Talented Canadian animators Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis exhibit a sophisticated technique and an extraordinary ability to depict life’s tender moments. Strings wends its way through a series of delightful visual metaphors. The award-winning When the Day Breaks uses pencil and paint on photocopies to bring to life a troubling encounter that Ruby the pig has on her way to the store. Drawing on the tropes of the documentary form, Wild Life tells the tale of a young man who immigrates to the bleak Canadian prairies to be a rancher. These films are charming, witty, and exacting in their attention to detail and timing.

— Susan Oxtoby