Regina Pessoa’s Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days (Ciclope Filmes/NFB/Les Armateurs) takes two awards at Annecy, including the JURY AWARD for a Short Film

June 15, 2019 – Montreal, Quebec – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

Regina Pessoa return to the Annecy International Animation Film Festival has proved a triumph: her film Oncle Thomas – La comptabilité des jours (Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days, Ciclope Filmes/NFB/Les Armateurs) has just won the Jury Award for a Short Film. The filmmaker had previously received the Cristal for a Short Film in 2006 for her animated short Histoire tragique avec fin heureuse (Tragic Story with Happy Ending, Folimage Studio/Ciclope Filmes/NFB). Uncle Thomas, whose original soundtrack is by Normand Roger, also took the Best Original Music Award for a Short Film, sponsored by the SACEM. The NFB made a strong showing at Annecy this year with four works in official competition: three animated shorts in addition to one VR experience.

About the film 

• Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days (13min) is about the special relationship between Regina Pessoa and her uncle. The film is a testament to her love for this eccentric, who was an artistic inspiration and played a key role in her becoming a filmmaker. A moving tribute to a poet of the everyday.

·  Produced by Abi Feijó (Ciclope Filmes), Julie Roy (NFB) and Reginald de Guillebon (Les Armateurs).

About the filmmaker

Born in 1969 in Coimbra, Portugal, Regina Pessoa spent her childhood listening to family stories and watching her uncle draw pictures on the walls of her grandmother’s house. It was her first step toward the world of animation. More practically, she studied various animation techniques during her studies at the Porto School of Fine Arts. At the Portuguese studio Filmógrafo, she worked on a number of films by Abi Feijó before producing her own first short film in 1999, entitled The Night. This delicate work was followed by Tragic Story with Happy Ending (2005) and Kali the Little Vampire (2012), two films that, along with the first, form a marvellous trilogy about childhood. The winner of numerous awards all over the world, Pessoa has reached new artistic heights with her masterful 2019 film, Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days.
 
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.