Mary and Max

Adam Elliot, (born Jan 2nd 1972, Berwick, Australia), is an independent stop-motion animation writer and director based in Melbourne, Australia. His five films have collectively participated in over six-hundred film festivals and have received over one hundred awards, including an Oscar for Harvie Krumpet. Elliot calls himself an auteur filmmaker and each of his films have a bittersweet nature to them. Based loosely on his family and friends, Elliot calls each of his works a Clayography – clay animated biographies – a portmanteau term of the words clay and biography. Utilising a large team of animators and modelmakers each film takes several years to complete. He is noted for his use of traditional ‘in-camera’ techniques, which means every prop set and character is a ‘real’ miniature handcrafted object. Elliot does not use digital additions or computer generated imagery to enhance his visual aesthetic. His company, ADAM ELLIOT PICTURES, produce the films and Elliot’s work practices adhere to the French auteur methodology. Each film has been voiced by notable actors including, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, Geoffrey Rush, Eric Bana, William McInnes and Barry Humphries. Elliot is also a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and in 1999 was awarded The Young Achiever of the Year for Victoria.

Elliot was raised in the Australian outback on a shrimp / prawn farm with his father, Noel, – a retired acrobatic clown, his mother Valerie, – a hairdresser, and three siblings, Samantha, Luke and Joshua. After the farm went bankrupt Elliot’s father moved the family back to the city of Melbourne, where he bought a small hardware shop. A very shy child Elliot was very creative and was constantly drawing and making things out of found objects. He attended the Pinewood Primary State School in the suburb of Mount Waverley and then Haileybury College Keysborough where he was proficient at Art, English literature, Photography, Drawing and Sculpture. Elliot had an early ambition to be a veterinarian but did not obtain the necessary grades to enter university. In extra curriculum activities Elliot was a member of the school’s Highland Pipe Band. He also pursued acting and in his final year was awarded the school’s highest honour, the A.G. Greenwood Trophy for an outstanding dramatic performance as Dr. Watson in the Sherlock Holmes play “The Incredible Murder of Cardinal Tosca”.

Born with a hereditary physiological tremor, Elliot incorporated his disability into his visual aesthetic with his work displaying uneven lines and an organic feel. After completing his year twelve he spent five years hand-painting tee-shirts at the St Kilda, Victoria Esplanade Craft market. In 1996 he completed a post graduate diploma in film and television, specialising in animation, at the Victorian College of the Arts. There he made his first stopmotion film, “Uncle”, which won numerous film awards and participated in various international and local film festivals. Since then, in collaboration with the Australian Film Commission, Screen Australia, Film Victoria (formerly Cinemedia), and the Special Broadcasting Service, (SBS), Elliot has made three more short films: Cousin, Brother and Harvie Krumpet and his first feature Mary and Max. He is currently writing and developing his next feature due for release in late 2012. —wikipedia