Evelyn Lambart

Evelyn Lambart (July 23, 1914 – April 3, 1999) was a Canadian animator and film director with the National Film Board of Canada, known for her independent work, and for her collaborations with Norman McLaren.

Early years
Born in Ottawa, she was hearing impaired from an early age, which she later credited with focusing her attention on the visual world as a means of communication. After attending Lisgar Collegiate Institute in Ottawa, Lambart studied at the Ontario College of Art for five years, graduating in 1937. Her plan had been to continue her art studies in the U.K., however, the outbreak of Second World War made that impossible. Instead, Lambart spent a year and a half working with Grace Melvin on illuminations and lettering for the first Books of Remembrance, commemorating Canadian war dead in the First World War (now on display at St. Paul's Cathedral).

NFB career
In 1942, due to an ever-growing demand for animation, NFB commissioner John Grierson asked McLaren to form an animation unit and, in January 1943, 'Studio A' formally came into existence. Lambart was one of McLaren's first recruits and the first female animator hired by the board. She would also train other animators; both Colin Low and Robert Verrall credited her with teaching them their animation skills.

Lambart and McLaren were an immediate and permanent fit; she was methodical and pragmatic, he was a creative 'dreamer'. In 1949, they co-directed Begone Dull Care, which was designated as a "masterwork" by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada. She did animation for McLaren and Claude Jutra's pixilation film A Chairy Tale, and for several other ground-breaking films, many of which she co-directed or directed, including Rythmetic (1956), Lines: Vertical (1960), Lines: Horizontal" (1962), and Mosaic'' (1965).

In its 1999 obituary for Lambart, Animation World Network stated that: "In the early 1960s, McLaren became interested in ballet films, which held no interest for Lambart, so she started thinking about doing her own films. She perfected the technique of paper cutouts transferred to lithograph plate which she would then paint and animate. She used this technique in seven award-winning films: Fine Feathers (1968), The Hoarder (1969), Paradise Lost (1970), The Story of Christmas (1973), Mr. Frog Went A-Courting (1974), The Lion and the Mouse/Le Lion et la Souris (1976) and The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse/Le Rat de maison et le Rat des champs (1980)."

These animated morality tales for children included several adaptations of Aesop's fables, and were all rendered with the same style of paper cut-outs transferred to lithograph plates, painted and animated.

In 1978, she was the subject of the biographical documentary Eve Lambart directed by Margaret Wescott.

Her last known film, The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse (1980), was completed at her home studio in Quebec's Eastern Townships after her retirement in 1977. She died in Ottawa in 1999.

Honours
Lambart was awarded a posthumous Winsor McCay Award in 2022.

Filmography

 * Story of a Violin - documentary short, Jacques Bobet 1947 - co-animator with Norman McLaren
 * The Impossible Map - documentary short, 1947 - animator, director
 * Begone Dull Care - experimental short, 1949 - editor, co-animator and co-director with Norman McLaren
 * Family Tree - animated short, 1950 - co-director and co-animator with George Dunning
 * Challenge: Science Against Cancer - documentary short, Morten Parker 1950 - co-animator with Colin Low
 * The Fight: Science Against Cancer - documentary short, Morten Parker 1950 - co-animator with Colin Low
 * The Outlaw Within - documentary short, Morten Parker 1951 - co-animator with Colin Low
 * Now is the Time - experimental, Norman McLaren 1951 - co-producer
 * Around Is Around - experimental short, Norman McLaren 1951 - co-animator with Norman McLaren
 * Sing a Little - animated short, Tom Daly 1951 - co-animator with Jean-Paul Ladouceur
 * O Canada - experimental short, 1952 - animator, director
 * The Maple Leaf - documentary short, J.V. Durden 1955 - co-animator with Robert Verrall
 * The Colour of Life - documentary short, J.V. Durden 1955 - co-animator with Robert Verrall
 * Rythmetic - animated short, 1956 - photography, co-director and co-animator with Norman McLaren
 * Putting It Straight - documentary short, William Greaves 1957 - co-animator with Sidney Goldsmith
 * A Chairy Tale - experimental short, Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra 1957 - animator
 * Le Merle - animated short, Norman McLaren 1958 - co-animator with Norman McLaren
 * Short and Suite - experimental short, 1959 - co-animator with Norman McLaren
 * Lines: Vertical - experimental short, 1960 - co-animator and co-director with Norman McLaren
 * Les femmes parmi nous - La dignité - documentary short, Jacques Bobet 1961 - co-animator with Arthur Lipsett
 * Les femmes parmi nous - Le bonheur - documentary short, Jacques Bobet 1961 - co-animator with Arthur Lipsett
 * Lines: Horizontal - experimental short, 1962 - co-animator and co-director with Norman McLaren
 * Mosaic - experimental short, 1965 - co-animator and co-director with Norman McLaren
 * The Hoarder - animated short, 1969 - animator, director
 * The Embryonic Development of Fish - documentary short, J.V. Durden 1961 - animator
 * Fine Feathers - animated short, 1968 - animator, director
 * Paradise Lost - animated short, 1970 - animator, director
 * The Story of Christmas - animated short, 1974 - animator, director
 * Mr. Frog Went A-Courting - animated short, 1974 - animator, director
 * The Lion and the Mouse - animated short, 1976 - animator, director
 * The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse - animated short, 1980 - animator, director

