Inside Hothouse 15 - Part 1
2025 · 11m · Canada
Directed by Simon Girard
Genres: animation, documentary
Tones: contemplative, whimsical
Six emerging animators in the NFB's 12-week Hothouse 15 residency create their first professional animated shorts with full National Film Board support, captured behind the scenes in part one.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A meta-documentary about animation students making animation—it's basically navel-gazing dressed up as access, and the NFB's institutional sheen doesn't make it any less predictable; I'd rather watch the actual shorts these kids made.
Girard's decision to embed the creative process within the NFB's storied Hothouse lineage creates a thoughtful document of institutional mentorship and artistic formation—the behind-the-scenes restraint mirrors the contemplative rigor we expect from that tradition.
The quiet choice here is letting the animators' hands and workspaces do the talking instead of chasing conventional documentary drama; there's a specific patience in how Girard lets repetition and process become meditative rather than boring.