Mary and Max turned a lot of heads when it was selected to open the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and has continued to impress a lot of people since. The claymation film marks the feature debut of Adam Elliot, who won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film back in 2004 for Harvie Krumpet. Toni Collette and Philip Seymour Hoffman lead the voice cast, though you’d be hard-pressed to identify either one of them off the bat.

The movie spans 20 years and two continents, following the unlikely friendship that slowly incubates between Mary, a young Australian girl with no friends, and Max, a middle-aged and obese New Yorker with Asperger’s Syndrome, when they become penpals. Inspired by Elliot’s own 20-year pen pal relationship with a New York man, Mary and Max looks to be a lovably odd and quirk-filled story of finding friends in a strange, strange world.

Hit the jump to see the new trailer, courtesy of the New York Times.