Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail set for Valentine’s Day release in UK and Ireland after festival wins

Modern Films, a London-based film distributor, has scheduled the UK and Ireland theatrical release of Memoir of a Snail for 14^th February 2025. Directed by Academy Award-winning animator Adam Elliot, known for his distinctive clay animation films such as Mary & Max and Harvie Krumpet, the film recently garnered acclaim by winning the Best Film “Cristal” Award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and the Best Film Prize at the BFI London Film Festival. This marks the first time an animated feature has achieved the top honour at the latter.

Memoir of a Snail tells the poignant story of Grace Pudel, a solitary woman who shares her life’s narrative with a garden snail named Sylvia. The film features a voice cast including Sarah Snook, known for her role in Succession, as Grace, and Kodi Smit-McPhee as her estranged twin brother Gilbert. Additional voices are provided by Eric Bana, Nick Cave, Dominique Pinon and Jacki Weaver.

The narrative explores Grace’s challenging life, from her separation from her fire-breathing twin brother at a young age to her struggles with anxiety and hardship. Despite these challenges, the movie portrays her enduring friendship with an elderly woman named Pinky, who injects hope and inspiration into her life.

Elliot’s unique storytelling approach continues with this feature, which is part of his Trilogy of Trilogies. This project includes three sets of three films varying in length from short shorts to features, all crafted in Elliot’s signature stop-motion animation style. For Memoir of a Snail, over 7,000 handmade props, sets and characters were created, with hundreds of crafted parts like arms, eyeballs and mouths animated frame by frame.

This film arrives 15 years after Elliot’s last feature, Mary & Max, and continues his tradition of basing characters and stories on his personal life and relationships, blending dark themes with humour and warmth.

Modern Films, established in 2017, has rapidly built a reputation for distributing critically acclaimed films such as the Oscar-winning Drive My Car and the Cannes winner Happy as Lazzaro. The distributor was recently recognised as Highly Commended Independent Distributor of the Year at the Big Screen Awards, reflecting its significant impact on the independent film scene in the UK and Ireland.

Memoir of a Snail is scheduled to open in cinemas across the UK and Ireland on Valentine’s Day, 2025, offering audiences a blend of heartfelt storytelling and innovative animation.

The editorial unit

Memoir of a Snail is released nationwide on 14^th February 2025.

Watch the trailer for Memoir of a Snail here: