Adam Elliot

Adam Elliot (born 2 January 1972) is an Australian stop-motion animation writer, director and producer based in Melbourne, Australia.

His five films have collectively participated in over seven hundred film festivals and have received over one hundred awards, including an Academy Award for Harvie Krumpet and five Annecy Cristals.

Elliot calls himself an auteur filmmaker and all of his films have a bittersweet nature to them.

He does not engage with commercial work and works exclusively on his own film projects.

Based loosely on his family and friends, Elliot calls each of his works a Clayography – clay animated biography.

Each film takes up to five 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 Clayographies, produces 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, Barry Humphries and John Flaus.

In 1996 he completed a postgraduate 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 four more short films: Cousin, Brother, Harvie Krumpet, Ernie Biscuit and a feature, Mary and Max.

Made in 1996, Elliot's first short film was created at the Victorian College of the Arts under the tutelage of Sarah Watt, Robert Stephenson and Ann Shenfield.

With a running time of six minutes Uncle won numerous international awards including an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Australian Animated Short.

The film was shot with a 16mm Bolex camera using completely traditional stopmotion techniques, and edited on a Steenbeck, a now obsolete linear editing system.

These traditional techniques taught Elliot a craft that would influence his later works and provide a strong respect for handcrafted films.

To date he refuses to apply any digital effects to his films despite economic and aesthetic pressures.

The budget for Uncle was approximately A$4000.

Uncle is semi-biographical, about an anonymous uncle narrated by an anonymous nephew, voiced by William McInnes.

Extremely static and minimalist, the story is driven by the narration and is a balance between comedy and tragedy, humour and pathos.

Using strong archetypes, the story has a timeless and universal feel.

To date, the film is still popular at Film Festivals (often as part of a retrospective on Elliot).

This first short by Elliot sets the tone for all his subsequent works and is a reference point for his visual style and aesthetic.

The story is loosely based on Elliot's own relationship with his eight uncles, yet despite factual references, he always places an emphasis on story; for him actual events should never dictate plot.

In interviews he often cites the popular adage, that "the truth should not get in the way of a good story".

Made in 1997, Cousin was Elliot's first professional film funded by the Australian Film Commission, SBS Independent and Film Victoria.

As with Uncle, Elliot chose a minimalist approach and sparse narration to drive a very simple remembrance of a childhood relationship he had with his cousin (based on his real-life cousin), who has cerebral palsy.

Like Uncle, Cousin has a greyscale palette but was shot on colour stock.

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 born in Berwick, Victoria, and raised in the Australian outback on a prawn farm by his father, Noel, a retired acrobatic clown, and his mother Valerie, a hairdresser; he has three siblings, Samantha, Luke and Joshua.

After the farm went bankrupt, Elliot's father moved the family 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-curricular 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 T-shirts at the St Kilda, Victoria Esplanade Craft market.

Elliot is gay and thanked his boyfriend, who he was still involved with as of 2016, in his acceptance speech upon winning an Academy Award for Best Animated Short for Harvie Krumpet, becoming the first LGBT+ winner in that category.