Making Mary & Max

Director Stella Kinsella / 2009 / 57mins

A satirical behind-the-scenes obsession with the making of the animation feature Mary and Max.

Making Mary and Max is an obnoxious, self-aggrandizing piece of work that became a kind of endurance race more than a documentary.

Filmed over the two years it to took to produce the intricate and painstaking feature length animation written and directed by Academy Award winning Adam Elliot, the filmmaker set herself a task to see how long she could place Elliot under a bell jar without getting thrown off the set.

Within six months of production the documentary film crew were evicted from the studios but managed to maintain a covert relationship with the animation team, long enough to create this bizarre behind the scenes epic.

Working organically with the fifty plus crew, Making Mary and Max  not only reveals the candid and remarkable personality of the animation director but also the improvisational talents of the odd ball crew who helped make his film.

Capturing candid moments with Adam, the crew and delicious asides from megastars Eric Bana and Barry Humphries, Making Mary and Max is a tongue in cheek but no less true revelation of the insanity and excess long form animation demands.

It tells a dedicated version of how the feature animation was made, but ultimately captures the agony and triumph of the journey to find the marquee actor who would play the leading role of Max and satisfy financiers, creatives and ultimately, the audience.