of lower quality. NFB founder John Grierson, who had invited McLaren to the NFB to form its first animation unit, would ultimately disparage Neighbours and McLaren's attempt at political cinema: "I wouldn't trust Norman around the corner as a political thinker. I wouldn't trust Norman around the corner as a philosophic thinker. That's not what Norman is for. Norman is for Hen Hop. Hen Hop. That's wonderful. And so many other things. That's his basic gift. He's got joy in his movement. He's got loveliness in his movement. He's got fancy in his changes. That's enough." Pixilation The term 'pixilation' was created by Grant Munro to describe stop-motion animation of humans in his work with McLaren on Two Bagatelles, a pair of short pixilation films made prior to Neighbours. During one brief sequence, the two actors appear to levitate, an effect achieved by having the actors repeatedly jump upward and photographing them at the top of their trajectories. McLaren followed Neighbours with two other films using a similar combination of pixilation, live action, variable speed photography and string puppets. The first, A Chairy Tale (1957) was a collaboration with Claude Jutra and Ravi Shankar. The second, Opening Speech by Norman McLaren (1960) was made for the International Film Festival of Montreal, and starred McLaren himself. Wolf Koenig served as cameraman on the film. Awards 25th Academy Awards, Los Angeles: Oscar for Best Documentary, Short Subject, 1953* Boston Film Festival, Boston: Award of Merit, Adult Education, 1953 5th Canadian Film Awards, Montreal: Honourable Mention, 1953 Salerno Film Festival, Salerno, Italy: Gulf of Salerno Grand Trophy, 1954 Yorkton Film Festival, Yorkton, Saskatchewan: Third Award, Sociology, 1954 International Review of Specialized Cinematography, Rome: Certificate of Honour, 1955 International Review of Specialized Cinematography, Rome: Diploma of Honour, 1957 Golden Gate International Film Festival, San Francisco: Redwood Award for Special Merit, Film as Communication, 1967 Calvin Workshop Awards, Kansas City, Missouri: Notable Film Award, 1968 25th Academy Awards, Los Angeles: Nominee: Best Live Action, Short Subject, 1953 (*A 2005 press release issued by AMPAS states that Neighbours is "among a group of films that not only competed, but won Academy Awards in what were clearly inappropriate categories".) Honours Neighbours was designated as a "masterwork" by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada, a charitable non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the preservation of Canada's audio-visual heritage. In 2009, Neighbours was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World