Cirrus@Austlit

'Her life may be a mess, but Grace Pudel (Snook, Succession; Predestination, MIFF 2014) does derive pleasure from three things: her snail collection, romance novels and her guinea pigs. As children, she and twin brother Gilbert (Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog; Slow West) eked out a modest existence with their paraplegic father, a has-been performer gripped by alcoholism and grief after their mother’s death. When he, too, passes away, the siblings are split up by child services: Grace is sent to Canberra, and Gilbert, to Perth. Isolated and depressed, Grace retreats behind a carapace – much like her snails – and fills her emotional void through compulsive hoarding. That is, until she finds a fourth source of joy: a friendship with outrageous octogenarian Pinky (Weaver, Animal Kingdom; Silver Linings Playbook).'

Source: Melbourne International Film Festival.

'A story spanning twenty years and two continents, Mary and Max tells of a pen-friendship between two very different people. Mary Dinkle, a chubby and lonely eight year old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne decides on a whim to to pick a person at random from the New York phone book and sends off a letter asking about life on the other side of the world. It is received by Max Horovitz, an obese 44 year old Jewish man with Asperger's Syndrome living in the chaos of New York. A friendship is born as the pair exchange letters over the next 20 years. Offering each other support, advice and the chance to see life through another set of eyes.

'Mary and Max's friendship survives much more than the average diet of life's ups and downs. As with Adam Elliot's previous feature film, the Academy Award-winning Harvey Krumpet(2003), Mary and Max is innocent but not naive, as it takes us on a journey that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual difference, trust, copulating dogs, religious difference, agrophobia and much much more.'

Source: Mary and Max website, http://www.maryandmax.com/
Sighted: 30/03/2009

A claymation film telling the story of Harvie Krumpet, an ordinary man seemingly cursed with perpetual bad luck. From being born with Tourette's Syndrome, to getting struck by lightning, to having a testicle removed, to developing Alzheimers disease: Harvie's troubles seem unending! Yet Harvie learns many lessons in life and enjoys its many fruits. He finds love, freedom, nudity, and ultimately the true meaning of what it is to be human.

(Source: National Film and Sound Archive record.)