Awards
Begone Dull Care (1949)
 * Venice Film Festival, Venice: First Prize, Art Films, 1950
 * 2nd Canadian Film Awards, Ottawa: Special Award, Experimentation, 1950
 * Salerno Film Festival, Salerno, Italy: Honourable Mention, Miscellaneous Film, 1950
 * Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin: Silver Medal, Documentary Short Film, 1951
 * American Federation of Arts and Film Advisory Center Film Festival, Woodstock, New York: Best Experimental Film, 1952
 * Durban International Film Festival, Durban: First Place, Silver Medal, Experimental, 1954

Family Tree (1950)
 * Salerno Film Festival, Salerno: First Prize – Grand Award, Best of All Entries, 1951
 * 3rd Canadian Film Awards, Ottawa: Special Award for Outstanding Animation and Musical Score, 1951
 * Rapallo International Film Festival, Rapallo: Second Prize, Art Films, 1957

Now is the Time (1951)
 * 4th Canadian Film Awards, Special Award for Experimental Filmmaking, 1952 (with Around Is Around)

Around Is Around (1951)
 * BFI London Film Festival, London: Nominee: Best Animation, 1957
 * 4th Canadian Film Awards, Special Award for Experimental Filmmaking, 1952 (with Now is the Time)

Rythmetic (1956)
 * 6th Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin: Silver Bear, Short Films, 1956
 * Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh: Diploma of Merit, 1956
 * Rapallo International Film Festival, Rapallo, Italy: First Prize, Abstract Films, 1957
 * International Review of Specialized Cinematography, Rome: Diploma of Honour, 1957
 * Chicago Festival of Contemporary Arts, University of Illinois Chicago: First Prize 1957
 * Golden Reel International Film Festival, Film Council of America, New York: Silver Reel Award, Avant-Garde and Experimental, 1957
 * Durban International Film Festival, Durban: Certificate of Merit, 1957
 * Johannesburg International Film Festival, Johannesburg: Certificate of Merit, 1957

Lines: Vertical (1960)
 * Venice Film Festival, Venice: First Prize, Experimental, 1960
 * BFI London Film Festival, London: Outstanding Film of the Year for Presentation, 1960
 * Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh: Diploma of Merit, 1960
 * CIDALC Festival of Music and Dance in Film, Valencia: First Prize, 1961
 * 13th Canadian Film Awards, Toronto: Best Film, Arts and Experimental, 1961

Mosaic (1965)
 * Vancouver International Film Festival, Vancouver: Certificate of Merit, 1965
 * FIBA International Festival of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires: First Prize, 1966
 * Melbourne Film Festival, Melbourne: First Prize, 1966
 * American Film and Video Festival, New York: Blue Ribbon, 1966
 * Calvin Workshop Awards, Kansas City, Missouri: Notable Film Award, 1966

The Hoarder (1969)
 * International Festival of Films for Children and Young Adults, Tehran: Plaque and Diploma, 1970
 * FIBA International Festival of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires: Honorable Mention, Animation, 1970
 * Tisquesusa Dorado International Festival of Short Films, Bogotá: Best Animated Film, 1971
 * American Film and Video Festival, New York: Blue Ribbon, 1971

Paradise Lost (1970)
 * National Educational Media Network Competition, Oakland, California: Don Fabun Award for Film as Art, 1972