In Contention

Tag: Best Animated Short Film

  • Record box office for Oscar shorts

    Early in my Oscar-watching days, long before the advent of YouTube or VOD, the short film awards represented little more than a chance to get ahead in the Oscar pool by sheer guesswork.

    With no means of viewing the nominees, and the field of awards coverage considerably less comprehensive than it is today, you’d do well to find out what the shorts were about, much less whether they were any good. In the end, you picked the title that most caught your fancy, and hoped for the best.

    For most casual viewers, of course, the short film awards still mean little more than a handy bathroom-break opportunity in the telecast. But for serious awards-watchers, there’s less of an excuse these days to be uninformed: clips of the nominees (and sometimes even the entire films) are readily available online, while Shorts International and Magnolia Pictures have screened an annual program of the nominees in theaters for the last five years.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Oscar nomination week

    Anne Hathaway and Tom Sherak announcing the 2009 Academy Award nominations• Did you hear? The 2009 Academy Award nominations were announced. “The Hurt Locker” and “Avatar” led the pack.

    • Days before, Kathryn Bigelow nabbed the Directors’ Guild Award — the first woman ever to do so.

    • Back to the Oscars, we collected reaction statements from 44 of this year’s nominees.

    • I rounded up some of the most pleasant surprises in the nominations, as well as the most unwelcome snubs.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Lovely Bones’ bows, ‘New Moon’ reigns

    Mark Wahlberg in The Lovely Bones• “The Lovely Bones” finally landed this week, to decidedly mixed reviews.

    • Kris and Anne offered their thoughts on the film (among others) in this week’s Oscar Talk.

    • In Off the Carpet, we combed through the Best Adapted Screenplay contenders (which now include “District 9”).

    • “New Moon” surprised nobody with a record-breaking box-office haul last weekend, and its dominance is set to continue.

    • This week’s Long Shot column surveyed the growing buzz around populist contenders in this year’s Oscar race.

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  • Short Oscar hopeful ‘The Cat Piano’

    Chalk “The Cat Piano” up as a nominee pronto. Probably the win, too. EVERYONE loves that short.

    So says regular reader Glenn in the comment thread on the Best Animated Short Oscar shortlist. Having now watched this 8-minute Australian gem in all its noir-tinged, Nick Cave-narrated splendor, I can’t disagree. Take a look.