CWC :: Oscar Shorts 2010

Program A ~ Film Descriptions
Total Run Time 106 minutes.

But first, a word from our sponsors...
Directors: Various, 5 minutes, international.

A brief compilation of hilarious commercials from around the world.

FRENCH ROAST Animation Oscar Nominee
Director Fabrice Joubert, France, 2009, 8 minutes, in French with English subtitles.

Set in a Parisian café, you don't have to speak the language to see that the central figure is a stuffed-shirt. Leisurely reading the financial news, he ignores the waiter serving him and blows off a beggar asking for money. But things change when he discovers he has forgotten his wallet and then orders coffee after coffee, prolonging the moment of payment.

With visual styling reminiscent of the Triplets of Belleville, director Fabrice Joubert melds urbane comedy with social commentary on class distinctions. And, the plot twist at the end is icing on the cake.

Before directing his first CG animated short film, Fabrice Olivier Joubert worked as a traditional CG and stop motion animator. MORE...

FILMMAKER BIO

Before directing his first CG animated short film, Fabrice Olivier Joubert worked as a traditional CG and stop motion animator. From 1997 to 2006 he animated at DreamWorks on The Prince of Egypt (1998), The Road to El Dorado (2000), Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), Shark Tale (2004) and Flushed Away (2006).

In 2005, he worked on the stop motion feature Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) directed by Nick Park (Aardman Studios). He is currently Animation Director on the upcoming feature A Monster in Paris directed by Eric Bergeron.

AWARDS & FESTIVALS
AWARDS
Academy Awards, USA — Oscar Nominee, Best Animated Short Film, ;
Leeds International Film Festival — Audience Award;
Bradford Animation Festival — Best Professional Film;
Cinanima International Animated Film Festival — Best Animation;
ViewFest Digital Movie Festival — Best 3D Character Design;
Anima Córdoba — Best Animation Prize;
Art Futura Show — 2nd Prize;
Animanima — Best Animation (Jury's Special Distinction);
Prix Ars Electronica: Intl CyberArts Competition — Honorary Mention;
Ballston Spa Film Festival — Best Animated Film;
Siggraph Computer Animation Festival — Best in Show Award;
Cinefiesta Puerto Rico Intl Short Film Festival — Honorary Mention;
Anima Mundi — Best Art Direction;
Atlanta Film Festival — Best Animated Short;
Foyle Film Festival — Best Animation;
Festival Voix d'Etoiles — Audience Award.

OTHER FESTIVALS
Amsterdam Animation Festival; Palm Springs International ShortFest; Seattle International Film Festival; Austin Film Festival; Wiesbaden International Weekend of Animation; Ottawa International Animation Festival; Malibu International Film Festival; Traverse City Film Festival; Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival; Melbourne International Animation Festival; Encounters Short Film Festival; Cine Preméres: Groningen Film Festival; Filmets: Badalona International Short Film Festival; Interfilm: Berlin International Short Film Festival; Animacor; Art Futura Show; ViewFest Digital Movie Festival; Animatu: International Digital Animation Festival; Festival International des Jeunes Réalisteurs de St Jean de Luz; Anim'est International Animation Festival; Curtocircuito: International Short Film Festival; Shnit Short Film Festival; Krok: International Animated Film Festival; ANIMANIMA: International Animation Festival; 1 Reel Film Festival; San Joaquin French Cinema Day; Odense Film Festival; Giffoni International Film Festival for Young People.

KAVI Live-Action Oscar Nominee
Director Gregg Helvey, India/USA, 2009, 19 minutes, in Hindi with English subtitles.

Kavi is a boy in India who wants to play cricket and go to school, but instead he is forced to work at a brick kiln as a modern-day slave. Unsatisfied with his fate, Kavi must either accept it or fight for a different life even if he's unsure of the ultimate outcome. The film brings Slumdog Millionaire to mind, and it is worth noting that Kavi was written and filmed before the creation of Slumdog.

Gregg Helvey wrote, directed and produced Kavi, which won the 2009 Student Academy Award gold medal MORE...

FILMMAKER BIO

Gregg Helvey wrote, directed and produced Kavi, which won the 2009 Student Academy Award ® gold medal in the narrative category. He has travelled the world to film in countries such as El Salvador, China, Kenya and England on projects ranging from National Geographic and BBC1 documentaries to independent fictional films.

As a filmmaker, Helvey seeks to combine his passion for social justice with powerful story telling. One of his goals for Kavi is to partner with anti-slavery organizations and to use the film to raise awareness about modern-day slavery. Additionally, this short film is the basis for the feature length version.

With a B.A. in English and French from the University of Virginia, Helvey received his M.F.A in film production from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

AWARDS & FESTIVALS

AWARDS
Academy Awards, USA — Oscar Nominee, Best Live-Action Short Film, ;
36th Annual Student Academy Awards® — Gold Medal, Best Short Narrative;
Palm Springs International ShortsFest — Best of Fest;
USA Film Festival — Grand Jury Prize, Best Short Film;
Heartland Film Festival — Crystal Heart Award;
Angelus Student Film Festival — Triumph of the Spirit Award;
International Short Film Festival of Drama, Greece — Grand Jury Prize;
HATCH Fest — Best Director, Best Short Film;
Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles — Audience Award;
South Asian International Film Festival — Audience Award;
Indian Film Festival of Houston — Best Short Film;
Olympia International Film Festival For Young People — Best Short Fiction Film.

