7th Asia Pacific Screen Award Winners

A few minutes ago the awards ceremony took place in Brisbane, Australia and unfortunately was not able to watch it live, but will check video later as previous editions have been entertaining in a very serious/elegant/cultural way which for me is refreshing as most award ceremonies try to entertain with humor and not always succeed with me.

Winners are in *BLUE. Besides the awards in the main category there were also accolades for the following films:

Jury Grand Prize
Television, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Bangladesh and
Ritesh Batra for The Lunchbox, India, France and Germany

UNESCO Award: The Painting Pool, Maziar Miri, Iran

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11/12
Yesterday Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk announce the nominees for this year APSA's with 39 films from 21 Asia Pacific countries and areas vying for the region's highest accolade in film; for the first time nominations have gone to films from Bangladesh, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Omar by Hany Abu-Assad received the most nominations with a total of three followed by Like Father, Like Son, The Old Man, My Sweet Pepperland, Television and The Past with two each.

Best Feature Film
Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka (With You, Without You), Prasanna Vithanage, Sri Lanka
*Omar, Hany Abu-Assad, Palestine
Le Passé (The Past), Asghar Farhadi, France and Italy
Soshite chichi ni naru (Like Father, Like Son), Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan
Television, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Bangladesh
The Turning, Australia (Anthology with 18 directors of 18 shorts)

Best Children's Feature Film
*Beom-joe So-nyeon (Juvenile Offender), Korea
Lamma Shoftak (When I Saw You), Palestine and Jordan
Shopping, New Zealand
Tabidachi no Shima Uta – Jugo no Haru (Leaving on the 15th Spring), Japan
Wadjda, Saudi Arabia and Germany

Best Animated Feature Film
Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya (The World of Goopi and Bagha), India
Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises), Japan
*Koo! Kin-Dza-Dza, Russia
Sa-i-bi (The Fake), Korea
Sakasama no Patema (Patema Inverted), Japan

Best Documentary Film
*The Act of Killing, Denmark, Norway and UK
Alam Laysa Lana (A World Not Ours), Lebanon, UK, UAE, Denmark and Palestine
Frihet Bakom Galler (No Burqas Behind Bars), Sweden, Japan, Netherlands and Denmark
Menstrual Man, Singapore and India
Shomrei Hasaf (The Gatekeepers), Israel, France, Germany and Belgium

Achievement in Directing
*Anthony Chen for Ilo Ilo, Singapore
Emir Baigazin for Uroki Garmonii (Harmony Lessons), Kazakhstan, Germany and France
Hiner Saleem for My Sweet Pepperland, Iraqi Kurdistan, France and Germany
Hirokazu Kore-eda for Soshite chichi ni naru (Like Father, Like Son), Japan
Shahram Mokri for Mahi Va Gorbeh (Fish and Cat), Iran

Best Screenplay
Asghar Farhadi for Le Passé (The Past)
Denis Osokin for Nebesnye Ženy Lugovykh Mari (Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari), Russia
Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Anisul Haque for Television, Bangladesh
*Ritesh Batra for The Lunchbox, India, France and Germany
U-Wei Bin Hajisaari for Hanyut (Almayer’s Folly), Malaysia

Achievement in Cinematography
Ehab Assal for Omar, Palestine
*Lu Yue for Yi Jiu Si Er (Back to 1942), China
Mandy Walker for Tracks, Australia and UK
Murat Alyev for Shal (The Old Man), Kazahstan
Rajeev Ravi for Monsoon Shootout, India, UK and Netherlands

Best Performance by an Actress
Ayça Damgacı in Yozgat Blues, Turkey and Germany
Golshifteh Farahani in My Sweet Pepperland, Iraqi Kurdistan, France and Germany
Negar Javaherian in The Painting Pool, Iran
Whirimako Black in Tuakiri Huna (White Lies), New Zealand
*Zhang Ziyi in Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster), Hong Kong and China

Best Performance by an Actor
Aaron Pedersen in Mystery Road, Australia
Adam Bakri in Omar, Palestine
*Lee Byung-hun in Masquerade, Korea
Tatsuya Nakadai in Nippon no higeki (Japan's Tragedy), Japan
Yerbolat Toguzakov in Shal (The Old Man), Kazahkstan

Winners in the feature film categories will be determined by the 2013 APSA International Jury, headed by esteemed Indian screenwriter and director Shyam Benegal, who will lead a group of accomplished Jury members including Korean screenwriter and director Kim Tae-yong, “Queen of Sri Lankan Cinema” actress of stage and screen Hon Dr Malani Fonseka, Turkish actor Tamer Levent, Swiss director Christoph Schaub and Hong Kong producer Albert Lee. The International Jury can also, at its discretion, present a further prize: the Jury Grand Prize, for which nominated narrative feature films are eligible.

The 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Awards ceremony will be held in Brisbane’s historic City Hall on Thursday 12 December.

2013 Lux Prize Winner

A few minutes ago in the European Parliament session the winner of the LUX Prize was announced and is none other than Belgium's submission to Oscar, The Broken Circle Breakdown by Felix Van Groeningen. An excellent drama that recommend as must be seen for those that enjoy great European cinema and strongly suggest you do not get put off by the Alabama Monroe title in some countries nor by the American music in film as the first is one character name and the second is there but absolutely fits narrative.


EP President Martin Schulz congratulated the winner and all the finalists: "By telling stories about who we are or who we could be, European films help to create a cultural consciousness for Europe. Film makers do not need us, European politicians, but we politicians need you, the film makers. Stories and emotions can help to develop identity. European films boost a feeling of togetherness in Europe."

Even though MEPs have already picked their favourite film, the public can still vote for theirs on the LUX prize website or on the LUX Prize Facebook page. One lucky winner will be invited to the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in June/July 2014 where the 10 films competing for next year’s prize will be revealed. To vote go here.

The following news were also announced today: Starting 8 March 2014, French/German broadcaster ARTE will make the film "Die Fremde" by Feo Aladag available online for FREE for three months. The film, which won the LUX Prize in 2010, will be available in all 24 EU languages. If you haven't seen it strongly suggest you do.

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8/27
From the ten films chosen to become the 2013 Official Selection that were announced during the 2013 Karlovy Vary fest, three films continue as finalists for the award that will be announced during a formal sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on December 11th. The three films were recently announced and will be screened during Venice fest in the Venice Days (Giornate degli Autori) section.

For the first time a British film has been shortlisted and it is the second time an Italian director is running for the award which is none other than Valeria Golino's directorial debut.

Miele (Honey), Valeria Golino, France and Italy (Cannes Ecumenical Jury Award-special mention - Un Certain Regard)
The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix Van Groeningen, Belgium (Winner of the Berlinale Audience Award)
The Selfish Giant, Clio Barnad, UK (Cannes Directors' Fortnight)

26th European Film Awards Winners

A nice to watch ceremony full of the very peculiar German humor that allowed us to learn the 2013 winners of this prestigious regional award that for the first time in several years coincide with my opinion (lol) as definitively agree that La Grande Bellezza is a movie that deserves great honors.

The homages to Pedro Almodovar and Catherine Deneuve were so different from each other but both were entertaining, especially watching the film clips collage that bring great memories from the long ago, not long ago and recent past. While Almodovar got the visit of most of his actors (no Penelope, Victoria, Carmen or Antonio) Deneuve got the most touching words from Wes Wenders, so touching that even I became emotional and can't help but to share that both homages were the highlight of the awards show for me.

Winners are in *BLUE. To read info for each movie go to Official site.

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11/9
A few minutes ago at the Seville European Film Festival the European Film Academy announced the nominations for this year. Most were expected and for me this year there is no big surprises among the nominees, unless you consider movies that I did not enjoyed and got nominations in categories that truly are not deserved, sigh.

Excellent The Broken Circle Breakdown by Felix van Groeningen leads with five (5) nominations followed by awesome, opulent and truly decadent La Grande Bellezza by Paolo Sorrentino with four nods (including one for great Toni Servillo, whom already won in my awards).

Please remember that the award calendar runs from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013 and is the reason why the nominations have films from last year. Also, the films must have a director who was born in Europe or has a European passport and Europe has a geographical definition. The more than 2,900 EFA Members will now vote for the winners who will be presented during the awards ceremony on 7 December in Berlin.

There are a couple of new things this year, first EFA already announced the winners in Cinematography, Editing, Design, Costumes and Music & Sound, so listed here are the winners. Second, there is a new category: European Comedy to honor a genre that I do not particularly enjoy but can't deny that have seen half the nominated movies and well, yes, I enjoyed them!

European Film
The Best Offer, Giuseppe Tornatore, Italy
Blancanieves, Pablo Berger, Spain and France
The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen, Belgium
*La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), Paolo Sorrentino, Italy and France
Oh Boy!, Jan Ole Gerster, Germany
La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 & 2 (Blue is the Warmest Color), Adellatif Kechiche, France

European Comedy
Los Amantes Pasajeros (I'm So Excited!), Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
Benvenuto Presidente! (Welcome Mr. President!), Riccardo Milani, Italy
*Den skaldede frisør (Love Is All You Need), Susanne Bier, Denmark
Svecenikova Djeca (The Priest's Children), Vinko Brešan, Croatia and Serbia

European Director
Pablo Berger for Blancanieves
Felix van Groeningen for The Broken Circle Breakdown
Abdellatif Kechiche for La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 & 2 (Blue is the Warmest Color),
François Ozon for Dans La Maison (In the House)
*Paolo Sorrentino for La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty)
Giuseppe Tornatore for The Best Offer

European Actress
Kiera Knightley in Anna Karenina
*Veerle Baetens in The Broken Circle Breakdown
Barbara Sukowa in Hannah Arendt
Naomi Watts in Lo Imposible (The Impossible)
Luminita Gheorghiu in Pozitia Copilului (Child's Pose)

European Actor
Jude Law in Anna Karenina
Johan Heldenbergh in The Broken Circle Breakdown
Fabrice Luchini in Dans La Maison (In the House)
*Toni Servillo in La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty)
Tom Schilling in Oh Boy!

European Screenwriter
Tom Stoppard for Anna Karenina
Giuseppe Tornatore for The Best Offer
Carl Joos and Felix van Groeningen for The Broken Circle Breakdown
*François Ozon for Dans La Maison (In the House)
Paolo Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello for La Garnde Bellezza (The Great Beauty)

European Discovery - Prix FIPRESCI
Äta sova dö (Eat Sleep Die), Gabriela Pichler, Sweden
Call Girl, Mikael Marcimain, Sweden, Norway, Ireland and Finland
Miele (Honey), valeria Golino, Italy and France
*Oh Boy!, Jan Ole Gerster, Germany
La Plaga (The Plague), Neus Ballús, Spain

European Animated Feature Film
*The Congress, Ari Folman, Israel, Germany, Poland, Luxembourg, France and Belgium
Jasmine, Alain Ughetto, France
Pinocchio, Enzo d'AIò, Italy, Luxembourg, France and Belgium

European Documentary
*The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark, Norway and UK
L'Escale (Stop-Over), Kaveh Bakhtiari, Switzerland and France
L'Image Manquante (The Missing Picture), Rithy Panh, France and Cambodia

European Short Film
Cut, Christoph Girardet & Matthias Müller, Germany, 12' (Vila do Conde nominee)
*Dood Van Een Schaduw (Death of a Shadow), Tom Van Avermaet, Belgium and France, 20' (Valladolid nominee)
Houses with Small Windows, Bülent Öztürk, Belgium, 15' (Venice nominee)
La Lampe au Beurre de Yak (Butter Lamp), Hu Wei, France and China, 15' (Drama nominee)
Letter, Sergei Loznitsa, Russia, 20' (documentary) (Krakow nominee)
Misterio (Mystery), Chema García Ibarra, Spain, 12' (Berlin nominee)
Morning, Cathy Brady, UK and Ireland, 21' (Cork nominee)
As Ondas (The Waves), Miguel Fonseca, Portugal, 22' (Ghent nominee)
Orbit Ever After, Jamie Stone, UK, 20' (Bristol nominee)
Skok (Jump), Petar Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva, Bulgaria, 30' (Clermont-Ferrand nominee)
Sonntag 3 (Sunday 3), Jochen Kuhn, Germany, 14' (Tampere nominee)
A Story for the Modlins, Sergio Oksman, Spain, 26' (documentary) (Sarajevo nominee)
Though I Know The River Is Dry, Omar Robert Hamilton, Egypt, Palestine and UK, 20' (Rotterdam nominee)
Yaderni Wydhody (Nuclear Waste), Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, Ukraine, 25' (Grimstad nominee)
Zima, Christina Picchi, Russia, 12' (documentary) (Locarno nominee)

Winners already announced
Carlo di Palma European Cinematographer Award: Asaf Sudry for Lemale et Ha'Halal (Fill The Void), Israel
European Editor: Cristiano Travaglioli for La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), Italy and France
European Production Designer: Sarah Greenwood for Anna Karenina, UK
European Composer: Ennio Morricone for The Best Offer, Italy
European Costume Designer: Paco Delgado for Blancanieves, Spain and France
European Sound Designer: Matz Müller and Erik Mischijew for Paradies: Glaube (Paradise: Faith), Austria, Germany and France

As we already know Catherine Deneuve will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding body of work and Pedro Almodóvar gets the honorary award European Achievement in World Cinema for his outstanding body of work. Both will be honorary guests at the awards ceremony on December 7th in Berlin.

To read about each of the nominated films go here.

86th Academy Awards Visual Effects Shortlist

The Academy's Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee determined the shortlist with 10 contenders that remain in the VFX Oscar race. All members of the Visual Effects Branch will now be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the shortlisted films on Thursday, January 9, 2014. Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.

Have seen most of the films but my instinct tells me that the movie that has much buzz is Gravity and buzz comes mainly for awesome visual effects. We can assume that Gravity is the top contender to win the category. Still lets take a look at each of the films visual effects and maybe we can consider another film to be a contender or maybe not.

Elysium
Director Neill Blomkamp reteamed with Vancouver-based visual effects house Imagine Engine (District 9) for his sci-fi epic. VFX vendors also included Industrial Light + Magic, MPC, Method, Whiskytree, Embassy, 32Ten Studio and Animatrix. Believe that visual effects even if are awesome look/feel more "traditional".



Gravity
Movie has too many groundbreaking visual effects that yes, will transform -again- the visual effects industry that today produces effects that look more real than ever before. Impossible to show all but take a look a this example I chose that also is analyzed in the video.





The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
In my opinion film has excellent but "traditional" visual effects that nowadays seem to be taken for granted, especially when some criticize some characters as according to them look less "real" than those in video games. I tend to agree. There are many videos with the many visual effects but here is one from the VFX company.



Iron Man 3
The way that visual effects are these days is that we definitely are the can-do department, said Chris Townsend. Comments the overall VFX supe on Marvel’s Iron Man 3, reflecting on the crucial role his department played in bringing the film to the big screen. Along with visual effects producer Mark Soper, Townsend co-ordinated 17 studios across the globe and more than 2,000 shots for the Shane Black-directed picture. Here is a 27 minutes short documentary featuring some of the visual effects.



The Lone Ranger
Walt Disney visual effects seem to me VERY traditional but of course, all look real while watching movie. Check video with one sequence.



Oblivion
Did not enjoy much movie but yep is another with lots of VFX's, some quite innovative. Check the video about creating the world of Oblivion.



Pacific Rim
Definitively not my kind of movie but can see the amazing visual effects that in my opinion tend to be of the more "traditional" kind. Some examples.




Star Trek Into Darkness
Many companies involved with VFX's but here is a video from one of them. Again, great visual effects but nothing outstandingly remarkable.



Thor: The Dark World
Lots of "practical" visual effects plus the ones done in computers to create a fantastic world that seem could be real.



World War Z
More "traditional/practical" visual effects as seen in first video plus some of the computer generated that show how "intelligent" animation has become, as seen in the second video.

86th Academy Awards Documentary Shortlist

From the one hundred forty-seven films that originally qualified in the category, fifteen (15) will advance in the voting process in which Documentary Branch members will select the five nominees.

Have seen only two, excellent Sarah Polley's opus Stories We Tell and a documentary that mesmerized me because I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing while impressing me as there is nothing shown but you intensively feel all the horrors, Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing. There are too many American documentaries for my taste but was good news to discover that Lucy Walker has a new documentary which perhaps will see even if know that the story is VERY different to her previous work, and unfortunately there is not much more that calls my attention but believe that the two mentioned above have high possibilities to be nominated and maybe one will win.

