The Oscar Project
Today is the last post of the week and the last of the smaller categories in my Year in Review. If you missed any of the other posts, please be sure to check them out at the links below.
For this post, I’m not separating short films into smaller categories but including everything in one: live action narrative, documentary, and animated. So, without further ado, let’s get into the top five short films I saw this year. If you're interested in watching them for yourself, the movie titles link to the films except "Boxballet" which is just the trailer. 5: Boxballet This fun animated short film was one of five nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the Oscars earlier this year. It is a brief love story, a bit reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast, between a hulking boxer and a dainty ballerina. The visual style is so different from what we normally see in animation, and that’s what made it one of my favorites I saw this year. 4: The Queen of Basketball Let me tell you, I loved meeting Lusia Harris in this film. Harris is the star of this short documentary that won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject this year and even in her 60s, she was a vibrant personality in the interview portions of this film. Chronicling her college basketball career during which she won three national championships and a silver medal at the Olympics. She would go on to become the first African American woman inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Sadly, Harris passed away in January 2022 just a few months before this film received its Oscar. 3: Robin Robin Another animated short film that was nominated for Best Animated Short Film earlier this year, “Robin Robin” is so much fun and I’ve watched it several times with my kids and when I went to the theater to see the full slate of animated short film nominees. he film is stop-motion animation, and features voice talents of Richard E. Grant and Gillian Anderson, but the true star is Robin, the young robin who grew up in a family of mice. She makes a terrible mouse (mainly because she’s a bird) but tries to prove to her mouse family that she belongs by sneaking into the Who-Man house at Christmas to steal the star from the top of their tree. Fire this one up on Netflix this holiday season to kick off your next movie night. 2: Audible This film actually lost out to “The Queen of Basketball” in the Best Documentary Short Subject at the Oscars this year, but I put it slightly ahead on my own list. This one is just on the limit for consideration in that category, but looks at the story of Amaree McKenstry-Hall, a deaf football player at the Maryland School for the Deaf as he and his teammates and friends deal with the pressures of performing on the field, while mourning the loss of a close friend to suicide. Any one part of that description could make a great film on its own but putting them all together and in a short film is truly amazing and fully deserving of the nomination it received. 1: Lynching Postcards: ‘Token of A Great Day’ Just like last year, my top film on this list is extremely difficult to watch, but for completely different reasons. “Lynching Postcards” is a tight 15 minutes but speaks volumes in how it covers its subject matter. The film documents the history of “lynching postcards,” small souvenirs people could send to relatives and friends to celebrate their role in or attendance at public lynchings of African Americans throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s. I sat and watched this film in disgust, amazed at the cruelty that could lead people to do these things in the name of hate and fear, but was forced to draw a line straight to the social media of today. While it is an incredibly difficult film to watch, it is necessary, and I highly recommend anyone taking some time to watch for themselves.
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I am starting off our deeper dive coverage of the films nominated for Oscars this year with a look at the three short film categories, Best Documentary Short Film, Best Animated Short Film, and Best Live Action Short Film. I personally love these categories because you often get a wide range of stories all packed into small packages. Many of the films, especially in the animated category, are less than ten minutes long, so you can sit down and watch the entire category in less time than it takes to watch a full feature film, if you can find them that is. That's the true struggle with these films. They rarely get released to theaters outside of film festivals, but with the rise of online streaming services and sites like Vimeo and YouTube, many of these are more accessible than ever. Out of the 15 nominees across the three short film categories, seven are readily available on YouTube, Netflix and Disney+. The remaining eight do not currently have distribution as of this writing, but may be released publicly prior to the Academy Award ceremony. Best Documentary Short FilmWith four of these five films available online, I was able to sit down and watch them back to back. I wish I could say these documentaries were uplifting and lighthearted, but with subjects ranging from anti-government protests in Hong Kong to the murder of a young girl to a WWII French Resistance fighter visiting the concentration camp where her brother died, you won't find much levity here. About the closest you'll come is the conversation between a grandfather and grandson on the eve of the younger man's concerto debut in concert. These films are all fantastic. As I have some more time to digest them and think about them, I'm sure one or two may rise to the surface as my favorite to win the award, but right now they are all too fresh in my mind to make a pick.
Best Animated Short FilmThe animated short film category is one that has been owned by Pixar shorts off and on for some time. However, as cute as "Burrow" is, I don't think it is strong enough to take home the prize this year. I say this having only seen that and "If Anything Happens I Love You," but already that film has my vote for the award. Fair warning, don't read anything about it before you watch, not even my summary below. The best way to watch that short is to go in blind. I am hoping to get a chance to see the other three films, especially "Opera" which brings a very intriguing premise. As I am able to view them, I will update here with my thoughts as well as short reviews of each.
