''Blinkity Blank'' is a 1955 animated short film created by Norman McLaren for the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

. It won, among other awards, both the

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and the

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Award for Best Animated Film.

Production

Engraved directly onto black film leader, ''Blinkity Blank'' features a soundtrack combining improvisational jazz from composer Maurice Blackburn along with graphical sounds created by McLaren scratching onto the film's optical soundtrack. The film features lines, dots and other abstract forms, along with fruits, trees, planets and chickens—the latter featured at length in another McLaren hand-drawn film '' Hen Hop''—which blink in and out of existence, or merge with or modulate other shapes. McLaren also left some frames blank, which he described as "sprinkling on the empty band of time".

Awards

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, 1955 * 9th British Academy Film Awards, London: BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, 1956 *

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: Silver Bear, 1955 * Franco-American International Film Festival, Paris: Fourth Prize, 1955 * Edinburgh International Film Festival,

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: Diploma of Merit, 1955 * Cape Town International Film Festival,

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: Certificate of Merit, Documentary, 1955 * Durban International Film Festival,

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: Certificate of Merit, Documentary, 1955 * SODRE International Festival of Documentary and Experimental Films,

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: First Honourable Mention, Experimental Films, 1956

References

External links

* * 1955 films Films directed by Norman McLaren National Film Board of Canada animated short films Drawn-on-film animated films Animated films without speech Short Film Palme d'Or winners BAFTA winners (films) Best Animated Feature BAFTA winners Jazz films Visual music Graphical sound 1955 animated short films Animated musical films Canadian animated short films Quebec films 1950s Canadian animated films {{short-animation-film-stub