Torill Kove

Torill Kove

Torill Kove is an award-winning director, animator, illustrator and author. Born in 1958 in Hamar, Norway, she moved to Montreal, Canada in 1982 to pursue graduate studies at McGill University, where she earned her masters degree in urban planning. Kove eventually turned her attention to a lifelong passion for drawing and sketching. She studied animation at Concordia University where she won Kodak Awards for her student films All You Can Eat, Fallen Angel and Squash and Stretch. She has also contributed to a number of animated productions for the National Film Board of Canada and illustrated seven children's books.

Kove has directed two acclaimed animated short films for the NFB. The first, My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts, (co-produced with Studio Magica in Oslo) was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Animated Short in 2000 and made her a household name in Norway. In 2006 her film The Danish Poet (a co-production with Norway's Mikrofilm AS) won the Academy Award® for Best Animated Short as well as a Genie Award. The Danish Poet features narration by Liv Ullmann. Both films were included in the Animation Show of Shows.

Kove made her feature film debut in 2013 with Hocus Pocus, Alfie Atkins. Her most recent NFB film Me and My Moulton (2014, co-production with Mikrofilm) recounts memories of growing up in an unconventional family in 60s Norway.

Work by Torill Kove