{"id":5334,"date":"2016-02-28T07:27:19","date_gmt":"2016-02-28T12:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5334"},"modified":"2016-03-03T07:06:41","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T12:06:41","slug":"get-ready-for-oscar-short-films-rundown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5334","title":{"rendered":"Get Ready for Oscar: Short Films Rundown"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5339\" style=\"width: 205px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5339\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5339\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/5491246926_770af0a4ff_z.jpg?resize=195%2C322\" alt=\"Academy Award, Oscar\" width=\"195\" height=\"322\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/5491246926_770af0a4ff_z.jpg?w=195&amp;ssl=1 195w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/5491246926_770af0a4ff_z.jpg?resize=182%2C300&amp;ssl=1 182w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-5339\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(photo: David Torcivia, creative commons license)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Yesterday, I saw the AA-nominated short films in the Animation and Live Action categories. Academy rules define a short as any film under an hour, and some were only a few minutes. Overall, they were not the downers this year\u2019s documentaries were (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vweisfeld.com\/?p=5328\">blurbed here<\/a>). Links take you to the films or at least to trailers, for a taste of the tremendous diversity involved.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know enough about the animated category to discriminate, and the techniques are vastly different across films. Here are the nominees:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/sanjays-super-team-featurette\/\"><em>Sanjay\u2019s Super Team<\/em><\/a> \u2013 a young boy\u2019s fantasy reconciles his love of superheroes and his father\u2019s traditional Hindu gods. Beautifully rendered and quite sweet in its message. (7 minutes, from Pixar and Disney, directed by Sanjay Patel)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/ondemand\/worldoftomorrow\"><em>World of Tomorrow<\/em><\/a> \u2013 the most graphically abstract, with what seemed like a lot of interesting points, but so fast-moving I couldn\u2019t absorb them all. Funny in places, but ultimately disturbing. (17 minutes, United States, by Don Hertzfeldt)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/82799380\"><em>Bear Story<\/em><\/a> \u2013 already the winner of many awards, hyper-detailed graphics portray a bear who has created a complex hurdy-gurdy that shows a story paralleling the creator\u2019s own yearning to regain his family. Richly visual; this one seems the likely winner. (11 minutes, Chile, directed by Gabriel Osorio Vargas)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/114381015\"><em>We Can\u2019t Live Without Cosmos<\/em><\/a> \u2013 cosmonaut training and close friendship prepare two men for outer space. Then things go wrong. Relatively simple graphics and an interesting story. I liked this one best. (16 minutes, Russia, Konstantin Bronzit)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G78qA9oreNE\"><em>Prologue<\/em><\/a> \u2013 parents were advised to remove their children for this one (nudity and violence) Wisely. Beautiful pencil drawing technique showed a battle among four sword-wielding warriors. My lingering question was \u201cwhy?\u201d (6 minutes, British, directed by Richard Williams)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A few additional animated films were shown in this program in some not-quite-nominated category, my favorite of which was from France: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pieBqpGEZPI\"><em>The Short Story of a Fox and a Mouse<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Live Action shorts covered a wide range, and each had its fans.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4zkWieC8Z8w\"><em>Ave Maria<\/em><\/a> \u2013 what happens when an Israeli family\u2019s car crashes at the door of a nunnery in the rural West Bank, knocking over and decapitating a statue of the VM. The man wants to use the nuns\u2019 phone to call for a ride, but between the nuns\u2019 vow of silence and the Sabbath prohibition against using anything mechanical, everyone is at odds. The man\u2019s mother has lots to say about the whole situation. The only comedy, this was my favorite. (15 minutes, Palestine, France, Germany, directed by Basil Khalil)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shokshortfilm.com\/\"><em>Shok<\/em><\/a> (\u201cFriend\u201d) \u2013 When war breaks out and their town is occupied by Serbian soldiers, two Albanian schoolboys come to understand how fragile society\u2019s veneer of trust really is. This seems the most likely winner, providing the most complete story. (21 minutes, Kosovo, Jamie Donoughue)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JPrRmiJXTVY\"><em>Everything Will Be Okay<\/em><\/a> \u2013 from the title, as you can guess, everything is definitely not OK. A divorced father picks up his daughter for her regular overnight visit with him, but he has something entirely out of the norm planned. The actor playing the daughter steals the show, as she gradually realizes what\u2019s happening. (30 minutes, Germany, Austria, Patrick Vollrath)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stuttererfilm.com\/\"><em>Stutterer<\/em><\/a> \u2013 a young London man with a severe stutter has a six-month online relationship with a woman that goes amazingly well, until she comes to town and proposes they meet in person. Will he go through with it? Very sweet and a sentimental favorite. (12 minutes, UK, Benjamin Cleary)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dayonefilm.com\/#trailers-section\"><em>Day One<\/em><\/a> \u2013 A new-on-the-job Afghan-American interpreter for the U.S. military is confronted with a series of horrifying events. I thought the story had a whiff of the predictable about it, though all the acting was top-notch. (25 minutes, United States, Henry Hughes)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you need to kill some time waiting for results in the short features categories, you might play a little <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/2016\/02\/oscar-night-bingo-cards\/?mbid=nl_22616\">Oscars 2016 Bingo<\/a>, courtesy of <em>Wired<\/em> and Brian Raftery. I\u2019ll be on the lookout for B3: \u201cLouis Gossett Jr. pretends to understand whatever it is Lady Gaga is doing up there.\u201d<\/p>\n<h6 class=\"zemanta-related-title\" style=\"font-size: 1em;\">Related articles<\/h6>\n<ul class=\"zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image\" style=\"margin: 0; padding: 0; overflow: hidden;\">\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li\" style=\"padding: 0; background: none; list-style: none; display: block; float: left; vertical-align: top; text-align: left; width: 84px; font-size: 11px; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px;\"><a style=\"box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; padding: 2px; display: block; border-radius: 2px; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"http:\/\/deredactie.be\/cm\/vrtnieuws.english\/Culture\/1.2573611\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; border: 0; display: block; width: 80px; max-width: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.zemanta.com\/365900129_80_80.jpg?w=584\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><a style=\"display: block; overflow: hidden; text-decoration: none; line-height: 12pt; height: 83px; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; background-image: none;\" href=\"http:\/\/deredactie.be\/cm\/vrtnieuws.english\/Culture\/1.2573611\" target=\"_blank\">&#8216;World of Tomorrow&#8217; scoops main prize at Anima Festival<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, I saw the AA-nominated short films in the Animation and Live Action categories. Academy rules define a short as any film under an hour, and some were only a few minutes. Overall, they were not the downers this year\u2019s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5334\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[59,104],"tags":[124],"class_list":["post-5334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academy-awards","category-the-morgue","tag-short-film"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1o2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5334"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5342,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5334\/revisions\/5342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}