quebec with 31% and B.C. with 13%.

But there could be a silver lining around the corner: last month’s Creative Technology Report researched by the Information and Communications Technology Council in partnership with DigiBC, noted that demand for animated series from streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Disney+ have rocketed in demand.

Among the three premieres is 4 North A, a TIFF official selection in 2021 from Toronto filmmakers Canning and Shia. The 11-minute films depicts a woman alone in a hospital room with her dying father, escaping into a series of childhood memories that allow her to cope with her impending loss.

Toronto-based McKenna’s Thanadoula, with art direction by Elisa Simard, is a six-minute, 38-second tale of an end-of-life doula who is brought to her calling through the loss of her sister.  Produced by Gaudete Films and the NFB, Thanadoula earned Honourable Mention honours from the Canadian Institute, Best Canadian Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Fesival.

The five-minute and 19-second The Great Malaise is Montréal-based filmmaker Lepage’s first animated film. It’s a humorous and touching film about a young woman that shatters taboos about mental health and offers hope in its narrative. The winner of the Best Short Film at the Manchester Animation Festival, The Great Malaise receive the People’s Choice Award – International Competition and Jury’s Special Mention at the Canadian Competition, Les Sommets du cinéma d’animation, Montréal.

The 11-minute Altötting, a Cinanima International Animated Film Festival Grand Prize and Ottawa International Animation Festival Best Script Craft Award winner by Hykade, is a coming-of-age story about “love, faith, mortality and shattered illusions.” The film is a collaborative production between Studio Film Bilder, the NFB and Ciclope Films.

Financed by the NFB with the participation of ARTE France, the 15-minute I Barnabé by Lévesque finds the Montréal-based animator taking a look at a desperate man’s existential crisis during a night of stormy drunkenness when he receives a visit from a mysterious bird and is forced to reconsider his life. Lévesque’s short is the recipient of the Valladolid International Film Festival’s Silver Spike for Best Short Film and a Craft Award for Best Technique from the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

Each NFB film short can currently be screened here.