''The Sand Castle'' (French: ''Le château de sable'') is a 1977

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

animated short Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

Co Hoedeman Jacobus Willem (Co) Hoedeman (born August 1, 1940 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch-Canadian filmmaker known for his mastery of stop motion animation and technical innovation in films that reveal his close observation of human and social interaction. Bi ...

. Winner of the

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 ...

at the

50th Academy Awards The 50th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1977 and took place on April 3, 1978, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 7:00 p.m. PST ...

, the film was produced by Gaston Sarault for 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 fi ...

. The film was created with sand animation and sand-covered foam rubber

puppets A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods or strings to move ...

Plot

The plot of the film follows a

humanoid A humanoid (; from English ''human'' and '' -oid'' "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. The earliest recorded use of the term, in 1870, referred to indigenous peoples in areas colonized by Europeans. By the 20 ...

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class ...

person who creates living creatures from sand in a

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

of some unknown location. He then initiates a plan: that they create a sand castle for them to reside in. With each other's help, the sand castle is eventually completed and the sand characters celebrate. The celebration is cut shortly when

wind Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few ...

begins to blow and covers up the sand castle, with the sand characters retreating inside for safety. The viewer may possibly assume that, once the wind dies down, the characters would eventually resurface and start over again and that this cycle could continue endlessly.1978 The. Sand. Castle: Free Download, Borrow or Streaming: Internet Archive
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Production

The film had a budget of $82,783 ().

Accolades

The film received twenty-two awards, including the

, making it the most awarded film made by the

at that point.

References

Works cited

External links

Watch ''The Sand Castle'' at NFB.ca
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sand Castle 1977 films Animated films without speech 1977 animated films 1970s animated short films Best Animated Short Academy Award winners Films scored by Normand Roger Films shot in Montreal National Film Board of Canada animated short films Quebec films Sand animated films Stop-motion animated short films 1977 short films 1970s stop-motion animated films Films set in deserts 1970s Canadian films