Emily Ellis is a filmmaker and visual artist. Her work is characterized by the use of handcraft, traditional animation, and mixed-media techniques, celebrating the mundanity of life while exploring deeper themes of loneliness, connection, spirituality, and the investigation of the self in liminal spaces. 


In 2019, she graduated from Acadia University, winning the Dr. A. H. Maclean Prize for Best Honours Thesis with her project “More than Meets the Eye: Nonconformist Art during the Khrushchev Thaw.” Following that, she studied at the University of Glasgow, where she earned her Master’s degree in Filmmaking & Media Arts, graduating with distinction and the Edinburgh University Prize for Best Dissertation with her project “Sometimes Nothing is Heaviest.” Since then, her short films have been accepted into film festivals domestically and abroad, and she is currently working on her fourth animated short: Alone, Together, aiming to premiere the new work in 2026.

Education

2019-2020 MSc Filmmaking & Media Arts (with distinction)
University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK

2015-2019 BA(Hons) History
Acadia University, Wolfville, NS

Grants, Awards, and Scholarships

[2025]

Canada Council for the Arts

Explore & Create: Concept to Realization Grant, awarded for the project Alone, Together

[2024]

Arts NS

Pre-Production grant, awarded for the project Alone, Together

[2022]
Canada Council for the Arts
Explore & Create: Concept to Realization Grant, awarded to the group Mezzopiano and Emily Ellis for the project Ravel’s Histoires Naturelles: A Stop-Motion Adaptation

Arts NS
Postproduction grant, awarded for the project Waiting on Arrival

Ifan Holweger Award for Best Student Animation
Learning on Screen Awards https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/awards/

[2021]
Canada Council for the Arts
Explore & Create: Concept to Realization Grant, awarded for the project Waiting on Arrival

[2020]
Edinburgh University Prize
Annually awarded to the Postgraduate Student who attains the strongest dissertation mark.
University of Glasgow School of Culture & Creative Arts, Film & Television Studies

[2019]
Dr. A. H. MacLean Prize
Annually awarded to the Honors Student who submits the strongest honors thesis.
Acadia University Department of History & Classics

Acadia University Bronze Medal in History
Annually awarded to the student in each department who attains the highest overall GPA.

[2018]
Constance Hayward Scholarship in History

Charles Roderick Brophy Award in History

[2017]
E. Blanche Thomas History Prize

[2016]
Acadia Excellence Scholar (AES) Scholarship

[2015]
Acadia Excellence Scholar (AES) Scholarship

Screenings and Presentations

Histoires Naturelles: An Animated Adaptation (2023)

  • Finalist - OPERA America Excellence in Digital Opera Awards (2024)

  • Official Selection, Albuquerque Film & Music Experience (2023)

  • Mezzopiano, Graceview Presbyterian Advent Concerts: Christmas and a Movie ft. Histoires Naturelles: An Animated Adaptation December 15, 2023

  • Avenue Road Music Presents Mezzopiano in Concert: Histoires Naturelles: An Animated Adaptation August 2, 2023

  • Graceview Presbyterian Church, March 16, 2024 as part of the concert “Divine Nature”

  • Friends of Music Concert Series at St. Thomas’ Anglican Church: Histoires Naturelles: An Animated Adaptation, May 10, 2024

Waiting on Arrival (2022)

  • Official Selection, FIN Atlantic International Film Festival

Sometimes Nothing Is Heaviest (2021)

  • Finalist, Vancouver Independent Film Festival

  • Official Selection, Barcelona Indie Filmmaker’s Festival

  • Official Selection, FIN Atlantic International Film Festival

LEMON (2020)

  • Official Selection, Edinburgh Short Film Festival

SOAP (2018)

  • Official Selection, FIN Atlantic International Film Festival (2019)

  • First Place, Whitflix Smartphone Film Festival, Wolfville, NS (2018)

  • Honorable Mention, Canada Shorts – Canadian & International Film Festival (2018)

[2020]
Afterlives: University of Glasgow College of Arts Annual Postgraduate Conference

“The Power Equation of Problematic Art”  
https://afterlivesconference2020.wordpress.com/