Oscar Noms 2017: 9 of 13 (Animated Short Films)

Part 1 - La La Land, Moonlight, Arrival
Part 2 - Manchester by the Sea, Hacksaw Ridge, Lion
Part 3 - Fences, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, Jackie
Part 4 - Florence Foster Jenkins, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Passengers, Rogue One
Part 5 - Deepwater Horizon, Kubo and the Two Strings, Moana, A Man Called Ove
Part 6 - Captain Fantastic, Elle, Loving, Nocturnal Animals
Part 7 - The Lobster, 20th Century Women, Silence, Hail, Caesar!
Part 8 - Live-action Short Films

Part 9:

Piper

1 Nomination

• Animated Short Film

Director: Alan Barillaro

I honestly think this is the only film that can really win this award. This film is not that great, really. It is also, perhaps, the most clichéd of the animated films this year. A little sandpiper (the piper of the title) learns not to be so afraid of its world. That is really what there is to this little Pixar movie, but it is charming and doesn't ask for very much, and it went down very pleasantly with the mostly older audience with whom I saw the movies this year. Pixar wins this award a lot, but Barillaro has yet to win the award, so I guess it's his turn this year.
Will Win: Animated Short Film

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #4 out of 5

Pear Cider and Cigarettes

1 Nomination

• Animated Short Film

Director: Robert Valley

Cast: Valley

This one is really great, although I don't think the audience with whom I saw it liked it very much. At 35 minutes, it was over four times as long as any of the other short films, and, in fact, longer than all four of the other nominated shorts combined. In a way, this movie's length seems a little unfair compared to the others. Valley takes his time telling his story, and because of the length he's chosen, he really delves into his narrative in beautiful ways. This is an accomplished documentary. It is a story of a man and his affection and admiration for his friend – a man he doesn't understand very well but a man whom he loves. I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and I liked it much better than any of the other animated shorts this year (which are, as a whole, a rather weak bunch). Don't expect it to win, though. A win for this would be a real surprise. It's just altogether so much more serious than the usual winners in this category. I think when people see an animated short film what they really want is a little shot of charm and magic. I don't think anything other than that can really win.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Animated Short Film

My Rating: #1 out of 5

Pearl

1 Nomination

• Animated Short Film

Director: Patrick Osborne

Cast: Nicki Bluhm, Kelley Stoltz

This is a 2D version of a virtual reality film initially designed for 360-viewing (as far as I know). The one that is nominated for the Oscar is a two-dimensional version that is part music video, part memory piece that I found engaging and lovely. If the film tells a perhaps familiar story, it does so in a way that I appreciated a great deal. This is a father-daughter story set in a car where the two live. The film takes first the father's point of view and then switches to the daughter's as she gets older. This change in perspective, which is gradual and so not striking or surprising, doesn't even feel gimmicky; instead, it feels as a kind of natural progression – as if the perspective we're actually following is the car's own perspective. Osborne has won this award before – for his film Feast only a couple years ago – so he doesn't need to win this, but if he did the Academy would be honoring some really new developments in animation.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #2 out of 5

Blind Vaysha

1 Nomination

• Animated Short Film

Director: Theodore Ushev

Cast: Caroline Dhavernas

Theodore Ushev's strange meditation on the way we look at things – the plot is about a girl who can only see the past in one of her eyes and can only see the future in the other eye – feels like a bit of a surprise nomination, but I am glad it was nominated. It's an odd movie, and it is animated in a kind of very old style that resembles medieval woodcuts. This makes for a visually intriguing film, and its interest in the past is perfect for the themes of the short, which are related to our own blindness to the present. The film addresses the viewer directly at the end of the film, and even asks viewers to close their eyes. I found all of this very interesting.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #3 out of 5

Borrowed Time

1 Nomination

• Animated Short Film

Director: Andrew Coats, Lou Hamou-Lhadj
Cast: Greg Dykstra, Nick Pitera, Steve Purcell

This was silly to me. It was the first film in the program, though, so maybe I needed to be warmed up or something...? Who knows. An old sheriff remembers his dad and tries to deal with the memories of a terrible accident that happened one day. But to my mind the film doesn't really go anywhere. This Pixar film has the usual Pixar uplift/cheese factor, but here that attempt at a feel-good turn that assures viewers that the world is actually a place of magic and wonder struck me as even more desperate than usual. I was not having this film.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #5 out of 5

