SHORT END OF OSCAR NODS
Catch 10 nominees in one sitting
On Feb. 28, an upper B- list pair of Hollywood players will likely be called to the Dolby Theatre stage by host Chris Rock to present the Oscar for best live- action short film. The players, who would clearly prefer to give out a more illustrious award, will make some lame gag before reading, likely disinterested, the list of nominees.
Then after the winner is announced, a young director, few have ever heard of, from, doubtless, a faraway country, will take to the stage out of breath — wearied from having had to leap over folks in the last row of the theatre balcony to get to the podium in record time. The young director, likely nervously, will then begin to thank his colleagues on the film and his family for the honour, but he will be unable to finish his spiel — because the orchestra will have begun to cue up the music 15 seconds into the victory speech in order to rush the recipient offstage.
This is what TV viewers will likely witness — provided they have not taken the opportunity to head to the fridge and/ or can for some relief, after learning that the award to be announced is for best live- action short.
Such is usually the drill. But in fairness to viewers, they know nothing of the films in this category, because they never get to see them. Few do. But locals don’t have that excuse. The Cinéma du Parc is now presenting the package of live- action Oscar- nominated shorts as well as another package of oft- ignored films, the five animated shorts in the Oscar hunt.
There is an excellent chance that the person to step up to the podium will be a German, Patrick Vollrath, the writer / director of the film Everything Will Be Okay.
In fact, everything is not okay for the principals in this staggering 30- minute drama.
A divorced dad picks up his eight- year- old daughter for a weekend visit, then takes her off to a toy store to get whatever she wishes. But then she is whisked off to a passport office. Her dad is in a panic. They head off to the airport. The kid is in a panic. Instead of heading to an amusement park, they’re about to board a flight to Dubai, then to Manila.
Seems that dad has been involved in a custody battle and is on the losing end. Such are, sadly, the ensuing consequences, with an innocent kid caught in the crossfire. The film is absolutely riveting and the acting, particularly that of the child, is superb.
And, oh yeah, don’t be surprised if director Vollrath is back on the Oscar podium in the next couple of years for another award. Only then, he will be allowed to finish his thank- you speech.
Nor is it necessarily a slamdunk for Everything Will Be Okay. The four other films in the competition are solid:
Ave Maria, a 15- minute Palestinian/ French/ German co- production, is the sort of dramedy that could only have come out of the cauldron that is the Middle East. An Orthodox Jewish family gets into a car accident while trying to leave the West Bank before nightfall, in order to celebrate the Sabbath. As fate would have it, the family members, a squabbling wife, her husband and his mother, land outside the convent home of five devout Palestinian nuns — who have taken an oath of silence. Needless to say, director Basil Khalil is able to milk both much intrigue and whimsy.
Day One, a 25- minute U. S. film, is another adrenalin rush. Based on a true story, it focuses on a young woman interpreter in Afghanistan. On a mission with U. S. soldiers in search of a terrorist bomber, she learns that it’s not her translating skills that are required when she hooks up with the suspect’s very pregnant wife. Director Henry Hughes is able to infuse moments of true compassion in a setting where compassion rarely surfaces on screen.
Shok, a 21- minute Kosovo/ United Kingdom co- production, brings viewers back into the maelstrom of the bloody Kosovo conflict of the late 1990s. Two Albanian boys, trying to survive, have their friendship put to the test when they run afoul of vindictive Serbian thugs. The kids grow up in a jiff as director Jamie Donoughue rekindles the terror of those unsettling times.
Stutterer is the shortest of this bunch at 12 minutes, but this United Kingdom/ Ireland co- production packs quite the punch. The film could also offer the stiffest competition to Everything Will Be Okay. As the title implies, this heart- tugging tale from director Benjamin Cleary deals with a young man with a severe speech impediment. His only real contact with the outside world is with a young woman, with whom he has had a six- month relationship — an online romance, that is. Unaware of his stuttering condition, she decides to surprise him, to come to London to meet him in the flesh. Needless to say,
he doesn’t know how to handle the situation. The film not only speaks volumes about the horrors of speech impediments but also about humankind’s ever-burgeoning state of alienation induced by so- called high- tech advances.
The creators of animated shorts get a little more respect in these parts, largely because the National Film Board of Canada produces an inordinate number of them, dozens of which have garnered Oscar nominations — and six of which have actually won the award. Alas, there are no NFB nominees up for statuettes this year — in spite of the fact that Claude Cloutier’s Carface and Cordell Barker’s If I Was God are as impressive as any in the running.
Makers of animated shorts face the same dilemma as the directors of the live action shorts: the public rarely gets to see their work. In old- timey times, cartoons would invariably be screened before the main features at movie theatres. Those days are long gone. So unless you are able to take in animation festivals or to take the time to check out the NFB online, these magical little ’ toons and their makers live in anonymity for most people. And this year’s nominees: Bear Story ( Chile) is the touching tale of a beleaguered, older bear who imparts his story of a not- so- romantic life under the big top through the clever use of a mechanical diorama.
Prologue ( United Kingdom) comes from the fevered imagination of Toronto- born animator Richard Williams ( Who Framed Roger Rabbit). As is the case with most animated offerings these days, this one, with its stunning, graphic drawings of warriors engaged in the bloody Spartan-Athenian wars of 2,400 years back, is definitely not for the kids. Yet it is a young girl who serves as the piece’s focal point, observing man’s senseless, self- destructive ways.
Sanjay’s Super Team ( U. S. A.), on the subject of over- active imaginations, tells the story of first- generation Indian- American animator Sanjay Patel, whose fascination with American superheroes clashes with his dad’s traditional religious heroes. But a compromise of values is reached, and the result is eye- popping.
We Can’t Live Without Cosmos ( Russia) is about the understated but surprisingly gripping relationship between two cosmonauts getting prepped for a blast into outer space. It turns out that even greater than their desire to become folk heroes in the cosmos is their bond.
World of Tomorrow ( U. S. A.) will actually feel like déjà vu to some. With all the colours and frenzy of a vintage acid trip, this ’ toon has a young girl hook up with a clone of herself who has come back 230 years in time to inform the kid that the future is not all it’s cracked up to be. As if.