OTHER FESTIVALS & SELECTED SCREENINGS
U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs; Middle East International Film Festival; Sidewalk Moving Pictures Festival; Rhode Island International Film Festival; Raindance; Nashville Film Festival; BendFilm Festival; Virginia Film Festival; Florida South Asian Film Festival.

AFTERNOON DELIGHT Animation Bonus Short
Director Michael Varnum, USA, 2008, 2.25 minutes, in English.

Making a professional housecall, Candi knocks on the wrong door and a case of mistaken identity ensues. Sweet, mildly provocative and funny, you will never look at Fruit Rollups in the same way again.

Now working in Los Angeles as a 3D artist/animator, Michael studied fine arts at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and received his BFA in Computer Animation from the Ringling College of Art & Design in 2008. Since then he has worked on various augmented reality projects including one for James Cameron's Avatar.

Created as his senior thesis, Afternoon Delight placed fifth, out of 1,400 entries, in the 2008 aniBoom online competition. Learn more about this talented young animator: michaelvarnum.com and michaelvarnum.blogspot.com.

MIRACLE FISH Live-Action Oscar Nominee
Director Luke Doolan, Australia, 2008, 17 minutes, in English.

Premiering at Sundance and well received at festivals, Miracle Fish examines the ways in which the words we use and the actions we take impact our everyday lives. Combining elements of fantasy, sci-fi and coming of age drama, this short film is simultaneously magical, suspenseful and haunting - one that will keep you hanging until the startling final plot twist.

Eight-year-old Joe has a Birthday he will never forget. After classmates tease him at school because he is poor, Joe escapes to the infirmary, where, ignored by the school nurse, he falls asleep wishing everyone in the world would go away. Joe wakes later to find his dream may have come true - an empty school has become his personal playground. But Joe soon realizes that something else is going on and he is confronted by a young man who is both frightening yet strangely familiar.

Luke Doolan's experience includes credits as a director, editor and cinematographer, across music MORE...

FILMMAKER BIO

Luke Doolan's experience includes credits as a director, editor and cinematographer, across music videos, commercials, shorts, and features. His early days of film editing were spent assisting legendary editor Jill Bilcock on Moulin Rouge. Luke has previously shot and edited Previsualisation on Baz Luhrman's Alexander and Australia and George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode III.

Luke has handled concept and editing for the last four years on Nash Edgerton's shorts including Spider, Lucky and Fuel, for which he won Best Editing at The St. Kilda Film Festival, Australia. In addition to his short film collaborations with Nash, Luke edited David Michod's short film Crossbow, and Anthony Hayes' debut feature Ten Empty.

AWARDS

AWARDS
Academy Awards, USA — Oscar Nominee, Best Live-Action Short Film, ;
Sydney International Film Festival - Dendy Award for Best Live Action Short;
Aspen Shortsfest — BAFTA/LA Certificate of Excellence;
Aspen Shortsfest — Winner Youth Jury Prize;
Australian Film Institute Awards — Winner Best Short Fiction Film and Best Screenplay in Short Film;
Method Fest — Best Short Film Nominee;
Swansea Bay Film Festival — Best Film Under 20 minutes Nominee;
St Kilda Film Festival — Winner, Short Film Competition Prize, Winner SBS Television Award, Winner Craft Award;
St Kilda Film Festival — Nominee, Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor;
International Film Festival Ireland — Best International Film Nominee;
Trimedia Film Festival — Jury Award for Best International Short Film;
In The Bin Film Festival — Best Director and Best Short Film;
Woodstock Film Festival — Honorable Mention Best Short Narrative Award;
CurtoCircuito — Onda Curta RTP prize;
Ft Lauderdale Intl Film Festival — Special Jury Prize for Short Subject Production;
San Sebastián Fantasy Film Festival — Youth Jury Award for Best Short Film;
Coasties Film Festival — Avoca Beach Prize;
Encounters International Short Film Festival — UK Film Council Audience Award;
Anchorage International Film Festival — Runner Up Best Short Film;
Flickerfest — Special Jury Award and Best Cinematography in an Australian Short Film;
Victoria Independent Film Festival — Best Film Under 20 Minutes;
Taos Shortz Film Festival — Winner Best Dramatic Fiction.

OTHER FESTIVALS
Sundance Film Festival; Montreal World Film Festival; Edinburgh International Film Festival; Palm Springs International Shortsfest; Brisbane International Film Festival; Ozflix; Prends ca court; Atlanta International Film Festival; Arizona International Film Festival; Hawaii International Film Festival; Istanbul International Short Film Festival; Stockholm International Film Festival; Foyle Film Festival; New Orleans Film Festival.

THE KINEMATOGRAPH Animation Bonus Short
Director Tomek Baginski, Poland, 2009, 12 minutes, in English.

On this year's Oscar shortlist, The Kinematograph is a moving love story about a man struggling to create motion pictures at the end of the 19th century, just before the Lumiere Brothers announced their own similar invention.

Based on a graphic novella by Mateusz Skutnik, the film is influenced by Baginski's penchant for muted palettes and stylized, romantic figures. It also relies heavily upon music to convey love and emotions, using original compositions by Adam Skorupa and Pawel Blaszczyk, performed by the sinfonia ViVA conducted by Krzysztof Herdzin.

You may recognize Tomek Baginski's unique style and use of color, as CWC presented his debut short film, Academy Award nominee The Cathedral, as part of Oscar Shorts 2003. A quick study in the ways of the film world, Baginski created a version in English, for world-wide release, and a version in Polish, for exhibition in his home country.

Baginski is a self-taught artist who left architecture studies to make films. MORE...

FILMMAKER BIO

Baginski is a self-taught artist who left architecture studies to make films. His student film Rain won several local awards in 1998 and gained him entry to Warsaw's prestigious Platige Image studio, where he currently works as an Art Director.

Cathedral, 2002, won first prize for Best Animated Short at the largest animation and special effects festival SIGGRAPH and was nominated a year later for an Academy Award in the category Best Animated Short Film. In 2004 he completed his second short animated film, Fallen Art, which won the Jury prize at the SIGGRAPH festival in 2005 where he became the first person in the history of the festival to have won both main prizes. The confirmation of the success of both The Cathedral and Fallen Art are numerous awards and the films' screenings at dozens of international festivals. He also received BAFTA Film Award for Best Short Animation.

When not working on his own projects Baginski produces special effects and animation for film and advertising productions (over fifty completed projects). No stranger to theatre productions, he is the designer of a virtual set for a commemorative concert of Krzysztof Penderecki entitled Seven Gates Of Jerusalem which was the basis for a musical-ballet film nominated by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for Emmy Award 2009. Baginski is currently working on his first feature-length film.

AWARDS

AWARDS & FESTIVALS
Partial Listing - more info will be added when available
66th Venice International Film Festival — Official Selection;
Animago 2009, Berlin — First Prize, Animated Short;
Monstra Animation Festival, Lisbon — Official Selection;
34th Polish Film Festival, Gdynia — Official Selection.

EXTREME SHEEP Live-Action Bonus Short
Director James Rouse, Wales/UK, 2009, 2.75 minutes, in English.

To create this compelling Internet video, the folks at The Viral Factory UK dressed hundreds of sheep in little LED jackets and filmed shepherds and herding dogs as they moved the flocks into various comedic displays on a hillside in Wales.

Intended to convey the brilliance of Samsung's LED television line, what you see is an engaging, creative documentary, as the crews set up their day and night time shots, the dogs execute the choreography and the brightly-lit sheep cooperate .

Released in March, 2009, Extreme Sheep, LED became wildly popular with over 11 million views on the Internet and recognized as outstanding by the BBC, The Guardian, The New York Times and ABC's Good Morning America. All of which pleased TVF's client, Samsung UK. Watch the behind-the-scenes featurette.

The Viral Factory is a top-tier digital marketing and media company with offices in London and Santa Monica. Their highly creative, visionary work (you might remember "Ford Sportka - the Ka's Evil Twin"), has garnered dozens of awards while exceeding the expectations of clients throughout Europe and the U.S. Visit their website: theviralfactory.com.

LOGORAMA Animation Oscar Winner
Directors François Alaux, Hervé Crécy and Ludovic Houplain, France, 2009, 16 minutes, in English with French subtitles.

The most inventive of all Oscar nominees this year and already a cult favorite with graphic design and advertising types, Logorama is unique in that every single thing in it is a recognizable corporate logo. Also noteworthy - the dialogue is in English with French subtitles, not vice-versa.

Logorama can be enjoyed on multiple levels:

A fast-paced parody of Hollywood action and disaster movies and their penchant for flagrant product placement.

An homage to the logos, signs, symbols and referents created by the global design/branding community.

An astonishing piece of subversive allegory. (Or perhaps a triumphant embrace?)

An extreme action film with Ronald McDonald as a psychotic killer who rubs out Big Boy and Mr. Peanut; Michelin men as profane cops in pursuit; swat teams, high-speed chases, helicopters, hostage situations, an earthquake, animals escaping from the zoo; and cameos by Mr. Clean, the Pringles Man and the Jolly Green Giant.

Audacious, funny, unique, surreal. And quite possibly the fastest 16 minutes you will experience watching a film.

THE FILMMAKERS...

FILMMAKER BIO

Mssrs. Alaux, Crécy and Houplain are principals within H5, a graphic studio renowned for its CD/DVD covers (Superdiscount, Air, Demon) and artistic direction (Dior, Cartier,YSL), videos (Alex Gopher, Massive Attack, Goldfrapp, Ryksopp), and regular exhibitions of their artistic talents (2007 Nuit Blanche, Beaubourg, MoMA).

Logorama co-director Hervé Crécy:

"We wanted the film to transcend the lazy criticism of branding in general. As a group of image-makers ourselves, we wanted to construct a tribute to the designers who've created the brands that now make up our urban landscape."

AWARDS & FESTIVALS

AWARDS
Academy Awards, USA — Oscar Winner, Best Animated Short Film;
Festival du Cannes, France — Best Short Animated Film;
Festival Int'l de curtas metragens, Portugal — Audience Award Best Short;
Lille Int'l Short Film Festival — Audience Award;
Cinanima Int'l Animated Film Festival, Portugal — Jury Prize & Audience Award;
Cinanima Int'l Animated Film Festival, Portugal — Best Director;
Stockholm Int'l Film Festival, Sweden — Best Short Film;
Vendome Film Festival, France — Best Direction & Audience Award;
Bilbao Int'l Film Festival, Spain — Gold Medal for Animation;
Clermont-Ferrand Int'l Film Festival, France — Audi National Award;
Anima Bruxelles — Prix du public du meilleur court-métrage

INSTEAD OF ABRACADABRA Live-Action Oscar Nominee
Director Patrik Eklund, Sweden, 2008, 22 minutes, in Swedish with English subtitles.

Tomas, a 25-year-old wannabe magician who still lives with his parents, is unwilling to accept the fact that he will never make a decent living as an illusionist. With his dad pushing him to get a real job, Tomas reluctantly agrees - but only if he can perform his magic act at his father's upcoming 60th birthday party.

The pursuit of magic has taken a toll on the household - Tomas lost temporary sight in one eye due to a trick gone wrong, and when he tries to convince his father that this magic will soon pay off, the inept trickster accidentally stabs his mother with a sword while performing a routine in the living room. His father, Bengt, is very nervous about Tomas' scheduled performance at his birthday party.

Then Tomas meets their new neighbor, a sexy single mother who has him over for a kids' magic show. Smitten, he decides that maybe he should give the magic business another shot. Which all leads up to the big show at his father's birthday party. There is blood. There are screams. And there are surprises aplenty.

The writing, casting and performances are great -- Mom and Dad are drolly hilarious in their own right, and Tomas proves to be an eccentric and loveable character, complete with cheesy mustache and ridiculous costumes.

Patrik Eklund is one of Sweden's most talented and productive young directors. MORE...

FILMMAKER BIO

Patrik Eklund is one of Sweden's most talented and productive young directors. For the last three years, he has filmed one short film a year and won numerous awards at prestigious film festivals. Situation Frank (2007) tells the story of a middle-aged man who finds his wife dead in the bathtub. Instead of Abracadabra (2008) is one of five films nominated for the 2010 Academy Award for best short film.

Eklund's newest film, Seeds of the Fall (2009) portrays a middle-aged couple, who live in a passionless relationship - until an incident ends up changing their relationship. The film got its world premiere in Cannes last May and was immediately rewarded with the esteemed Critics week award. The film was also selected to the repertoire of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Born in 1978, Eklund lives in Stockholm, where he also runs his production company, FrameStation. Trusted actor Jacob Nordenson and dry, black humour are recurrent elements in Eklund's films. In addition to short films, Eklund has directed a TV film called Den ryska dorren (2008) and now he is working on his first feature film.

AWARDS & FESTIVALS

AWARDS & FESTIVALS
Oscar Nominee, Best Live-Action Short Film, Academy Awards, USA;
Festival Tous Courts; Short Film Festival of Lyon-Villeurbanne; Festival Internacional de Filmets de Badalona; Kiev International Film Festival Molodist; Sao Paolo International Film Festival; Hamptons International Film Festival; Tacoma Film Festival; Milwaukee International Film Festival; International Best of Short Films Festival; Milano Film Festival; 1 Reel Film Festival; InDPanda International Short Film Festival; Melbourne International Film Festival; Expresión en Corto International Film Festival; ERA New Horizons Film Festival; Just For Laughs Film Festival; Los Angeles Film Festival; BAMcinemaFest; Kratkofil International Short Film Festival; International Short Film Festival Hamburg; Timeisshort Film Festival; Brussels Short Film Festival; Newport Beach Film Festival; IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival; Independent Film Festival of Boston; Reel Shorts Film Festival; Filmfest DC - The Washington DC International Film Festival; Nashville Film Festival; Aspen Shortsfest; Florida Film Festival; Sarasota Film Festival; Cleveland International Film Festival; Go Short International Short Film Festival Nijmegen; Minimalen Short Film Festival; Festival du Film Européen of Lille; Cinequest Film Festival; Sundance Film Festival; Tromso International Film Festival; Vendome Film Festival; International Short Film Festival Leuven; Regensburg Short Film Week; Brest European Short Film Festival; Leeds International Film Festival; Warsaw International Film Festival; Calgary International Film Festival; Atlantic Film Festival.

Presentation sequence and bonus films are subject to change.

Program B ~ Film Descriptions
Total Run Time 107 minutes.

But first, a word from our sponsors...
Directors: Various, 5 minutes, international.

A brief compilation of hilarious commercials from around the world.

GRANNY O'GRIMM'S SLEEPING BEAUTY Animation Oscar Nominee
Director Nicky Phelan, Ireland, 2008, 6 minutes, in English.

The premise is familiar: a grandmother offers to tell her young granddaughter a bedtime story. But, this grandma isn't the kind who would make you cookies and tuck you in. Granny is a bit demented (with appearance to match) and repeatedly strays from her rendition of the classic fairytale "Sleeping Beauty" to rage against personal slights real or imagined. In reality, she's scaring the child to death with tales of an evil fairy who casts a spell on Sleeping Beauty. Later, Granny sings the girl a lullaby whose repeated refrain is "they will die."

Nicky Phelan's quirky animated film shares an amusing look at twisted adult behavior through the eyes of a child. The script was written and performed with cackling glee by Kathleen O'Rourke as Granny, who originally was doing the character as a part of a cabaret act. The film uses a flat, hand-drawn style to visualize Granny's story and a more dimensional CG look for Granny and her captive audience. Granny's voice and hair are enough to terrify all but the staunchest Gray Panther.

Nicky Phelan studied animation in Dublin, graduating in 2003. MORE...

FILMMAKER BIO

Nicky Phelan studied animation in Dublin, graduating in 2003. Currently an Animation Director and Character Designer with Brown Bag Films, he directed two seasons of Crap Rap, an animated series he created and wrote for the RTE network, nominated in the Best Television Series Category at the Annecy Animation Festival. Nicky has also designed and directed numerous television commercials for Irish and international clients. He is currently Animation Director on Chorion's 52 x 11 minute animated preschool series The Octonauts for the BBC.

AWARDS

AWARDS
Academy Awards, USA — Oscar Nominee, Best Animated Short Film, ;
Cinanima Short Film Festival — Special Mention, Best Animated Film;
Newport Beach Film Festival — Outstanding Achievement in Short Filmmaking;
Galway Film Fleadh — Best Irish Animation;
Palms Springs International Film Festival — Audience Award;
Palms Springs International Film Festival — Best Animation (Runner Up);
Irish Film & Television Awards — Best Animation;
Cinegael Montreal — Audience Award, Best Short;
Chicago Irish Film Festival — Audience Award, Best Short (Runner Up);
Denver Starz Festival — People's Choice, Best Short;
Dam Short Film Festival — Best Animation (Runner Up);
Omaha Film Festival — Audience Award, Best Short;
Heart of Gold Film Festival — Best Comedy;
Encounters Short Film Festival;
The Craic Festival Brooklyn NYC;
Bilbao Film Festival.

THE DOOR Live-Action Oscar Nominee
Director Juanita Wilson, Ireland/The Ukraine, 2008, 17 minutes, in Russian with English subtitles.

Filmmaker Juanita Wilson sees The Door as a universal symbol of life, death and entering the next life, that can mean an opportunity gained or an opportunity lost, as one door opens, another one closes... Filmed in the Ukraine - Kiev and the abandoned city of Pripyat, the story opens with an absurd act: stealing a door. raising a question in the viewer's mind that is not answered until the final shot. Then, what had seemed a senseless act turns into a simple statement of human dignity, of people making sense of loss through ritual.

Based on a true story, The Door gives us images that are impressionistic and haunting, like fragments of memories which the viewer must piece together. Although the main character, Nikolai, gives us the facts, he himself is trying to make sense of them in his own mind. The story moves forwards and backwards in time, revealing events retrospectively as the viewer bears witness to the universal tragedy of Chernobyl through the eyes of one man.

Juanita studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and then worked for a number of years in MORE...

FILMMAKER BIO

Juanita studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and then worked for a number of years in the independent production sector while she studied film production at the Irish Film Institute. She next went on to obtain a postgraduate Diploma in Arts Management at the Dublin Institute of Technology, graduating at the top of her class.

In 1997 she decided to combine her creative energy with her business experience and set up Metropolitan Films with James Flynn, to develop and produce challenging feature films. Their first film was the hard-hitting emotional drama, H3, on which Juanita worked as a script editor and creative producer. The film, directed by Les Blair, went on to win the Audience Award at Bergamo Film Festival. Later, she developed and produced Inside I'm Dancing with James Flynn. Directed by Damien O'Donnell, it premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival '04 where it won the Audience Award for Best Film. In Ireland, the film opened at the Cork International Film Festival and the film enjoyed a successful theatrical release in the UK, Ireland and USA.

In January 2008 she wrote and directed her first short film The Door, based on a true story of Chernobyl. The film was shot on location in Pripyat and Kiev in the Ukraine and has received critical acclaim, winning many awards. Over the years, Juanita has written a number of short stories, one-act plays and screenplays, the most recent being an adaptation of the acclaimed book As If I Am Not There, by Croatian journalist Slavenka Drakulic about the Balkan War. In October '09 Juanita shot her first feature film As If I Am Not There, currently in post-production.

AWARDS & FESTIVALS

AWARDS
Academy Awards, USA — Oscar Nominee, Best Live-Action Short Film, ;
Foyle Film Festival — Best Irish Short Film;
Bilbao International Film Festival — Gold Medal Award, Fiction;
Cork International Film Festival — Best First Short by an Irish Director;
Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTA) — Best Short Film;
World OFF Film Awards, Warsaw — Best Director;
Sarajevo Film Festival — Katrin Cartlidge Bursary Award.

OTHER FESTIVALS
Edinburgh International Film Festival; Telluride Film Festival; Munich International Film Festival; Dingle Film Festival; Galway Film Festival; Boston Irish Film Festival; Flickerfest 2009; Moscow Irish Film Festival; Chicago Irish Film Festival.

A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH Animation Oscar Nominee
Director Nick Park, United Kingdom, 2009, 29 minutes, in English.

Wallace & Gromit have started a new bread baking business, "Top Bun" and converted 62 West Wallaby Street into a granary with ovens, robotic kneading arms and an old-fashioned windmill on the roof. The transformation is perfect. Although business is booming, Gromit is concerned by the news that a dozen local bakers have "disappeared" this year — but Wallace isn't worried. He's too distracted and "dough-eyed" in love with former beauty and bread enthusiast, Piella Bakewell.

While they enjoy being the "Toast of the Town," Gromit soon realizes his master's life is in jeopardy, and turns sleuth to solve the escalating murder mystery — in what quickly becomes "A Matter of Loaf and Death."

Nick Park is a stop-motion animator who has won four Oscars for films featuring absent-minded inventor Wallace and his vigilant dog, Gromit. MORE...

FILMMAKER BIO

Nick Park is a stop-motion animator who has won four Oscars for films featuring absent-minded inventor Wallace and his vigilant dog, Gromit. Park was a student at the National Film and Television School when he met Peter Lord and David Sproxton of Aardman Animations. He joined their studio in 1985 and worked on TV commercials while polishing A Grand Day Out, his first short film with Wallace and Gromit.

Shown in 1990 on BBC, the film became an international hit and was nominated for an Oscar the next year. It lost to another short film by Park, Creature Comforts (1989), but since then Park has picked up Oscars for the Wallace & Gromit short films The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995), and for the feature Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). Aardman Animations, with Lord and Park at the helm, also made the animated feature Chicken Run, a box office smash that had the voice talents of Mel Gibson and Imelda Staunton.

FESTIVALS

AWARDS & FESTIVALS
Academy Awards, USA — Oscar Nominee, Best Animated Short Film; Annie Award — Best Animated Short Subject; BAFTA — Best Short Animation; New York International Children's Film Festival — Grand Prize; Anima (Belgium) — Best Short Children's Film; Seattle International Film Festival — Golden Space Needle Audience Award; AniMadrid, Spain — Best Children�s Short Film Prize; ReAnimania — Best Animated Short Film; I Castelli Animati, Rome — Jury Prize.

— Wiesbaden Animation Festival; Anima Mundi; Leipzig International Film Festival; Encounters Short Film Festival; Ottawa Film Festival.

CAROUSEL Live-Action Bonus Short
Director Adam Berg (Stink Digital) UK, for Tribal DDB Amsterdam NL, 2009, 2.33 + 3.33 minutes, no dialogue.

Film-inspired dramas infused with sponsors' product placement on the Web are as old as the BMW Films that came out at the turn of the century. But Carousel, a 2:19 cinematic short directed by Adam Berg, is stunningly original and well crafted, pulling viewers into the story of a robbery gone bad and the resultant fire fight between police and clown-masked bad guys.

As with Avatar, the concept and tech mastery is the key — Carousel takes us through a frozen moment in time (suspended animation for you old Twilight Zone fans), in what is described as one long, continuous shot. The characters never move, but the camera does, floating up stairways, down corridors and out of windows, traversing a single, immaculately staged, moment in time.

The film is constructed as an endless loop. It opens with a shot of a cop kneeling on a car roof top, pointing at the action. At the end, we come back to that opening shot and deduce that the above-mentioned cop is actually one of the robbers, who jumped out of a window onto the car top.

MORE...

Inspired by Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight and John Woo's Hardboiled, Carousel goes further and does it better. Without a trace of character movement or a word of dialogue, it tells a fascinating action story.

Set aside for the moment that the film promotes the new Philips Cinema 21:9 LCD TV, the first Cinema Scope-proportioned TV screen. The thing to enjoy is the creation itself - a stylish, masterfully produced narrative piece that very, very effectively uses sound, lighting and post-production SFX to give the viewer an amazing experience.

With close to 5 million views on the Internet, this viral video has spread from the Philips cinema microsite to YouTube and to dozens of tech and me-too video sites, drawing huge numbers of repeat watchings as viewers parse the camera angles and special effects.

Equally important, from an advertising/media perspective, Carousel and films like it are harbingers of change - longer content, branded, interactive, with creative types calling more of the shots.

On the big screen at Oscar Shorts, we will share two video pieces: the 2:19 Carousel film, plus a 3:33 a behind-the-scenes "How they did it." This is the kind of work you will want to see more than once. ~~The full interactive version is here, www.cinema.philips.com~~ The director's cut is here, Stink Digital, and the behind-the-scenes mini documentary is here, youtube.com.

THE LADY & THE REAPER Animation OSCAR NOMINEE
Director Javier Recio Gracia, Spain, 2009, 8.33 min, no dialogue.

A sweet old widow lady lives alone on her farm, waiting for death so that she can be with her beloved husband once again. One night, she is invited to enter death's domain, but someone ruins it for her.

At the hospital, a Dudley Do-Right doctor and his team of lascivious nurses are determined to keep the old woman alive. A Looney Tune tug-of-war between the Grim Reaper and the medicos commences, with classic slap-stick hijinx that will take you back to the old Saturday morning cartoons. It's morbid, funny and swift.

Visit the website and production blog (in English & español): theladyandthereaper.com and theladyandthereaper.com/wordpress to see storyboards, concept illustrations, learn about the music, and more.

