| Canvas | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster | |
| Directed by | Frank E. Abney III |
| Written by | Frank E. Abney III |
| Produced by | Paige Johnstone |
| Music by | Jermaine Stegall |
Production companies |
|
| Distributed by | Netflix |
Release date |
|
Running time | 9 minutes [1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Canvas is an American animated short film written and directed by Frank E. Abney III. [2] It was released on December 11, 2020 on Netflix. [3]
A grandfather wakes up alone on the left of the bed with empty space on the right side of bed after losing his wife. He wheelchairs himself outside to greet his granddaughter who is dropped off by his daughter. The granddaughter gives him a drawing and he gives her a hug. His granddaughter spends the day drawing and trying to get her grandfather to paint again. However, the grandfather is still grieving and doesn't feel like painting. At night, his daughter picks up his granddaughter. The next day, his daughter drops his granddaughter off at his house again. The granddaughter is curious about what is behind the closet. She opens the door behind the closet and finds her grandfather's art studio. Inside the studio, she finds a painting of her grandmother. The grandfather wheelchair himself in the studio and is angry to find his granddaughter holding the painting. He snatches the painting out of her hands. As he touches the painting, a memory of his wife appears and they are dancing. He suddenly finds the inspirations to paint again.
Canvas was written and directed by Frank E. Abney III. [2] It took six years for Abney III to make his passion project happened which centered the theme of grief. Canvas was inspired by his own life experiences such as losing his father at five years old and "how his family was affected by it". [4] Paige Johnstone produced the short film. [2] It was released on December 11, 2020 on Netflix. [3] Jermaine Stegall is the composer of the short film. [5]
On October 14, 2020, IndieWire revealed that Netflix had been considering Canvas as one of its three contenders for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, along with If Anything Happens I Love You and Cops and Robbers, to compete at the 93rd Academy Awards. [2]
Canvas won the Outstanding Short Form (Animated) category at 52nd NAACP Image Awards. [6] At the 21st Annual Black Reel Awards, the film won the Outstanding Independent Short Film category. [7]
Regina Rene King is an American actress and director. She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2019, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Anika Noni Rose is an American actress. She is best known for voicing Tiana, Disney's first African-American princess, in The Princess and the Frog (2009). She was named a Disney Legend in 2011.
Jorge R. Gutierrez is a Mexican-American animator, writer, producer, director, painter, and voice actor. He co-created with Sandra Equihua the Nickelodeon animated series El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, co-wrote and directed The Book of Life, Son of Jaguar for Google, and Maya and the Three for Netflix Animation.
Melina Matsoukas is an American music video, film, commercial and television director. She is a two-time Grammy Award winner and four-time MTV Video Music Awards winner for her "We Found Love" and "Formation" music videos. She was honored with the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal by the American Film Institute in 2019. Her directorial debut in film was Queen & Slim, starring Jodie Turner-Smith and Daniel Kaluuya, and written by Lena Waithe. She then worked as executive producer and director for television series Insecure, being nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2020.
Danielle Brooks is an American actress and singer. Her breakthrough role was as prison inmate Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson in the Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019).
Saniyya Sidney is an American actress. Her accolades include nominations for three Black Reel Awards, two Critics' Choice Awards, an NAACP Image Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Dominique Fishback is an American actress. She played Billie Rowan on Show Me a Hero, Darlene on The Deuce, and Deborah Johnson in Judas and the Black Messiah, the latter of which earned nominations for a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. In 2023, she began starring in the Amazon Prime Video psychological horror series Swarm; her performance in the series has received universal praise, earning her a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.
Higher Ground Productions, also known simply as Higher Ground, is an American production company which was founded in 2018 by former United States President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey is a 2020 American Christmas musical fantasy film written and directed by David E. Talbert. Choreographed by Ashley Wallen, it stars Forest Whitaker, Keegan-Michael Key, Hugh Bonneville, Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad, Lisa Davina Phillip, Ricky Martin, and Madalen Mills. The film, which was originally planned as a stage production, received 10 nominations at the 52nd NAACP Image Awards, which was the overall most to be held by a motion picture tied with Black Panther and The Best Man in previous years. This record was succeeded by The Color Purple who surpassed the number of nominations four years later. The film was released on Netflix on November 13, 2020.