Best Live Action Short FilmAs of this writing, I've only seen one film from this group but it is fantastic. The premise of "Feeling Through" is truly unique and once again, I went in knowing very little of what it was about. I am also intrigued to see "The Letter Room" which stars Hollywood actor Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina, Star Wars, Inside Llewyn Davis) He has been seen in a number of big budget films over the last decade or so, that I look forward to seeing what he is able to do in a short film format. Finally, I recently heard an interview with Lawrence Bender, the producer of "Two Distant Strangers" as well as Joey Bada$$ who stars in the film. The story sounds like an intriguing look at police brutality in America mixed with a concept familiar to anyone who has seen Palm Springs (review) or Groundhog Day.
On April 13th, 2016, Kobe Bryant played his last professional basketball game, scoring 60 points to cap off a career that spanned 20 years and included five NBA championships, two NBA Finals MVPs, 18 All-Star appearances, and two Olympic gold medals.
On March 4th, 2018, Bryant added the title of Oscar Winner to his lengthy resume when the short film "Dear Basketball" won for Best Animated Short Film. On January 26th, 2020, Bryant and his daughter Gianna (13) were killed in a helicopter accident in Calabasas, California. The accident also killed Gianna's peer Alyssa Altobelli and her parents, John and Keri, Sarah Chester and her daughter Payton, Christina Mauser, and Ara Zobayan. While no words can speak to the loss that will be felt by all of these families in the wake of this tragedy, it only felt right to present Kobe's film here one more time. I have to say, these have become some of my favorite categories the more attention I've paid to the Oscars over the last few years. They are so often over looked, but often provide some incredible films contained in very small packages. Today I am predicting the nominees for Best Animated Short Film, Best Documentary Short Film, and Best Live Action Short Film. Please go back and check the previous posts I've done earlier in the week and look for the last few posts coming tomorrow and Monday before the announcement of the nominees on Tuesday morning! Now that I'm done with my write-ups for all of the films nominated for Best Animated Short Film, I decided to do a brief recap post for all five together.
1. Dear Basketball I think this deserved the win and it was great to see someone from the world of sports cross over into film and receive recognition for the work. I appreciated Kobe's speech at the award ceremony and I'm honestly hopeful that we'll see him back at the Oscars in the future with his next film venture. Read my analysis of "Dear Basketball."
I remember reading the book that inspired this film when I was young. Even as young as I was, I recall the silliness I felt at reading the fairy tale stories I had heard hundreds of times turned on their heads and told in a different light.
Despite the time that has passed since the last time I read these rhymes, watching the film brought them clearly back to my memory and I am glad to see that the film stays fairly close to the book in most respects. This was an interesting little film and I'm glad that something in the stop motion animation style was nominated this year. The Whistler Film Festival website lists it as "A nostalgic animated short about the complicated relationship between a father, who travels often for business, and the son he leaves behind." It truly is a wonderful little film with some of the most fluid stop motion animation I've seen in a long time. In several scenes it is difficult to tell that it is stop motion at all unless you really pay attention.
I was extremely excited to see "Garden Party" once I heard about it from the nominations. The trailer (which I included below) is absolutely stunning and had I not known that the film was animated, I likely would have assumed it was some sort of documentary about frogs living in pools and backyards.
After watching the film however, "Garden Party" is SO much more, and yes, the rest of the film looks just as good as the trailer!
I think it is safe to say that "Lou" is the first of the 2017 Oscar Nominated films I saw. This short film was presented before showings of Cars 3's theatrical release starting in June of 2017. Since I have kids that are the right age to love pretty much anything Pixar sends our way, we trekked out to see this one in the theater (actually as part of a double feature with Despicable Me 3 at the drive-in.
As with most Pixar entries into the animated short film category, this one quickly jumps to the top of the list and when I first saw it, I had a strong feeling "Lou" would take home the Oscar this year. The story is simple and easy to relate to. A bully on the playground is taking other kids' toys, he must learn his lesson with the help of...well, Lou. The characters are a little goofy, but at the same time very genuine with easy to understand motives.
When I first heard of this film, I was researching potential short listed nominees for a few categories in late 2017, around Christmas. I was instantly impressed and hoped it would receive a nomination.
You might think there wouldn't be much to say about a film that's less than five minutes long, but there are definitely some layers to pull back in this one. As I mentioned in the first post, I'm doing write-ups for each of the films nominated this year and "Dear Basketball" is the first one I completed, so please enjoy. |
AuthorI'm just a film buff who wants to watch great movies. Where else to find the best, than the list of those nominated by the Academy each year? Archives
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