''$9.99'' is a 2008 Australian

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 ...

adult animated An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

written and directed by

Tatia Rosenthal Tatia Rosenthal (born April 4, 1971) is an animator and film director born in Tel Aviv, Israel. She served two years in the Israeli Defense Force, tried her hand at medical school and studied photography in Paris, before moving to New York City ...

, with the screenplay by

Etgar Keret Etgar Keret ( he, אתגר קרת, born August 20, 1967) is an Israeli writer known for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television. Personal life Keret was born in Ramat Gan, Israel in 1967. He is a third child ...

. The film marks the third collaboration between Rosenthal and Keret. It features a voice cast of

Geoffrey Rush Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. He is known for his eccentric leading man roles on stage and screen. He is among 24 people who have won the Triple Crown of Acting, having received an Academy Award, a Primetime Emm ...

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

Anthony LaPaglia Anthony LaPaglia (, ; born 31 January 1959) is an Australian actor. He is best known for his role as Jack Malone in the television drama ''Without a Trace'' (2002–2009), for which he received a Golden Globe Award in 2004. LaPaglia won a Prim ...

Joel Edgerton Joel Edgerton (born 23 June 1974) is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his appearance in the ''Star Wars'' films ''Attack of the Clones'' (2002) and ''Revenge of the Sith'' (2005) as a young Owen Lars, a role he reprised i ...

Ben Mendelsohn Paul Benjamin Mendelsohn (born 3 April 1969) is an Australian actor. He first rose to prominence in Australia for his breakout role in ''The Year My Voice Broke'' (1987) and since then he has had roles in films such as '' Animal Kingdom'' (2010) ...

, and

Claudia Karvan Claudia Karvan (born 19 May 1972) is an Australian actress, producer and scriptwriter. As a child actor, she first appeared in the film, '' Molly'' (1983) and followed with an adolescent role in ''High Tide'' (1987). She portrayed a teacher in ...

Plot

The film mainly focuses on Dave Peck, who is unemployed but prefers the search for the

meaning of life The meaning of life, or the answer to the question: "What is the meaning of life?", pertains to the significance of living or existence in general. Many other related questions include: "Why are we here?", "What is life all about?", or "Wha ...

to the search for gainful employment. While looking in a magazine, Dave finds an advertisement for a book that will tell him the meaning of life "for the low price of $9.99." Dave, fascinated by this, begins his journey in his

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

apartment to find the true meaning of life. As the film progresses, stories of Dave's family and neighbours are woven in and examine the post-modern meaning of hope.

Cast

as The Angel / Homeless Man *

as Jim *

as Dave *

as Michelle *

as Ron *

Barry Otto Barry Otto (born 1941) is an Australian actor, primarily of cinema, and an amateur artist. Early life Barry Otto was born in Brisbane in 1941, the son of a butcher. He trained as an artist but switched to acting. Career Otto received an AACTA ...

as Albert *

Leeanna Walsman Leeanna Walsman is an Australian actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Zam Wesell in '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones'' (2002), for playing Carly Bishop in the Australian film '' Looking for Alibrandi'' (2000), fo ...

as Tanita *

as Lenny * Jamie Katsamatsas as Zack * Brian Meagan as Clement *

Roy Billing Roy Harwood Billing (born 1947) is a New Zealand television actor, now based on Waiheke Island, New Zealand. He was brought up in Ruawai, Northland, New Zealand. Billing spent almost three decades living and working in Australia. He became w ...

as Marcus Portman / Policeman #1

Release and reception

''$9.99'' premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

on 4 September 2008. The film was then released in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

on 19 June 2009 and then in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

on 17 September 2009. Upon release, the film earned mostly positive reviews. As of February 2019, it holds a "Fresh" score of 73% on the film review website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

with an average rating of 6.5 out of 10, according with 55 reviews. The site's critical consensus states, "Its storyline isn't as wondrous as its visuals, but ''$9.99'' has a sophistication and handmade charm that sets it apart from the animated pack."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gave the film 68/100 based on 15 critics giving it generally favorable reviews.

Box office

''$9.99'' took $47,300 at the box office in Australia.
''Film Victoria - Australian Films at the Australian Box Office''. The film's worldwide total was $708,354.

Awards and nominations

* Winner of the Audience Award for best feature at

FICCO ''Mexico City International Contemporary Film Festival'', or ''FICCO'' (''Festival Internacional de Cine Contemporáneo'') for its initials in Spanish was an annual film festival founded by film producers Michel Lipkes and Paula Astorga in Februa ...

2009 * Winner of EXXONMOBIL best female director Award at FICCO 2009 * Winner of Anima Brussels BeTV best feature Award 2009 * Winner of the Grand Prize at Monstra Lisbon Animated film Festival 2009 The film has been nominated for the

Annie Award The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in cinema and television. Originally de ...

s for

Best Animated Feature This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

and Directing in an Animated Feature Production.

References

External links

* * *
The Numbers
{{DEFAULTSORT:9.99 2008 films 2008 animated films Animated drama films Australian animated feature films Australian adult animated films Israeli animated films English-language Israeli films Clay animation films 2000s stop-motion animated films 2000s Australian animated films 2000s English-language films