You can find our breakdown of the documentary shortlist here.
Every year, I am surprised by how many people are surprised by what makes it onto the animated shortlist. Perhaps we are too used to Disney and Pixar films to think about what might be in contention from other countries, but the Animated Short Film category always surprises me with how diverse and fun the films can be. Unless, of course, there are some dour or strange stories–which are very welcome. I sometimes think that we establish early on what we “like” about animation and that can color our opinion. But, hey, what do I know?
Rather than go through in a lot of detail about each film, I thought I would point out what I think some voters might have responded to in each of these shortlisted 15. I have my reasons why I think films listed for Documentary Short and Live Action Short, I tend to assume that they are looking at the style of animation in terms of texture or how the film moves.
Gimme Texture
Two years ago, Our Uniform grabbed a nomination here when I don’t think a lot of people were considerating it a frontrunner. Yegane Moghaddam’s film centered on the feelings of wearing a hijab and she used the physical texture of that garment as a canvas to tell the story. While there isn’t something that direct on the shortlist this year, The Girl Who Cried Pearls is a fable about greed with a pawnbroker trying to take advantage of a poor young man who discovers a young girl who, you guessed it, cries pearls, and he sells them in order to get money. You cannot help but look at the shiny texture of the pearls themselves or want to touch the marionette quality of all of the characters. There’s so much depth and precision on display here.
Forevergreen reminded me of toys that I had when I was a kid in a story about a young bear cub who forms a bond with a paternal tree. When the bear begins consuming easily found garbage, it leads to darker consequences. I love how you can see the lines on the bears, trees, and even the water in a river that snakes through the forest. You want to pick up all of the pieces and inspect them. There are two very different films that have bears as their lead characters–can both get in?
Florence Miailhe’s Butterfly looks gorgeous, and the story is drawn from the real life of Alfred Nakache, a Jewish French swimmer who competed in the 1936 Olympic games. After He was later taken into custody during World War II and thrown into a concentration camp, but that story is contrasted by Miailhe’s use of paint to sweep across the screen. They swirl and strike into the frame to display water or the bars of a prison cell–you can almost smell the paint.
The darkest film on this list, Matteo Burani’s Playing God, has literal hands molding a figure. We see the difference in texture between the Creator and Creation but we feel such unease as we are placed into the feet of the Creation’s world. I love Burani’s use of darkness and silence–it’s like the restoration scene from Toy Story 2 with a lot more bulging eyes and broken jaws.
A Kid’s POV
It’s not uncommon to be transported to the realm of a child or to see a situation or world from the lens of a youngster. This list has a few that qualify but also express the bond of a parental figure.
The Night Boots feels gentle in the writing of the story and in its execution. Using gorgeous black-and-white charcoal imagery, we follow a young boy as he sneaks out of his house while his parents are having a dinner party. He wears the titular boots on his own adventure with a friendly creature accompanying him. I loved how this felt entirely new and realized as if we were stepping into the imagination of a child. It gets bonus points for the ever-so-important footwear.
Sylwia Szkiłądź’s Autokar is both strange in its characters but intriguing in its story. Set in 1990 Poland, young Agata boards a bus by herself to meet other relatives in Belgium, and she distracts herself at the start of her journey by writing a letter to her father who has stayed behind. When she drops her pencil and cannot find it, the bus becomes a playground with each passenger piquing her curiosity. I loved how this film felt so attuned to the thoughts and innocence of a child as it played with scale and magical colors.
Just because we grow up doesn’t mean we ever leave the notion of childhood behind with our parents. The Shyness of Trees gently tackles the idea of losing a parent with that fear of being alone for the first time. Scale is very important here as it conveys how the fear of death can be so present so quickly–we may not even know it. There is a moment towards the end where I felt like I had to shield my eyes from the brightness on the screen.
A father struggles to connect with his two children in Cardboard from director J.P. Vine. A single pig father is moving to a new trailer park with his two piglets, but he is let down that the brochure promised something…nicer? His young children find a cardboard box and let their imagination run wild as he tries to figure out how to make do with their new living quarters. We tend to think that parents are solely teaching the kids, but lest we forget how much an adult can learn from their offspring. When this father embraces the imagination and positivity that his kids naturally bring, you cannot help but engage and smile.
