Thursday, December 01, 2011

The Short(er) List

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have whittled the roster of shorts candidates down a bit.

• “Dimanche/Sunday,” Patrick Doyon, director (National Film Board of Canada)

• “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, directors (Moonbot Studios LA, LLC)

• “I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat,” Matthew O’Callaghan, director and Sam Register, executive producer (Warner Bros. Animation Inc.)

• “La Luna,” Enrico Casarosa, director (Pixar Animation Studios)

• “Luminaris,” Juan Pablo Zaramella, director (JPZtudio)

• “Magic Piano,” Martin Clapp, director and Hugh Welchman, producer (BreakThru Films)

• “A Morning Stroll,” Grant Orchard, director and Sue Goffe, producer (Studio AKA)

• “Paths of Hate,” Damian Nenow, director (Platige Image)

• “Specky Four-Eyes,” Jean-Claude Rozec, director and Mathieu Courtois, producer (Vivement Lundi!)

• “Wild Life,” Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby, directors (National Film Board of Canada)

"Best Animated Short" is one category of movie-making that, more often than not, goes to the small studio. Not to say that our fine, entertainment conglomerates are always shut out, but they only occasionally emerge triumphant.

I'll be pulling for "Puddy Tat." Not only because I found the short funny and enjoyable, but because Matt O'Callaghan is a fine, talented human being.

So we'll soon see which pictures survive the next round of whittling.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Curious to know how The Fantastic Flying Books would be considered a short film? Was there a short produced outside of the interactive iPad story book thing?

Anonymous said...

No. It was first produced and distributed as a short film. The assets were repurposed for the iPad book. It's not entirely different, but a whole lot more fun! It will most likely win the Oscar this year.

Anonymous said...

At the risk of being called a studio plant - I have to say, "Congrats" to Reel FX down in Dallas for their work on the Warner Brother's shorts. No small task taking on such iconic characters and they did it very very well. That being said I agree that Morris Lessmore will walk away with he little gold man.

Anonymous said...

I also loved Matt and ReelFX's work, but 'Morris Lessmore' but it's fantastic! I love the way they combined CG animation with hand-drawn/hand-painted traditional animation (the flipbook style Humpty) and practical miniatures. With Buster Keaton references to boot!

The fact that they also made it function in the real world today, as an iPad app, makes it all the more praiseworthy. Congrats Moonbot.

TotalD said...

Fingers crossed for Matt, Tony and Spike. Terrific guys and a terrific directors all.

Anonymous said...

- ReelFX's work

It's good stuff, indeed.

Too bad it means less work for Los Angeles based artists. Yeah, whatever, more work all-around means more work all-around, but nonetheless I don't want to go looking for work in Albuquerque, or, God forbid, have to move to Texas to practice my craft. Ugh!

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