Numa Perrier is a Haitian-American actress, artist, director, writer, and producer. She is a co-founder of Black&Sexy TV and started her production company titled, "House of Numa". Her debut feature film, Jezebel, premiered at SXSW in 2019. Her sophomore film, the Netflix romantic comedy The Perfect Find premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival where it received the Audience Award for Narrative Film.
Over the Moon is a 2020 animated musical fantasy film directed by Glen Keane and co-directed by John Kahrs, from a screenplay by Audrey Wells, with additional screenplay material by Alice Wu and Jennifer Yee McDevitt. The film was produced by Pearl Studio and Netflix Animation, and animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks. It stars the voices of Cathy Ang, Phillipa Soo, Ken Jeong, John Cho, Ruthie Ann Miles, Margaret Cho, and Sandra Oh. The plot follows an adventurous girl named Fei Fei, who builds a rocket ship to meet a mythical goddess on the Moon.
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is a 2022 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation and released by Amazon Studios. It is the fourth and final feature film in the Hotel Transylvania franchise and the sequel to Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018), the film was directed by Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska from a screenplay by Amos Vernon, Nunzio Randazzo and Genndy Tartakovsky. It stars the voices of Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Brian Hull, Fran Drescher, Brad Abrell, Asher Blinkoff, Tyler "Ninja" Blevins and Zoe Berri. In the film, Dracula and Johnny team up to find a crystal in South America to turn themselves back into normal, before their transformations become permanent.
Hair Love is a 2019 American independent animated short film directed by Matthew A. Cherry, Everett Downing Jr., and Bruce W. Smith, and written by Cherry. It follows the story of a man who must do his daughter's hair for the first time, and features Issa Rae as the voice of the mother. The film was produced after a 2017 Kickstarter campaign, and was also released as a children's book in May 2019 with illustrations by Vashti Harrison. Hair Love received generally positive reviews and won Best Animated Short Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. A spin-off TV series titled Young Love was ordered by Max in July 2020 and premiered on September 21, 2023.
Robin Robin is a 2021 stop-motion animated musical short film produced by Aardman Animations, created and directed by Dan Ojari and Mikey Please, and written by Ojari, Please, and Sam Morrison.
Cord Jefferson is an American writer and director. After studying at the College of William & Mary he started a career in journalism and wrote for numerous publications before becoming an editor at Gawker until 2014.
If Anything Happens I Love You is an American 2D animated short film written and directed by Will McCormack and Michael Govier. Its story follows two grieving parents as they struggle to confront the death of their daughter, who was killed in a school shooting. From Gilbert Films and Oh Good Productions, the film was released on Netflix on November 20, 2020.
The 52nd NAACP Image Awards, presented by the NAACP, honored outstanding representations and achievements of people of color in motion pictures, television, music, and literature during the 2020 calendar year. The ceremony aired on March 27, 2021, on BET and simulcast on several of its sister ViacomCBS Networks, with CBS airing the ceremony for the first time. The ceremony was hosted for the eighth time by actor Anthony Anderson. Presentations of untelevised categories were livestreamed between March 22–26, 2021 on the ceremony's website.
The Cuphead Show! is an animated slapstick comedy television series developed by Dave Wasson for Netflix, based on the 2017 video game Cuphead by Studio MDHR. Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, the creators of Cuphead, serve as executive producers, along with Wasson and CJ Kettler from King Features Syndicate, and Cosmo Segurson serving as co-executive producer.
Karma's World is an animated musical comedy television series created by Chris Bridges and developed by Wendy Harris, Rachel Kalban, and Jennie Stacey for Netflix. It was released on October 15, 2021.
Michael Starrbury is an American screenwriter and producer known for his work on the film The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete, and the television series Legends of Chamberlain Heights, When They See Us, and Colin in Black & White.
