Ernest & Celestine

Adapted from the children's books the Belgian writer and illustrator Gabrielle Vincent published between 1981 and 2000. The world is split in two: bears live above ground, mice below, and each side is frightened of the other. Célestine is a mouse who wants to draw; Ernest is a poor bear busking in the street to feed himself. When the two meet, both societies find it unacceptable. What sets the film apart is how it looks. Vincent's ink and watercolour drawings are preserved; the backgrounds are often left unfinished, white paper is allowed to show, and the figures move through that emptiness. It is also a technical first: one of the first features drawn entirely by hand on tablets, with no paper at all. The novelist Daniel Pennac wrote the screenplay. Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner directed. It won the César for animated film in 2013 and was nominated for the Oscar in the same category in 2014. Watchable with a child, but not written as a children's film; poverty, prison and prejudice are addressed directly.