Mary and Max

Mary and Max is an animated claymation film about a penpal friendship between an eight-year-old girl and a forty-four-year-old man.

The film was chosen to premiere in the International Narrative Feature Films Competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. It was also chosen to headline the festival and is the first stop-motion animated film to do so.FirstShowing.net: Mary and Max Kicks Off... (November 20, 2008)

Mary and Max is the claymation story of a twenty-year penpal relationship between a young girl (Mary Dinkle voiced by Toni Collette and Bethany Whitmore) who lives in Melbourne, Australia, and an aging man (Max Horowitz voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman) who lives in New York City. Max is isolated due to Asperger's syndrome, an illness similar to Autism.

The film reveals the complexity of their relationship and delves into numerous topics such as alcoholism and agoraphobia.

• Toni Collette voice of Mary Daisy Dinkle
• Philip Seymour Hoffman voice of Max Jerry Horovitz
• Eric Bana voice of Damien
• Barry Humphries voice of the Narrator
• Bethany Whitmore voice of young Mary

"I base my characters on the people around me and have befriended so many people who get labeled "different." I feel their stories need to be told; people need to learn about these people, have their lives shared and understood. "Max" is based on my real penfriend whom I have been writing to for over 20 years and I let his world inspire me. He shares many of the traits of Max, but there are plenty of embellishments and exaggerations. As the saying goes: "never let the truth get in the way of a good story."Yahoo! Movies: Sundance '09... (January 5, 2009)