Over a decade after the success of Harvie Krumpet and Mary and Max, Academy Award winning Australian filmmaker Adam Elliot returns with MEMOIR OF A SNAIL.

Adam Elliot is exhausted. He’s had a big week after the Australian premiere of his latest film, MEMOIR OF A SNAIL, in what has been a busy year for the Melbourne-based stop-motion filmmaker.

“I feel like I’ve just given birth!” Elliot laughs. “It’s a feeling of relief after the Australian premiere that we’ve ticked another big milestone off the list. But you always wonder – are they going to think it’s an ugly baby?”

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL is most certainly not an ugly baby. Following the life of lonely misfit, Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook), as she finds her confidence amongst the clutter of everyday life, Elliot’s film is a heartfelt and hilarious work of art brimming with his signature eccentricities and astounding craft.

Elliot initially broke out on the global stage with the 2003 release of his Oscar-winning short film Harvie Krumpet. Showcasing impressive claymation, black comedy, and eccentric characters, the short served as an introduction for many to Elliot’s unique filmic language that would soon be fully realised with the writer-director’s debut feature film Mary and Max, in 2009.

Fifteen years later, Adam Elliot is preparing his return to the silver screen with his long-awaited sophomore feature. Like his previous films, MEMOIR OF A SNAIL is shot in-camera using stop-motion, a technique that Elliot adores, tracing his earliest memory of the artform back to TV runs of The Magic Roundabout.

His initial experimentation with stop-motion filmmaking was largely circumstantial.

“I sort of stumbled into stop-motion,” Elliot says. “I thought I was going to do 2D animation, but my [university] lecturers really encouraged me to utilise my dad’s hardware shop, so I did. It was never this burning ambition, yet here I am, thirty years later, still getting paid to play with blobs of clay. I’m very lucky”.

Despite some of its pitfalls, Elliot plans to continue to create in the world of stop-motion.

“It’s a tricky artform. It’s slow, complicated, and expensive, but I’d be silly to throw in the towel now,” he says. “I think that stop-motion animation is going through a bit of a renaissance and a golden age. Big-name directors like Guillermo del Toro, Wes Anderson, and Tim Burton are all dabbling in stop-motion, and that’s great for the artform”.

Elliot also attributes audiences’ fear of AI as a factor in reigniting interest in more traditional forms of animation.

“I feel like the pendulum is swinging back to artforms that are handmade and have an obvious, tactile, tangible feel to them. Stop-motion has that,” he says. “The fingerprints on the clay tell the audience: this is real”.

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL wears its heart on its shell as a love letter to Elliot’s home city of Melbourne, with an abundance of iconic landmarks lovingly recreated as impossibly detailed miniature models.

“My favourite [to create] was of course, Luna Park. I have a long history and connection with with Luna Park. I lived in St Kilda and my grandparents had their very first date at Luna Park,” Elliot says. “It was tough choosing which parts of Melbourne to celebrate. I love the Collingwood housing commissions just as much as I do Luna Park, as well as the Arts Centre and Brunswick Street”.

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL’s roster of voice actors is another nod to the city, with a line-up of established acting greats (Sarah Snook, Eric Bana, Magda Szubanski), music royalty (Nick Cave), and beloved public personalities (Tony Armstrong in his film debut) all lending their vocal talents.

“It’s a very eclectic cast,” Elliot says. “In animation, we rarely get the chance to record all the actors at the same time. For this film, every single one of them was recorded in isolation, and for a couple of actors, we had to do sessions remotely, which I really like because you can focus on each actor individually and get the best performance”.
Elliot discusses the process of directing Australian acting royalty, noting that it is essential to tailor direction to each actor.

“Sarah (Snook) is a remarkable actor. She’s a breeze to direct. Kodi (Smit-Mhee) takes his art form very seriously. He’s very practiced, methodical, and a deep thinker. Jackie (Weaver) was funny – I said, ‘I just want you to play an old lady’, and she said; ‘I am an old lady!’,” Elliot laughs. “But it is terrifying because you usually have very limited time and you’re paying actors a lot of money. I do a lot of rehearsal and planning, and then you just cross your fingers and hope you get some gold.”

Despite the heavy amount of Australian-isms throughout his film, Elliot notes that the response from early international audiences in has been surprisingly positive.

“I think all the cultural references work to a degree. (French audiences) see Australians as quite exotic. They don’t look down on us; they find us quirky and fascinating,” he says. “Animation over there has always been for adults and there’s always been a market for it.”

While there is a great deal of anguish in MEMOIR OF A SNAIL, the film is aplenty with moments of genuine joy and love. From simple pleasures like Chiko Rolls and scratch-off lottery wins to tender moments of friendship and family, Elliot reminds viewers that much of life’s beauty emerges from its greatest challenges.

“I never want to make films that are just light, frivolous, and full of gags. There must be some subject matter that is confronting and challenging,” he says.

“I love that quote; ‘without the dark, light has no meaning’”.

Interviewed by Spencer Gilder-Smith. MEMOIR OF A SNAIL commences at Cinema Nova on October 17.