The Flying Sailor

The Flying Sailor is a 2022 Canadian independent animated short film directed by Oscar-nominated directors Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis. The film debuted at the 2022 Annecy International Animation Film Festival and has received several nominations and awards, including a nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the 95th Academy Awards, and winning the award for the Best Canadian Film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

The film was named to the Toronto International Film Festival's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list for 2022.

Plot
When a nearby ship explodes, a sailor is launched on an unexpected existential voyage. The 8-minute short explores the fragility of life through a sailor's near-death experience inspired by the real life catastrophic Halifax Explosion of 1917. The last credit states the film is dedicated to "Charlie Mayers - A Sailor who, in the Halifax Explosion of 1917, flew over 2 kilometers and lived to tell about it."

Inspiration
Charles Mayers was an officer aboard the SS Middleham Castle, a ship moored at a wharf in Halifax Harbour on the morning of the explosion. Mayers was blow from the ship's deck to land on Fort Needham Hill overlooking the harbour, injured and naked but alive. Tilby and Forbis were inspired by the story when they encountered it on a visit the to Halifax Explosion exhibit at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax.