Academy Award-Nominated Short Films
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to screen all ten nominated films in the categories of Short Film (Animated) and Short Film (Live Action). To begin with, I’m pleased that the Academy is finally putting forth more of an effort to show these films—in the past, they screened the short films only for voters. Now they’re offering them to the public in Washington, New York and Los Angeles—and with the popularity of these programs, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it expand next year.
Now, on to the films. We’ll start with the live action:
Everything in This Country Must
Gary McKendry’s film delves into the tension in Northern Ireland between the Irish residents and British soldiers.
A group of soldiers on patrol collide with a car, killing the mother and son in it. Later, we see these soldiers help a farmer and his daughter save a horse from a flooding stream—even though the farmer doesn’t want their help.
This was really excellent, overall. Well-acted, good editing and cinematography, and with a good story that’s not trite or cliched.
A short clip of Everything in This Country Must is available on the SXSW film festival webpage.
Little Terrorist
Ashvin Kumar’s film exploring the cross-border relations between India and Pakistan is probably the favorite to win the statue.
Jamal (the titular Little Terrorist) loses a cricket ball into the minefield that separates the two countries. He crosses the barbed wire to retrieve it, but Indian soldiers see him and fire in the air. Flustered, he runs back out—but he’s gone to the wrong side, and crossed over into India. The rest of the film sees Indian schoolmaster Bhola hiding Jamal from soldiers and helping him return home.
Everything about this film was excellent. The cinematography was top-notch, the pacing and tension were just right, and the acting was stellar.
You can watch a trailer of Little Terrorist on the film’s website, or pay a couple of dollars to download the whole thing. It’s worth the money. Watch this film.
7:35 in the Morning
This Spanish short film documents a bizarre scheme cooked up by a man to get the attention of a young woman he’s interested in:
Last night I didn’t fall asleep until early in the morning.
And I’ve got a long day ahead of me…
so what the hell is making me smile at…
seven thirty-five in the morning?
The film is laugh-out-loud funny—the entire theatre was roaring throughout—and is really just a lot of fun. I suppose it can be classified as a musical (it’s a single musical number, but that’s basically the entire running time), so the acting doesn’t have much opportunity to stand out (nor to detract). Cinematography is solid, and the writing is excellent.
Watch the entirety of 7:35 in the Morning on the film’s website. Also, the director, Nacho Vigalondo, has a blog, but unless you read Spanish you won’t get much out of it.
Two Cars, One Night
This Maori film covers the interactions of three children—Polly, Romeo and Romeo’s brother Ed—left outside a pub while their parents are inside drinking. The night passes slowly, and as it progresses, a friendship (perhaps even a first love) begins to blossom between Romeo and Polly.
There are good interactions, comic relief, and a good story arc. Still, I couldn’t help but feel like this film is not quite as good as the first three. I don’t object to its nomination—there’s no doubt it belongs here—but I’d be shocked if it wins.
Visit the home page of Two Cars, One Night. There doesn’t seem to be any trailer at this one, but there’s a longer synopsis than I’ve provided.
Wasp
Andrea Arnold’s short film shows us a day in the life of a lower-class single young mother (Zoe) in Britain. Living in run-down housing, she runs into an old flame who asks her out, although she doesn’t let on that she has children.
Zoe’s obvious love for her children is betrayed by a severe lack of parenting skills. The oldest daughter, about 8 or 9, cares for her siblings at least as much as Zoe does.
Watch Wasp in its entirety courtesy of Channel Four.
Of these five films, I’d say Little Terrorist and Everything in This Country Must are the leading candidates for the Oscar, with a slight edge to Little Terrorist. 7:35 in the Morning is a dark horse, while Two Cars, One Night and Wasp, while both were good, are the relative weak sisters of this group and unlikely to win.
Now, on to the animation:
Birthday Boy
Birthday Boy is set in 1951 Korea—the midst of the Korean War. The young Korean boy in the film is obviously not old enough to grasp the realities of war, and plays at mock war games while his father is away fighting at the front.
The animation here was computer-generated and going for a degree of photo-realism. The animators (Andrew Gregory and Sejong Park) did a good job, but some of the body movement is just a little bit off. Overall, a good—but not great—piece of animation.
I couldn’t find any clips of this film online, but information about the filmmakers and stills from Birthday Boy can be found at what appears to be an official site.
Gopher Broke
Also computer animation, this was a cutesy little short about a gopher trying to steal produce from farmers’ trucks and being repeatedly foiled. The buildup was, basically, to a cow butt joke. I’m going to be honest here—the animation was proficient but the humor was pretty juvenile and overall it wasn’t that good. This film shouldn’t be nominated, especially with Pixar’s Boundin’ left out. Update: Boundin’ was released earlier than I realized, and was actually nominated last year.
A teaser trailer of Gopher Broke is available to watch.
Guard Dog
Getting away from the computer animation we have Bill Plympton’s Guard Dog. Plympton has a very unique animation style and I don’t think I can really describe it beyond telling you to just go look at it.
The “guard dog” in question, protecting his master from any and all threats, had the theatre laughing throughout, and it finishes off with one of the best applications of irony I’ve seen on film. I highly recommend this one.
A trailer of Guard Dog can be found at Plympton’s website.
Lorenzo
This Disney short feels like it could have fit right into Fantasia. The directors played a lot with color and light, and did a really fantastic job of it.
Lorenzo is a “fat cat” (both literally and figuratively) with no manners and a mean streak. These fatal flaws land him a curse, and give us an enjoyable, five-minute fantastical sequence of Lorenzo struggling with his apparant fate.
I couldn’t find any clips of this film, but you can read about the creative process behind Lorenzo with storyboards and discussion with the director and producers.
Ryan
Ryan is something of an animated documentary about the short career and meteoric fall of Canadian animator Ryan Larkin, once a major talent in animation—even garnering an Oscar nomination in 1969—but now living on welfare and begging for spare change in Montreal.
The animation in this film was really fantastic, and moving in a completely new direction. Animator Chris Landreth calls it “psychological realism” and it is summed up in the words of Alan Nin: “We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.”
A clip of Ryan and further information about the film is available from the official website.
Overall, I expect Ryan to win the Oscar—it was fantastic—although I wouldn’t be shocked to see Lorenzo take the prize. Guard Dog was a lot of fun and worth seeing. Birthday Boy, while the nomination isn’t undeserved, is highly unlikely to win. I don’t think Gopher Broke should even be nominated.
At any rate, do what you can to see these short films—and any of the past year’s nominees that you can find. Short film is really an excellent medium, too often ignored, that looks to be making something of a comeback. Look for screenings of these or other shorts at local festivals; you won’t regret it.
Winner Update
Looks like I was one for two: Ryan won for animation, but Wasp was the surprise (to me) winner for live-action.
Speaking of which, how are short films usually released? Are the shorts tagged on to the beginning of feature films at art house theaters?
I know; my ignorance on this subject is beyond compelling.
— The Inquirer 1312 days ago #