Kandor Moon is an animation studio based in Granada, Spain. The studio's first feature in 2008 was The Missing Lynx, which won the 2008 Spanish Goya for Best Animated Feature Film. The Lady and The Reaper, made in 3D, and directed by Javier Recio Gracia is the studio's second film, intended to provide the technical and artistic foundations necessary for the next film, Goleor, currently in production.

AWARDS & FESTIVALS

AWARDS & FESTIVALS
Academy Awards, USA — Oscar Nominee, Best Animated Short Film;
Goya Awards, Spain — Best Animated Short Film
Alcine, USA — Best Short Film + Peoples Choice Award + Best Film Score;
Artfutura, Spain — 2nd Prize, 3D

Festival Curt Ficcions, Barcelona & Madrid — Official Selection;
Monstra Festival de Animacao, Lisbon — Official Selection;
ARTIfice de Cortometraje, Spain — Official Selection;
Mediterranean Festival of New Directors, Greece — Official Selection;
SotoCine 2010, Spain — Official Selection;
Semana de Cine de Medina, Spain — Official Selection;
Cartoons on the Bay, Italy — Official Selection;
AnimaBasque, Bilbao — Official Selection;
WorldFest Intl Film & Video Festival, Houston — Official Selection;
Cortogenia 2010, Madrid — Official Selection;
GO Festival de Cortmetrajes, Asturias — Official Selection;
Spokane International Film Festival — Official Selection;
Anima 2010 Brussels International Animation Festival — Official Selection;
Festival du Court Metrage d'Animation, France — Official Selection;
Int'l Animated Film Festival "I Castelli Animati", Rome — Official Selection;
Int'l Festival de Documental y Cortometraje, Bilbao — Official Selection;
Int'l Festival de Cortos, Almeria Spain — Official Selection.

THE NEW TENANTS Live-Action OSCAR WINNER
Director Joachim Back, USA/Denmark, 2009, 21 minutes, in English.

This darkly funny and frightening film, populated with drifting, damaged souls, was the dark-horse winner of this year's Oscar for Best Live-Action Short.

Exactly how the film was chosen for Oscar consideration is a bit of a mystery -- it was an Official Selection at only three festivals: Los Angeles Reel Film Festival, the Florida Film Festival and the Scandinavian Film Festival in Los Angeles. Watch the trailer.

The New Tenants is anchored by powerful performances from New York film and theater stalwarts Vincent D'Onofrio, Jamie Harrold and Kevin Corrigan, plus This American Life regular David Rakoff. Rakoff also adapted the original script - a twisted mistaken identity caper - into a dark, gleefully existential meditation on the inevitability and banality of death and our desperate attempts to ignore it (as well as a salute to the cold comforts of cigarettes and mom's cinnamon buns).

Shot in the Chelsea Hotel in NYC, the new tenants encounter a bizarre Welcome Wagon -- a prying neighbor, a glassy-eyed drug dealer, and a husband brandishing both a weapon and a vendetta. Set amidst the as-yet-unopened boxes and the hopes for a fresh start of two men on what might just be the worst moving day ever. Their new apartment reveals its terrifying history in a film that is by turns funny, frightening, and unexpectedly romantic.

Joachim began his career as an impressionable teenager, working as an on-set runner for film productions in his native Denmark. MORE...

FILMMAKER BIO

Joachim began his career as an impressionable teenager, working as an on-set runner for film productions in his native Denmark. Determined to get from away from the craft service table and behind the camera, Joachim and some friends began shooting their own shorts and spec projects on borrowed equipment. His oddball comic sensibility got him noticed, and in 1997 Joachim signed with Copenhagen's Easy Film for commercial representation. In 2000 a spot he directed for MTV, The Mouth, was shortlisted for a Gold Lion at Cannes, and in 2001 Joachim and two fellow directors founded the spot shop Bacon.

After several very successful years, the team went its separate ways, and Joachim moved with his family to New York where he signed with Park Pictures in 2004. Joachim has been working non-stop ever since, and has directed campaigns for Viagra, Captain Morgan, Tostitos, Hyundai, Royal Bank of Scotland, Bud Light, and Miller Lite, to name a few. His Viagra spots -- the little blue pill's first foray into comedy -- won a Gold Lion at the 2005 Cannes Festival, it is one of the most decorated spots in the advertising world (with over 15 wins in the advertising awards circuit).

He has also snagged a Bronze Lion for Too Late, a spot for Charal out of Gang Films in Paris. Joachim was ranked number 7 on the Gunn Report in 2006. His hilarious, visually and sonically inventive Captain Morgan spot won Best Sound Design at the 2007 AICP Show. His Budlight Carpet spot was shortlisted at Cannes in 2008. In 2009, he received two Epica awards, an Epica Gold for Ikea and an Epica Silver for his Volvo spot.

RUNAWAY Animation Bonus Short
Director Cordell Barker, Canada, 2009, 9 minutes, in English.

Two-time Oscar nominee Cordell Barker describes his short as "a metaphor film" for our out-of-control world in which he paints a cynical view of how we treat each other and the world around us. An absurd comedy filled with latent social satire, Runaway is dark, and very funny. This is the second Barker short film presented by Cincinnati World Cinema; the first was Space Invaders, part of Oscar Shorts 2002.

