‘Memoir Of A Snail’ Director Adam Elliot Breaks Ranks With Animation Norms: “They’re Not For Kids” — Contenders Film: The Nominees

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Drawing on his own life experiences and inspired by friends and acquaintances he’s met along the way, filmmaker Adam Elliot has landed himself an Academy Award nomination for his decidedly not kid-friendly stopmotion film Memoir of a Snail.

Nominated for Best Animated Feature, the pic explores the life of Australian girl Grace Pudel from childhood, where she is befriended by her eccentric neighbor Pinky, through her adult years. Grace fills her lonely life by hoarding all the snail-themed products and collectibles she can find.

“Grace is sort of an amalgamation of a lot of people and also myself,” Elliot said. “Primarily, she’s based on a very good friend of mine who was born with a cleft palate. As a little girl, she had a lot of operations on her mouth and was quite disfigured and, unfortunately, at school was bullied and teased. So she had a very, traumatic childhood. Yet now she’s a very confident, well-adjusted. In fact, she’s quite an extrovert. And what fascinated me was, how did she transform? How did she she get over that trauma, or did she actually get over it at all?”

Grace has a tough life by Elliot’s design. He says he “wanted to really inflict a lot of pain on Grace.” But there is a vein of humor that runs through the film as well.

“I drag her through the mud,” he said. “I’m quite cruel to her as a writer, but I felt that needed to be so that when the moments of levity came along, the moments of comedy and humor and warmth, they were really powerful and potent. … I said in the film, her glass is half full, not empty, and she’s always looking for silver linings. Despite the horrific, things I do to her.”

‘Memoir of a Snail’ IFC Films

Grace’s friend Pinky is another scene-stealer with her flamboyance and outlandish stories to tell. She appears throughout the film sharing glimpses of past husbands and other experiences.

“When I was writing Pinky, I really wanted her to be extreme,” Elliot said. ”I wanted her to be more than just an eccentric old woman. I wanted her to really have a zest for life, even though she herself has had a quite a traumatic early childhood. I wanted her to be all the things that Grace wasn’t. I wanted her to be proactive. I wanted her to be a risk taker. I wanted her to be not afraid of being embarrassed. And so, I really just pushed the boundaries. A lot of her anecdotes and vignettes, are based on real people.”

Elliot stayed close to home to give voice to Grace’s character, catching Sarah Snook between gigs, after Succession wrapped and before she takes on the lead role in The Picture of Dorian Gray on Broadway.

“Sarah’s one of a group of wonderful female Australian actors — the likes of Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Margot Robbie — and they all live here in Australia and radiate out to the rest of the world,” Elliot said. “So I was in a very luxurious position of picking who would be best. But I chose Sarah because she really ticked all the boxes. She has a beautiful, quietness. There’s no ego. She she’s a very quiet person. She’s very humble. And as many of these ingredients as you can find with an actor that has a simpatico with the character, it’s really helpful because it means there’s less, well, not less, acting.

Elliot’s animation is made on a tight budget as opposed to films like Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot, saying his budget “is what they would spend on catering.”

And though it’s animation, it’s not kid stuff.

“I do get emails, particularly from angry parents who are always telling me my films are not for children,” he said. And I say, ’Of course, they’re not for children — why are you bringing your children to an R-rated film?’ I mean, having said that, you know, the things kids watch in video games and the things they watch when they shouldn’t be watching. My films are very mild compared to the stuff kids watch, unfortunately.”

Check back Monday for the panel video.

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