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Last night, the centrepiece of the opening gala at the world renowned was a claymation film by Australian animator called (warning: this official site is extremely Flash intensive).

Written and directed by Elliot, the film tells the tale of an improbable friendship between two very different people: Mary Daisy Dinkle (voiced by Muriel's Wedding star Toni Collette), a lonely Australian eight-year-old, and Max Jerry Horovitz (Philip Seymour Hoffman, who starred in Capote), an overweight middle-aged New Yorker who has Asperger's Syndrome. The story is narrated by Australian legend Barry Humphries, who is perhaps better known for his alter ego Dame Edna Everage.

The press release says that the movie "spans 20 years and two continents" and is "a journey that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, obesity, kleptomania, sexual difference, religious difference, agoraphobia and more". Gosh. All I know, however, from a brief glance at the film's site, is that the animation is fantastic and incredibly evocative. At a length of 92 minutes, the film has apparently taken Adam Elliot an arduous and painstaking five years to make.

Elliot seems to have an interest in disability throughout his various animations. In 2004, he won an Oscar for an animated short called (official site), about a man with Tourette's Syndrome, which you can still see in full on . Also on the popular video-sharing site is another short film called , about a relative of the director who had cerebral palsy. Check out the videos - they're great to pass some time this weekend if the weather is going to be as cold and grey as it has been recently.

You can find out more about Mary and Max by watching on the Sundance site, which includes an interview with Adam Elliot. There's no word on a UK release date for the film itself yet, but we'll be sure to let you know when we do ...