Conceived back in 2003, Runaway packages the popular runaway train metaphor with sly, stylized mischief and mayhem and applies it to a society hurtling blissfully and obliviously to its own destruction. It compartmentalizes social hierarchies, with the chattering classes packed like cattle into "Economy" and the boorish bourgeois situated in "First Class," both unaware that the captain is an incompetent noob more focused on romance than operating the train.

Barker began in 1974 as an apprentice, animating vignettes for the Canadian edition of Sesame Street, and MORE...

FILMMAKER BIO

Barker began in 1974 as an apprentice, animating vignettes for the Canadian edition of Sesame Street, and throughout his career, he's paid the bills by animating TV commercials. "If I wasn't doing commercials over the course of my three films, there's no way I could survive," he explains. "I would have had to marry someone who was a brain surgeon with very high income. Doing TV commercials in the midst of all that is what kept me going.

In 1982, he joined the NFB (National Film Board of Canada) where he made his first film, The Cat Came Back (1988). The short was a huge audience favourite and garnered 16 awards in addition to picking up an Oscar nomination. He subsequently returned to advertising, directing commercials for major companies (Bell Canada, Nike, Coca Cola, etc.) before returning to filmmaking with Strange Invaders (2001). It turned out to be another sensational hit, winning 16 awards and receiving an Oscar� nomination. As a filmmaker who focuses on pacing, action and narrative, Cordell Barker enjoys this particular form of expression because it enables him to make the most of his incisive sense of humour.

A lot has changed since Barker released The Cat Came Back way back in 1988. Technology has made his job somewhat easier. In the old days, Barker had to physically transport his carefully numbered drawings to an NFB cameraman who would shoot them in series on an animation stand, and then wait two days to get the film back from the lab. Now, he can scan the drawings into a computer and see the results almost immediately. No longer does he have to mix colours, paint them onto cels and then hope they dry relatively close to the desired hues. His artistic style nevertheless continues to be largely influenced by traditional cartoons: the technique may have changed but the essence remains the same.

AWARDS & FESTIVALS

AWARDS & FESTIVALS
Cannes International Film Festival — Winner Petit Rail d'Or - Best Animated Short Film;
Annecy Animation Festival — Special Jury Award;
Toronto International Film Festival — Official Selection;
Vancouver International Film Festival — Official Selection;
Chicago International Film Festival — Official Selection;
Quickdraw Animation Society's Giant Incandescent Resonating Animation Festival (GIRAF) — Official Selection.

MOSCOW CAT CIRCUS Live-Action Bonus Short

Director Marilyn Agrelo, USA, 2008, 3.25 minutes, in Russian and English with English subtitles.

An entertaining, informative and thoroughly delightful documentary, artfully written for three-minute run time.

Director Vladimir Anisimova has headlined the Moscow Cat Theatre since 1991 and his daughter Maria is his training and performance assistant. Based in Moscow, the theatre travels throughout Russia and has performed in 80 countries around the world. Of the 120 cats in the troupe, only 35 (plus one dog) go on out on tour at one time.

"HERDING CATS" MORE...

"HERDING CATS"...

"Sometimes the cats teach us the tricks!," says Vladimir. In Russia, the circus is considered an art form like ballet or opera, a showcase for highly skilled artists. And the MCT felines fill that bill with a variety of tricks and acts such as trapeze work, pole climbing, balancing on large balls and jumping from a height of twenty feet.

The cat trainers laugh at the idea of rewarding cats with food. The philosophy at the Moscow Cat Theatre is to train the cats not by rewarding them with treats, as one might train a dog, but "with long, good words, touching them." They believe that cats are like actors, and if they do not want to do something, they just won't.

Marilyn Agrelo is a New York City-based documentary filmmaker, best known as the director of Mad Hot Ballroom (2005), and more here, which was nominated for Best Documentary by the Broadcast Film Critics Association and won a Gotham Award and Philadelphia Film Festival Audience Award. MORE

FILMMAKER BIO

Marilyn Agrelo is a New York City-based documentary filmmaker, best known as the director of Mad Hot Ballroom (2005), which was nominated for Best Documentary by the Broadcast Film Critics Association and garnered a Gotham Award and Philadelphia Film Festival Audience Award.

Since the early 1990s, Agrelo worked predominantly on industrial, promotional and fund-raising films before she co-produced Smash the Kitty (2003), with Jason Ritter and Jon Avner, a short satirical fable on the clash of rural idealism and urban amorality, targeting the seedy world of tabloid journalism. She had also developed art shows and interactive museum installations, as well as directed commercials for Hasbro toys and Off-Broadway plays.

After Ballroom in 2005 she co-directed Reel American Youth in 2008. More recently, she has completed two short documentaries, The Moscow Cat Circus and Sideshow Picasso. Her current project, directing An Invisible Sign of My Own is now in post-production

Born in Cuba, Agrelo came to the United States with her parents and three siblings at the age of 2 years old. Growing up in New York in a family that was culturally different than those of her peers shaped an early awareness of human themes, which she continues to explore through her work. Mad Hot Ballroom allowed her to connect with an amazing group of talented Latino-American kids underscoring her own cultural pride as a Cuban American raised in New York City making a living as an artist.

Presentation sequence and bonus films are subject to change.

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