No youngster wants to be second guessed, and Éiru is determined to prove her worth in Giovanna Ferrari’s award-winning film. When the water runs dry in her village, none of the burly, adult men are small enough to get underground. With her slender frame and her fiery red hair, Éiru is the only one who can slide down the well to begin her mission. The colors here will knock your socks off as the dark, moody purples and blues do battle with flaming reds and oranges.
Fatherhood, Regrets, and Himbo Sailors
While climate change surely will come up when watching Aaron Blaise’s stunning hand-drawn masterpiece, Snow Bear, you will get lost in the emotional storytelling on display. Blaise wrote and animated this film after the loss of his wife, and he tells the story about a lonely polar bear that only wants to make a friend. His use of pink, blues, and whites, on the surface, seems simple, but this film transmits temperature–especially when our furry friend builds a pal for himself out of snow. This is a master at the top of his game.
I love how the camera moves in Jan Saska’s Hurikán, a tale about a man determined to impress the girl he likes. Oh, and he has the head of a pig on his shoulders. Hurikán needs to bring a keg of beer back to the bar to rescue his favorite drinking hole from closing, but there are, shall we say, complications. As the madcap, frenetic energy settles in, you can’t but wonder…what would you do for the love of a cute girl. And a place to drown your sorrows?
I Died in Irpin straddles that line of adulthood and being a young adult even if that isn’t a huge focal point of Anastasiia Falileieva’s film. The filmmaker tells the story about how she and her boyfriend fled to Irpin to get away from Putin’s invastion in Kyiv. As they continue to hear about the violence creeping closer to them, the more that Falileieva realizes how much she doesn’t want to be involved with her partner or be near his family. Sometimes the animation fills the screen and sometimes it shrinks the images down so they feel smaller in the frame. All the while, though, the images appear jumpy as if they are a part of Falileieva’s nervousness and anxiety.
John Kelly’s Retirement Plan seems simple, but it carries a deep universality. We all idealistic in thinking that we have all the time in the world to make our lives better. I will read those books. I will work out more. I will spend more time with my family. When you are making these lists, though, maybe you should be taking action. We follow one man as he ponders his life and his choices, and I’m sure there are so many of us that see ourselves in him.
I felt so ensnared by the darkness in James A. Castillo’s The Quinta’s Ghost, and it’s worth noting that we don’t often seen real-life figures in animated short films. We find ourselves in the house of a painter as he enters a dark era, and we realize that we have been invited into the home of Francisco de Goya as he works on his Black Paintings series. If you do a quick Google search on this era, you will wonder how someone can create and paint such imagery–they’re dangerously alive. Enter Castillo’s startlingly gorgeous film. “Every act of creaton, has a price” the film’s tagline says, and this would be a great double feature with Burani’s Playing God. The use of light and shadow here is stunning.
Would you compete with your sisters for the attention and advances of a burly sailor? Well, I am the wrong audience to ask because I am a sucker for a sailor, and so are the three women at the heart of Timur Kognov’s film. These women live isolated lives on an island, and their world is turned upside down when a visitor takes an interest in each one of them. A little attention can change your perspective on a lot of things, and…it can also cause a lot of rifts. Kognov’s film is light, funny, and very sweet. It reminded me of a lost episode of The Golden Girls–that’s the highest compliment I can give any film.
What Makes the Cut?
I don’t know how you watch Snow Bear and aren’t moved by it–both the story and its animation. Blaise is a legend in the world of animation, and he has never won before so it’s safe to save a spot for his film. Retirement Plan has won prize after prize after prize on the festival circuit, so John Kelly should find himself nominated tomorrow morning.
If you look at the Annie nominations, you will find Cardboard, Snow Bear, and The Girl Who Cried Pearls all nominated in Best Short Subject, and I think Pearls snags a slot. They will appreciate the texture, the scope of the story, and directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski were nominated for Tutli-Putli in 2007. The inspiration for this film came from the production of that short.
So what gets that last slot? I admit that I am a bit puzzled, because they could go for something sillier like The Three Sisters or with a heartwarming ending like Cardboard. They could go to the other direction and pick I Died in Irpin because it has a topical thread.
My Predictions (in alphabetical order):
Butterfly
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Playing God
Retirement Plan
Snow Bear
Watch Out For:
Cardboard
Hurikán
I Died in Irpin
The Three Sisters
Should’ve Been Here:
Ovary-Acting
A Sparrow’s Song
