ECU 100: An Evening with Tilby/Forbis

The Cinematheque and Emily Carr University of Art + Design are pleased to present an evening with award-winning animators Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis, who met as classmates studying film, video, and animation at ECU in the mid-1980s. This program will include screenings of the filmmakers’ trio of acclaimed shorts—When the Day Breaks (1999), Wild Life (2011), and The Flying Sailor (2022), each Oscar nominated—as well as a slideshow presentation by the artists charting the process behind their unique collaboration. Illustrated with clips, images, and anecdotes, the lecture will detail the inspiration, working methods, and creative techniques behind The Flying Sailor, the duo’s most recent work. The evening will conclude with a conversation and audience Q&A moderated by Alla Gadassik, a film scholar, curator of animated media, and Associate Professor of Media History and Theory at ECU.  

Curated by Harry Killas, Professor and Assistant Dean of Film + Screen Arts, ECU. 

Ticketing for this event has not yet been released.

This event is organized in support of ECU 100, Emily Carr University of Art + Design’s centennial anniversary. Presented with support from the Audain Foundation. 

Both born in Alberta, Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis met at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver (circa 1985), where they studied film and animation. There they discovered a shared sensibility—an affinity for the same ideas, aesthetics, and humour— that led to their later collaboration at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal. 

Tilby and Forbis also collaborate on commissioned work, including illustrations, theatrical projections, and television commercials. Interview, their acclaimed ad for United Airlines, won the Annie Award in 2004 and was nominated for an Emmy. In 2018,they received ASIFA’s Winsor McCay Award for their exceptional contribution to the art of animation. 

Amanda Forbis studied theatre and art at the University of Lethbridge before attending the Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, where she studied film, video, and animation. Wendy Tilby studied visual arts and literature at the University of Victoria before attending the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, where she majored in film and animation. They currently live in Victoria.