Back to:
Part 1 - La La Land, Moonlight, Arrival
Part 2 - Manchester by the Sea, Hacksaw Ridge, Lion
Part 3 - Fences, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, Jackie
Part 4 - Florence Foster Jenkins, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Passengers, Rogue One 
Part 5 - Deepwater Horizon, Kubo and the Two Strings, Moana, A Man Called Ove
Part 6 - Captain Fantastic, Elle, Loving, Nocturnal Animals
Part 7 - The Lobster, 20th Century Women, Silence, Hail, Caesar!
Part 8 - Live-action Short Films

Oscar Nominees 2015: Part 11 of 12 (Animated Shorts)

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7. Part 8. Part 9. Part 10.
Part 11 of 12:

Feast

1 Nomination

• Animated Short Film

Director: Patrick Osborne

Cast: Tommy Snider

This adorable film about man's best friend is the easy favorite to win. It played in front of Disney's (equally great) Big Hero 6, and if it is heteronormative and very Los Angeles, it is also gorgeously animated with a great soundtrack and the cutest central character this side of How to Train Your Dragon 2. Look for Feast to win the Oscar like John Kars' Paperman did two years ago. Although, honestly, this is the third year in a row I am predicting Disney for the win, last year Disney lost to the better film, Mr. Hublot. In any case, this year Feast might technically be the best of these animated shorts, even if it isn't my favorite. I should note that Feast is not a part of the Animated Shorts program that is for rent on iTunes and other places.

Will Win: Animated Short Film

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: Not ranked

The Dam Keeper

1 Nomination

• Animated Short Film

Director: Robert Kondo, Tsutsumi Daisuke

Cast: Lars Mikkelsen

This is my favorite of the nominees. It is, first of all, a little film that is obsessed with light and the ability to illustrate and animate light. This is the tale of a small pig who is mercilessly teased and bullied at his school. They are so mean to this little pig. And he is a depressed young kid who is doing his best to get through the day. The film plays with reality, though. After we have sat with the film for seven or eight minutes, it becomes difficult to be sure about what is "real" in the world of the movie and what is a kind of figuring of the pig's emotional state. The Dam Keeper is about being sad and the ways that the darkness can become too much for us. It's just lovely. This is a must-see, although all of the nominated shorts this year are very very good.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: Not ranked

A Single Life

1 Nomination

• Animated Short Film

Director: Marieke Blaauw, Joris Oprins, Job Roggeveen

This is perfect. It's the shortest of this year's nominees. I don't even think it comes in at three minutes long, but that is exactly part of what A Single Life is doing. This is not a movie about being single. It is a movie about one single life. And the brevity of the film is necessary to the way the film is about the brevity of life itself. It's just so great. The main character is going along just fine in her life until a phonograph record arrives that controls her life. It is her life. And she plays the phonograph. The life is over that quickly, but this is not a sentimental approach to life. It is a humorous, mocking treatment of the theme, and the main character never quite grasps what's happening. It reminded me of my own life. Oh shit! It's happening. Life is happening. And now it's done.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: Not ranked

The Bigger Picture

1 Nomination

• Animated Short Film

Director: Daisy Jacobs

Cast: Christopher Nightingale, Alisdair Simpson, Anne Cunningham

This was my favorite. Wait. I can't say that because I already said The Dam Keeper was my favorite. Ok. Well, I loved this one too. Mostly I want to say that I loved this one because of how deeply I identified with the main character. This film had me in tears by the end of its very short length. It is themed similarly to The Judge, but The Bigger Picture approaches the theme from a realistic, fascinating point of view, where frustration with one's aging parents is part of one's love for them. No dramatics are needed; this film always takes the bigger picture, laughing at the struggles it portrays and describing real humanity. An excellent little film.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: Not ranked

Me and My Moulton

1 Nomination

• Animated Short Film

Director: Torill Kove

Cast: Andrea Bræin Hovig

The least interesting of the five films is still really really good. Me and My Moulton, like The Dam Keeper is also about a child and also about drawing as an artistic outlet for personal troubles. This film is a lovely portrait of a young girl figuring out how to be happy with her strange Norwegian parents who are modernist architects. She feels strange and different from all of the other people in her town, and she resents her parents for that. The parents really aren't perfect, but the main character learns to make things work in any case. This is charming. But Feast is the only film that can win this Oscar.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: Not ranked