The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer, Anonymous and Christine Cynn, Denmark, Norway and UK

A documentary that challenges former Indonesian death squad leaders to reenact their real-life mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.



The Armstrong Lie, Alex Gibney, USA

A documentary chronicling sports legend Lance Armstrong's improbable rise and ultimate fall from grace.



Blackfish, Gabriela Cowperthwaite,USA

Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.



The Crash Reel, Lucy Walker, USA

Fifteen years of verite footage show the epic rivalry between half-pipe legends Shaun White and Kevin Pearce, childhood friends who become number one and two in the world leading up to the Vancouver Winter Olympics, pushing one another to ever more dangerous tricks, until Kevin crashes on a Park City half-pipe, barely surviving. As Kevin recovers from his injury, Shaun wins Gold. Now all Kevin wants to do is get on his snowboard again, even though medics and family fear this could kill him. We also celebrate Sarah Burke who crashed in Park City and died January 19, 2012.



Cutie and the Boxer, Zachary Heinzerling, USA

For years, Ushio Shinohara has been one of the leading, and most underappreciated, alternative artists in Japan and New York City with an wildly esoteric style. For many of those years, his wife, Noriko, has been a faithful companion to this idiosyncratic man, but grew want to be more. This film covers the relationship of these special couple as Ushio struggles for commercial success on his own terms. Meanwhile, we also follow Noriko pursuing her own artistic vision with her semi-autobiographical line art project that reveals much about her own soul as eloquently as her husband's work.



Dirty Wars, Rick Rowley, USA, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen

Dirty Wars follows investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill, author of the international bestseller Blackwater, into the hidden world of America's covert wars, from Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia, and beyond. Part action film and part detective story, Dirty Wars is a gripping journey into one of the most important and underreported stories of our time. What begins as a report on a deadly U.S. night raid in a remote corner of Afghanistan quickly turns into a global investigation of the secretive and powerful Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). As Scahill digs deeper into the activities of JSOC, he is pulled into a world of covert operations unknown to the public and carried out across the globe by men who do not exist on paper and will never appear before Congress. In military jargon, JSOC teams "find, fix, and finish" their targets, who are selected through a secret process. No target is off limits for the "kill list," including U.S. citizens.



First Cousin Once Removed, Alan Berliner, USA

This is filmmaker Alan Berliner's intimate portrait of his distant cousin, friend and former mentor Edwin Honig, who is living out the last years of his life with Alzheimer's. Honig was once a prominent and highly successful poet, translator, literary critic and university lecturer. In the final stage of his disease, however, he has lost almost all connection with his own past, his family and his personal identity. But sometimes in conversation his poetic soul flickers back to life again, producing beautiful moments in the film. This sensitive documentary tackles Edwin Honig's illness with compassion and humor, describing the story of his life with the same raw candor that characterized his poetry. Conversations with friends and family members paint a fragmentary picture of a life marked by tragedy, love, loss, irony and literary daring. Together, Honig's personal history and the study of his mental decline are more than the sum of their parts: this is a film essay on the function of memory and the importance of our ability to remember and forget.



God Loves Uganda, Roger Ross Williams, USA

A powerful exploration of the evangelical campaign to infuse African culture with values imported from America's Christian Right. The film follows American and Ugandan religious leaders fighting sexual immorality and missionaries trying to convince Ugandans to follow biblical law.



Life According to Sam, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix

'Life According to Sam' is about one family's courageous fight to save their only son from a rare and fatal disease, progeria. The average age of death from progeria is 13, there is no treatment, and no cure. Dr. Leslie Gordon and Dr. Scott Berns are set on changing this. When their son Sam, now 16 years old, was diagnosed with progeria at age two, doctors told Leslie and Scott to enjoy Sam while they could. They refused to believe this was the answer. In less than a decade, their advances have led to identifying the gene at fault, creating the first drug trials for treatment, and revealing the amazing discovery that progeria is linked to the aging process in all of us.




