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In this season of Oscar nominations, Annie honorees and Sundance selections, competition is definitely in the air. However, the operative phrase in the animated short film field seems to be “vive la difference,” since there’s little or no overlap among the lists. Two Sundancing shorts caught Oscar’s eye, but the Annie for Best Animated Short category represented a different group of films entirely. Most notably, the Motion Picture Academy’s list turned out to be thoroughly international, with nominated films from France, Russia, two from Canada and one directed by a Brit but animated in Poland and Norway.
And though 3D-CGI has dominated animated features for years, only one Oscar-nominated short fit that description. Instead, the enduring appeal of stop-motion animation stood out, aided by digital tweaking that produced dazzling effects.
“I think people will thoroughly enjoy the variety,” says Bill Kroyer, who’s on the Academy’s short film screening committee and is a past nominee himself for the 1988 short Technological Threat. “I’ve always found that the short film Oscar always goes to the film that has the most emotional impact on the audience, regardless of technique. As Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston used to say, ‘What do you want the audience to see, and how do you want them to feel about it? Make sure that they see what you intend, and that they feel what you want them to.’”
Even Pigeons Go To Heaven (Même Les Pigeons Vont Au Paradis)
This is the one nominee that is purely CG-animated, and what French studio BUF Compagnie artist Samuel Tourneux clearly wanted audiences to do was laugh. It teems with atmospheric textures, quirky character designs and plot twists, and while it features the grim reaper it’s anything but grim. Tourneux’s highly polished nine-minute film reflects his decade of experience with CG and the digital expertise of BUF (which has delivered impressive effects work on numerous studio features such as Arthur and the Invisibles and Spider-Man 3), and it has already won honors at Annecy and Ars Electronica.
I Met The Walrus
The Canadian entry of 25-year-old director Josh Raskin comes with a quite a back-story as the newcomer used a 38-year old soundtrack to tell his story. Because that soundtrack is a never-before-heard interview with John Lennon, audiences are taking note. The five-minute film illustrates Lennon’s comments through pen-and-ink sketches by James Braithwaite and Alex Kurina’s digital illustrations, and stylistically echoes the animation we’ve seen on Monty Python and, appropriately enough, Yellow Submarine. Funded by a grant from Bravo!, it’s already been honored by AFI, several Canadian festivals and last year’s inaugural Platform Fest in Portland, Oregon, and it also screened at Sundance.
My Love (Moya Lyubov)
This painstakingly animated short produced at Russia’s Dag Film Studio is another shining example of dazzling technique. The “painted on glass” approach of Alexander Petrov’s 26-minute film is uniquely suited to the film’s poignant storyline—as if a Dostoyevsky story were painted by Renoir. Petrov previously won an Animated Short Film Oscar for 1999’s The Old Man and the Sea and was also nominated for the shorts Rusalka (The Mermaid) and Korova (The Cow). But along with the technical mastery of the animation, notes Bill Kroyer, “The passion of the expressions and the authenticity of the art direction is unbelievable.” It’s also worth noting that the film was Studio Ghibli’s first foray in releasing international titles in Japan.
Prokofiev’s Peter & the Wolf
Although Disney’s Clyde Geronimi had tackled Prokofiev’s classical music chestnut before, British director Suzie Templeton opted for an edgier, more cautionary tale than the 1946 version of the classic. While the half-hour film was produced by Britain’s BreakThru Films, the stop motion animation was done at Se-ma-for Studios in Poland, a company whose 60-year history includes an Oscar for the 1983 animated short Tango. Norway’s Storm Studio also composited CG effects into the film, providing the latest example of how digital tools can help stop-motion animation remain alive and well. Templeton’s short has already won a slew of international awards (including the Annecy Cristal and Audience Awards) and it’s also up for a BAFTA.
Madame Tutli-Putli
Funded by Canada’s National Film Board, this especially dramatic (and down-right Hitchcockian) example of modern stop motion was directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (known for their commercial work as Clyde Henry Productions.) Four years in the making, the surreal 17-minute tale of a woman on a train has attracted considerable buzz (especially at Ottawa and Sundance) because of the characters’ mesmerizing eyes. Painter Jason Walker used the time re-mapping feature of Adobe After Effects to re-animate and composite—frame by frame—the filmed eyes of real actors. “It was like having a deck of cards and extracting only the diamonds,” he says. “The complexity of the tools that these artists have used is overwhelming,” observes Kroyer. “But it always comes back to an artist expressing something, and the audience feeling it.” If there’s another winning attribute that’s more important, Kroyer thinks it may be timing. “You never want to submit your film when there’s a Nick Park film in the competition. But he’s stopped making shorts now so everybody else is back in business!”
To find out which shorts and features take home the golden statuette this year, tune in to ABC on Sunday, February 24 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time, 8 p.m. Eastern.
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Madame
Tutli-Putli Director(s): Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski Official Site: http://www.nfb.ca/tutliputli Synopsis: Madame Tutli-Putli boards the Night Train, weighed down with all her earthly possessions and the ghosts of her past. She travels alone, facing both the kindness and menace of strangers. As day descends into dark, she finds herself caught up in a desperate metaphysical adventure. Adrift between real and imagined worlds, Madame Tutli-Putli confronts her demons and is drawn into an undertow of mystery and suspense. |
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I
met the Walrus Director: Josh Raskin Starring: Jerry Levitan, John Lennon Official Site: http://www.imetthewalrus.com/ Synopsis: In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. Using the original interview as the soundtrack, this narrative tenderly romances Lennon's every word in a cascading flood of multi-pronged animation. |
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Meme
Les Pigeons Vont Au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven) Director: Samuel Tourneux Official Site: www.samueltourneux.com/PAGE1/page1.html Synopsis: A priest conducts a frenzied chase to save a soul in peril. |
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Moya
Lyubov (My Love) Director: Alexandre Petrov Official Site: http://www.dago.ru/ Synopsis: Set in Moscow in the late 19th century, against a sonorous spring and a summer downpour, Anton, a 16-year old high-school student dreams of another reality full of romanticism and heroism. Daily life, however, is just routine. Nevertheless, he looks for something bright and pure in this life as he searches for his unique beloved, to whom he'll give his first feelings. |
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Peter
& the Wolf Director: Suzie Templeton Official Site: http://www.breakthrufilms.co.uk/peterandthewolffilm/index.html Synopsis: On the edge of the vast forests of Russia, where wolves still roam, lies a little cottage surrounded by a big, high fence. This is where Peter lives with his grumpy Grandfather. Grandfather will not let Peter go out into the forest. Peter has a friend, the lovable Duck, with whom he hangs around Grandfather's yard. A Bird with a broken wing arrives in the yard. Bird is very impatient with Peter and signals to go into the forest. His heart beating fast, Peter tiptoes into the cottage and reaches over his sleeping Grandfather and the snoring, fat Cat. Ever so carefully Peter takes the keys to the gate. |