Torill Kove

Torill Kove

 Torill Kove, animator, writer (born at Hamar, Norway 1959). Torill Kove spent her formative years in Africa with her international aid workers parents. She moved to Montréal in 1982 and completed a graduate degree in urban planning. As her childhood hobby of drawing and sketching grew into an interest in animation, she returned to school to study animation at Concordia University. She worked in a variety of roles on several NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA (NFB) productions in the 1990s, including its 1995 study guide, Multiple Choices.

Based on World War II stories from her grandmother, Torill Kove's first solo effort, My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts (1999; co-produced by the NFB and Studio Magica of Oslo and narrated by Mag RUFFMAN), earned nominations for an Oscar and a PRIX JUTRA. It won Special Recognition at the Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films "for funny and inventive approach for telling personal and historical story."

Her next film, The Danish Poet (2006; NFB with Norway's Mikrofilm, narrated by famed Norwegian actor Liv Ullmann), a quirky story about writer's block, love and life's peculiar coincidences, won an Oscar and the GENIE AWARD for animated short. In addition to her work in animation, Torill Kove has illustrated several children's books.