Pokazatelnyy protsess: Istoriya Pussy Riot (Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer), Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, Russia and UK

Three young women face seven years in a Russian prison for a satirical performance in a Moscow cathedral. But who is really on trial in a case that has gripped the nation and the world beyond, three young artists or the society they live in?



Al Midan (The Square), Jehane Noujaim, Egypt and USA

'The Square' is an intimate observational documentary that tells the real story of the ongoing struggle of the Egyptian Revolution through the eyes of six very different protesters. Starting in the tents of Tahrir in the days leading up to the fall of Mubarak, we follow our characters on a life-changing journey through the euphoria of victory into the uncertainties and dangers of the current 'transitional period' under military rule, where everything they fought for is now under threat or in balance.



Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley, Canada

In this inspired, genre-twisting new film, Oscar-nominated writer/director Sarah Polley discovers that the truth depends on who's telling it. Polley is both filmmaker and detective as she investigates the secrets kept by a family of storytellers. She playfully interviews and interrogates a cast of characters of varying reliability, eliciting refreshingly candid, yet mostly contradictory, answers to the same questions. As each relates their version of the family mythology, present-day recollections shift into nostalgia-tinged glimpses of their mother, who departed too soon, leaving a trail of unanswered questions. Polley unravels the paradoxes to reveal the essence of family: always complicated, warmly messy and fiercely loving. Stories We Tell explores the elusive nature of truth and memory, but at its core is a deeply personal film about how our narratives shape and define us as individuals and families, all interconnecting to paint a profound, funny and poignant picture of the ...



Tim’s Vermeer, Teller, USA

Inventor Tim Jenison seeks to understand the painting techniques used by Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer.



20 Feet from Stardom, Morgan Neville, USA

The backup singer exists in a strange place in the pop music world; they are always in the shadow of the feature artists even when they are in front of them in concert while they provide a vital foundation for the music. Through interviews with veterans and concert footage, the history of these predominately African-American singers is explored through the rock era. Furthermore, special focus is given to special stand outs who endeavored to make a living in the art burdened with a low profile and more personal career frustrations, especially those who faced the very different challenge of singing in the spotlight themselves.



Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger, USA

A moving portrait of the acclaimed war photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington by his RESTREPO co-director - journalist Sebastian Junger.

86th Academy Awards Live Action Shorts Shortlist

From 120 films that originally qualified in the category here are the 10 that advance in the voting process for an opportunity to get a nomination.

The Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting at screenings held in Los Angeles. Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select three to five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in December.

Only one really calls my attention for the images, Helium but know story will be hard to see; perhaps worth watching are the shorts from Canada and UK.

The 86th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 16, 2014, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Shorts in alphabetical order.

Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me), Esteban Crespo, Spain,23 minutes

The short film tells the story of Paula y Kaney, two characters -an African child and a Spanish woman- who don´t have anything in common, but who will unite their lives due to a gunshot. Kaney is a child soldier from an African country. Along with many other children, he obeys a man´s order that has become a father, the General of the Rebel Army. Paula (Alejandra Lorente) is a Spanish volunteer worker who goes to Africa with his boyfriend, Juanjo (Gustavo Salmerón) with the goal of helping and rescuing the child soldier who live there. At a border post Paula and Kaney meet for the first time and that is the starting point of this dramatic story, in a fear, violence, terror and redemption scenario.




TRAILER Aquel no era yo from quieneslala on Vimeo.

Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything), Xavier Legrand, France, 29 minutes
Grand Prix winner at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.

A young boy pretends going to school and hides under a small bridge. A teenager in tears waits at a bus stop. A woman picks them up and drives them to the parking lot of a supermarket. They step out of the car. The woman takes a big trash bag out of the trunk. All three rush inside the store...

Making of

Tournage AQDTP from bertrand PICAULT on Vimeo.

Dva (Two), Mikey Nedimovic, Croatia and Germany, 26 minutes

Croatia, 1993. Two marksmen - Robert, a Croat, and Stojan, a Serb - wander aimlessly through the desolate countryside. When their paths unexpectedly cross, the enemies immediately try to shoot each other. The first 'click', however, is not coming from a gun barrel, but from the ground beneath them: the enemies stepped on a landmine at the same time. One foot in the grave, they are involuntarily bound together by common destiny - the death of one means the death of the other. But not just their apparent differences make it difficult for them to overcome their dilemma. Nature, too, offers some challenges to test the soldiers' solidarity and survival skills.

