Colman Domingo, Taiki Waititi, and Idris Elba give starpower to the Best Animated Short Oscar race

by Nathaniel R

Colman Domingo in "New Moon" based on one of his plays

This year's Best Animated Short Oscar finalists come from about a dozen countries and feature a pleasing variety of animation strategies. The shorts feature talking animals, naturally, as well as plenty of heightened surreal adventures. All of this is to be expected in this always intriguing category (provided you are able to find the films!).  Less expected: this year the race has more than a little star power via voice casts. We'll review all the films here as we screen them.

Read on for brief run downs of the finalists and if and where you can watch the films right now (if you can). Links go to official sites if we could find them...

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Doc Corner: 'The Super 8 Years'

By Glenn Dunks

At one point early on in The Super 8 Years (Les années Super 8), Annie Ernaux notes in her soothing, authorial voice that a trip to the countryside—all tall grass, wildflowers, and mud—was like experiencing nostalgia for something she had never even experienced before. A sort of primal part of the human existence that wishes for the calm, the peace, and the relative relaxation of existing within nature without the extravagancies of modern life. It’s an amusing bon mot from the Nobel Prize winner, since this documentary feeds into that very concept:

I have never experienced the world that Ernaux embeds us in, but she welcomes the viewer through narration and the intuitive editing of Clément Pinteaux in such a manner that it feels like reliving a memory that I have never experienced. I was transported. A brisk dream of 65-minutes built entirely out of her family’s super 8 camera home movies that is all fleeting memories stung with melancholy and bliss.

Come to think of it, a more fitting double-feature with Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun I could not imagine.

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The 95th Oscars Shortlists Are Here!

by Cláudio Alves

"All Quiet on the Western Front" | © Netflix

Like in the last few seasons, the Academy has announced shortlists in 10 Oscar categories – Documentary Feature, International Film, Original Score, Song, Sound, Visual Effects, and the three Shorts races. As always, there are surprises along with expected honors and the domination of certain frontrunners. One imagines this is an especially sweet batch of finalists for fans of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and All Quiet on the Western Front, who rule over all other contenders with mentions in five different categories. Not far behind, we find Avatar: The Way of Water with four categories.

Expect more commentary at a later time, but for now, let's look over the complete lists and fire off some instant reactions…

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Best International Film Reviews: Final Flurry before the Shortlist

by Cláudio Alves

The Oscar shortlists are almost upon us, culling the 90-plus Best International Film submissions to a measly 15-wide field. Unfortunately, that means we're running out of time to consider those unfortunate titles unlikely to catch AMPAS' eye, no matter how deserving they may be. This includes productions perchance a bit too low-profile and others whose style skews too far from the Academy's sweet spot. Sometimes it's a matter of formalistic austerity. Sometimes, unresolved bleakness or genre stylings do the troubling trick. So, from an Iranian movie set to an Alpine tragedy, going through multiple wartime tragedies and the domestic sorrows of an Irish girl, let's indulge in a final flurry of capsule-sized reviews…

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St Louis, Dallas, Utah and more enter the multiverse of "All At Once"

by Nathaniel R

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE will need multiverses to contain all of its awards

Two non-location based groups, The Women's Film Critics Circle and The Online Association of Female Film Critics, have now named their "best of 2022". And fFive more regional critics groups have announced their winners with Dallas-Forth Worth, St Louis, Utah, Philadelphia, and Indiana chiming in. Ke Huy Quan and Everything Everywhere All At Once won at all of these organizations that have the traditional categories of Supporting Actor and Best Film. (Women's Film Critics Circle does not have traditional categories and instead focuses on depictions of women onscreen with She Said taking their top prize.) Complete lists of winners are after the jump...

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