Memoir of a Snail

Oscar-winning director Adam Elliot (Mary and Max) returns with a masterpiece of animation, an offbeat and poignant story about a lonely snail collector.

Elliot’s second feature after the award-winning Mary and Max (2009) follows the story of lonely middle-aged mollusc enthusiast Grace and the trials and tribulations of her life as an outsider. Separated from her twin as children in 1970s Australia and sent to live with a ‘swinging’ couple, Grace has always lived a solitary existence. Spiralling into a world of anxiety and a continued succession of hardships, like facing religious fundamentalists and a horrible marriage, things start looking up when she meets tenacious Pinkie, an elderly woman who once had sex with John Denver and played ping pong with Fidel Castro. Featuring the voices of Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Eric Bana, Memoir of a Snail is a masterpiece of animation eight years in the making, winner of Best Film at BFI London film Festival, and sure to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. (Please note entry to the film is for ages 18 or over only).

"Elliot is a master of the art of gallows humour, and this appealing ‘clayography’ (the term coined by the director for his distinctive stop motion biographical stories) is as hilarious as it is heart-wrenching -- frequently within the same scene." - Wendy Ide, Screen International