''The Head Vanishes'' (French:''Une tête disparaît'') is a 2016 Canada/France animated short by Franck Dion about a woman with

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

who is determined to make her annual train trip to the seaside. Co-produced by the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

, Papy3D Productions and

ARTE France Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plu ...

, the film was partly inspired by Dion's experiences with his great-grandmother, with whom he was close and saw deteriorate mentally while he was a child. Dion began to work on the film in 2014, after deciding to depart from a feature-film project. A key narrative element in the film is the central character literally "losing her head" on the train trip—again inspired by a true-life anecdote involving his ill grandmother, who had once asked Dion's mother to fetch her head from under the sink, believing that it had rolled under there. Dion decided to set the film on a train, with the film's title a reference to Alfred Hitchcock's ''

The Lady Vanishes ''The Lady Vanishes'' is a 1938 British mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave. Written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, based on the 1936 novel ''The Wheel Spins'' by Ethel L ...

''. Before making the film, he watched and researched films about trains as well as films set on trains. Dion used 3D models in order to communicate to his animators what he was looking for and emphasized economy of movement and simple, character-based gestures. Music was by composer Pierre Caillet, a frequent collaborator. Pierre Yves Drapeau did the sound design, with the idea of pigeon sounds to accompany the appearance of the central character's daughter suggested by

Julie Roy Julie Roy (born May 11, 1973) is a Canadian producer of animated films, who since 2014 is the executive producer of the French animation studio at the National Film Board.Annecy International Animated Film Festival The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (french: Festival international du film d'animation d'Annecy, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of J ...

. In December 2016, it received the Best Canadian Screenplay Award at the

Whistler Film Festival The Whistler Film Festival (WFF) is an annual film festival held in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 2001, the festival is held the first weekend of December and includes juried competitive sections, the Borsos Awards, and the Pand ...

. The short was also included in

The animation Showcase The Animation Showcase is a travelling film screening collection, showcasing animated short films. The showcase started in 2016, with the support of the private members club Soho House, with the intention of spotting upcoming creative talents i ...

2016 and shortlisted for an

Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1 ...

nomination, but was not nominated.

References

External links

*
''The Head Vanishes''
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

2016 animated short films 2016 films 2010s Canadian animated films 2010s French animated films National Film Board of Canada animated short films Canadian animated short films Films about dementia French animated short films Films set on trains Films produced by Julie Roy French-language Canadian films {{short-animation-film-stub