Adam Elliot is an Academy Award-winning independent animator and visual artist based in Melbourne, Australia. His animated films and imagery are what he calls Clayographies, clay animated biographies based on the bittersweet lives of his family and friends. He has created seven animated films, namely Memoir of a Snail, Mary and Max, Harvie Krumpet, Ernie Biscuit, Brother, Cousin and Uncle. They have been voiced by some of the world’s leading actors, including Sarah Snook, Jacki Weaver, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Geoffrey Rush, Barry Humphries, Eric Bana and Toni Collette.
Viewed by millions of people around the world, his works have participated in over a thousand film festivals and won over 100 awards, including the 2004 Academy Award for Harvie Krumpet. They have won six AFI/AACTA Awards from nine nominations – more AFI/AACTA Awards than any other Australian director. His first feature film, Mary and Max, had its world premiere on the opening night of Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival, and in 2010 it was included in IMDB’s Top 250 Films of all time. Popular on Netflix, the film is currently being developed into a Broadway musical, and to date there have been six stage adaptations produced in Europe. His films are taught in schools and universities in Australia and abroad and he has had multiple retrospectives including exhibitions in Paris, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Spain and Singapore, with more to follow.
In 1999 he was the Young Achiever of the Year for Victoria and is an Honoury Councillor for the Australian Film Institute. He is the Official Patron for The Film Critics Circle of Australia and Patron for The Victorian Day Council. He is a voting member for the annual Academy Awards and in 2017 was appointed an Adjunct Professorship at Swinburne University and RMIT University. Apart from his film work, he loves to draw and is having a solo exhibition in late October 2024.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and present. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