Helium, Anders Walter, Denmark, 23 minutes

"Helium" is the story of the young boy Alfred who is seriously ill in the hospital. He becomes good friends with the eccentric cleaning man Enzo and together they develop a magical fantasy world named Helium.



Kush, Shubhashish Bhutiani, India, 20 minutes
Winner of Best Short Film at 2013 Venice Film Festival Horizons Award.

Inspired by a true story: In 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards, causing anti-Sikh riots to erupt throughout the country. A teacher travelling back from a field trip with her class of 10-year-old students struggles to protect Kush, the only Sikh student in the class, from the growing violence around him.



Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?), Selma Vilhunen, Finland, 7 minutes

A comedy about a chaotic morning in a family with kids, and a mother who is determined that it’s best to take care of everything herself.



Record/Play, Jesse Atlas, USA, 11 minutes

A malfunctioning cassette tape captures more than just audio.

Teaser

RECORD/PLAY: TEASER from jesse atlas on Vimeo.


RECORD/PLAY from jesse atlas on Vimeo.

Throat Song, Miranda de Pencier, Canada, 15 minutes

Throat Song takes place in the small Arctic town of Iqaluit, Nunavut. In the snowy and mystic landscape of the Arctic, Ippik, a young Inuit woman, is caught up in an abusive relationship with her alcoholic husband. When Ippik gets a job with the Department of Justice, prepping victims of crimes for court, she connects with others in her community who are also suffering from pains of abuse. In hearing their stories, Ippik finds the strength to leave her husband and discovers that her voice is not yet entirely diminished.



Tiger Boy, Gabriele Mainetti, Italy, 20 minutes
2013 Nastro d'argento Best Short Film winner.

Matteo, a nine years old kid, builds a mask identical to the one of his hero: a wrestler of a roman suburb called The Tiger. Once the mask is on, Matteo never wants to take it off. What simply appears as a tantrum is in reality a call for help that nobody seems to hear.



The Voorman Problem, Mark Gill, UK, 13 minutes

Doctor Williams is called in to examine the enigmatic Mr Voorman, a prisoner with a peculiar affliction: he believes he is a god. The Doctor must decide on the sanity of Mr Voorman - is he a faker or a lunatic? Diagnose him insane and they can ship him off to the asylum. But before making a decision, the Doctor has several questions in relation to Voorman's claims: why would a god choose to be straitjacketed in a prison, is there a way he can validate his boast and what has any of this got to do with Belgium?

86th Academy Awards Animated Shorts Shortlist

A few days ago the Academy announced that from the fifty-six (56) films that qualified, ten (10) Animated Shorts will advance in the voting process.

After watching all available materials my first impression is that Feral and Mr. Hublot are the ones that absolutely call my attention for the story and the execution.

The following are the shortlisted films.

Feral, Daniel Sousa, director, and Dan Golden, music and sound design (Daniel Sousa), USA, 13 minutes
A wild boy is found in the woods by a solitary hunter and brought back to civilization. Alienated by a strange new environment, the boy tries to adapt by using the same strategies that kept him safe in the forest.



Get a Horse!, Lauren MacMullan, director, and Dorothy McKim, producer (Walt Disney Feature Animation), USA, 6 minutes
Get a Horse! begins traditionally enough: Mickey and friends are enjoying a ride through the great outdoors when they are waylaid by antagonist Peg-Leg Pete. Till this point, the picture mimics the look and feel of vintage, Steamboat Willie-era Disney: black and white, simple shapes, and a rubbery consistency to the limbs and movements of the characters. This portion of the short features hand-drawn animation supervised by veteran Eric Goldberg, who designed the Genie in 1992's Aladdin, and the picture is intentionally degraded with artifacts and filters to give it a vibe of authentically aged film stock. Completing the illusion is Walt Disney himself as the voice of Mickey Mouse, a feat accomplished by piecing together audio recordings from studio archives. Shortly after Pete arrives on the scene, the fourth wall is broken, and things really get interesting. As Mickey and his cohorts jump off the screen, out of their black-and-white world, they dive into a widescreen universe of color where they become fully realized as CG-animated characters. A series of chase scenes finds them quickly alternating between the two realities, with the hand-drawn and CG elements deftly mixing in a surprisingly seamless way.

Gloria Victoria, Theodore Ushev, director (National Film Board of Canada), Canada, 7 minutes
Recycling elements of surrealism and cubism, this animated short by Theodore Ushev focuses on the relationship between art and war. Propelled by the exalting “invasion” theme from Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony (No. 7), the film presents imagery of combat fronts and massacres, leading us from Dresden to Guernica, from the Spanish Civil War to Star Wars. It is at once a symphony that serves the war machine, that stirs the masses, and art that mourns the dead, voices its outrage and calls for peace.

Gloria Victoria par Theodore Ushev, Office national du film du Canada

Hollow Land (Terre d'écueil), Uri Kranot and Michelle Kranot, directors (Dansk Tegnefilm, Les Films de l’Arlequin and the National Film Board of Canada), Denmark, Canada and France, 14 minutes

With their old bathtub in tow, a displaced couple arrives in a new land, where all is not as they expected it to be. Awaiting the birth of their first child, and in their effort to adjust to an oddly oppressive environment, they are challenged by cultural/gender roles and customs. “Hollow Land” is a brilliant animated film that captures the disruptions, and corrosive anxieties that are part of daily life for so many immigrants, refugees and misfits around the world. Asburd, dark and awkardly playful; it is an insightful story about humans.




Watch full short here.

The Missing Scarf, Eoin Duffy, director, and Jamie Hogan, producer (Belly Creative Inc.), Ireland, 7 minutes

On a quest to find his missing scarf, Albert the squirrel unearths problems far beyond his own.


The Missing Scarf – Teaser from Eoin Duffy on Vimeo.

Mr. Hublot, Laurent Witz, director, and Alexandre Espigares, co-director (Zeilt Productions), Luxembourg and France, 11 minutes

Mr Hublot is a withdrawn, idiosyncratic character with OCD, scared of change and the outside world. Robot Pet's arrival turns his life upside down: he has to share his home with this very invasive companion...




「九十九」 Tsukumo (Possessions), Shuhei Morita, director (Sunrise Inc.), Japan, 14 minutes

One night in the 18th Century, deep in the mountains, a man loses his way and comes across a small shrine. As he enters, the space transforms into a room of a different world. (Short is part of Katsuhiro Otomo and Sunrise's anthology Short Peace at Annecy film Festival)



Requiem for Romance, Jonathan Ng, director (Kungfu Romance Productions Inc.), Canada, 8 minutes

A modern-day couple’s secret love affair comes to a bittersweet end during an evening phone call. Cell phone static creates distance between them as they anguish over details of their relationship. But the visuals of the film reveal something entirely different: the epic re-imagining of their relationship set in feudal China, where family influence, cultural pressures and their lust for adventure makes more sense. Coming this spring, love goes to war over art.



Room on the Broom, Max Lang and Jan Lachauer, directors (Magic Light Pictures), UK, 25 minutes

To the annoyance of her cat a kindly witch allows a dog,a bird and a frog who have helped her retrieve things she has lost to ride on her broomstick,making it top heavy. The broom is destroyed by a fire-breathing dragon who threatens to eat the witch but the creatures band together to impersonate a monster and save her. As a result she fashions a luxurious new broom with seats on which they can all ride comfortably.



Watch full short here.

Subconscious Password, Chris Landreth, director (National Film Board of Canada with the participation of Seneca College Animation Arts Centre and Copperheart Entertainment), Canada, 11 minutes

In this short animation, Oscar®-winning director Chris Landreth uses a common social gaffe - forgetting somebody’s name - as the starting point for a mind-bending romp through the unconscious. Inspired by the classic TV game show Password, the film features a wealth of animated celebrity guests who try (and try, and try) to prompt Charles to remember the name. Finally, he realizes he will simply have to surrender himself to his predicament.

Subconscious Password by Chris Landreth, National Film Board of Canada

Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select three to five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. The 86th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 16, 2014, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.