45 Animated Shorts: Oscar Will Choose 10... Then 5.

This is the list of 45 animated shorts that the Academy is considering in the Best Animated Shorts category (with links to official sites when I could find them). The Animated, Docs, and Shorts Oscar page is going to be updated piecemeal this week as I work on beating all this information into some form of pundited submission.

Until then, the list. Do you ever try to see the nominees in this category?

A SHADOW OF BLUE (Carlos Lascano)

• A Morning Stroll by Grant Orchard (Studio AKA)
• A Shadow of Blue by Carlos Lascano
• Birdboy by Alberto Vasquez (Abrikim Studio)
• Chopin’s Drawings by Dorota Kobiela (BreakThru Films) Poland
• Correspondence by Zach Hyer (Pratt)
• Daisy Cutter by Enrique Garcia and Rubin Salazar (Silverspace)
• Dimanche / Sunday by Patrick Doyon (NFB)

• El Salon Mexico by Paul Glickman and Tamarind King
• Enrique Wrecks the World by David Chai *Annie Nominee Last Year*
• Ente Tod Und Tulipe (Duck Death and the Tulip) by Matthias Bruhn (Richard Lutterbeck – Trickstudio)
• Fat Hamster by Adam Wyrwas (BreakThru Films) Poland
• Grandpa Looked Like William Powell by David Levy
• Hamster Heaven by Paul Bolger (BreakThru Films) Poland

I WAS A CHILD OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS (Ann Marie Fleming adapts Bernice Eisenstein's memoirs)

• I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat by Matt O’Callaghan (Warner Bros... 3D Sylvester vs. Tweety)
• I Was the Child of Holocaust Survivors by Anne Marie Fleming (NFB)
• Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest by Kevin Sean Michaels USA
• Kahanikar by Nandita Jain (National Film and Television School) England
• La Luna by Enrico Casarosa (Pixar) -See Previous Post (INTERVIEW)

• Little Postman by Dorota Kobiela (BreakThru Films) Poland
• Luminaris by Juan Pablo Zaramella (JPZaramella Studios)
• Luna by Donna Brockopp (Rainmaker) Canada *see complete short, 7 minutes*
• Maska by Timothy and Stephen Quay (Sem-ma-for) Poland

• Muybridge’s Strings by Koji Yamamura (1 PREVIOUS OSCAR NOMINATION)
• My Hometown by Jerry Levitan, Written and Narrated by Yoko Ono (Eggplant) *see complete short, 7 minutes*
• Night Island by Salvador Maldonado (BreakThru Films) Poland
• Nullarbor by Alister Lockhart
• Papa’s Boy by Leevi Lemmetty (BreakThru Films) Poland
• Paths of Hate by Damien Nenow (Platige Image) Poland
• Romance by George Schwizgebel (NFB & Studio GDS)
• Specky Four-Eyes by Jean Claude Rozec (Vivement Lundi)

THE EXTERNAL WORLD

• Spirits of the Piano by Magdalena Osinska (BreakThru Films) Poland
• Thank You by Thomas Herpich (Frederator)
• The Ballad of Nessie by Stevie Wermers (Walt Disney Studios)
• The External World by David O’ Reilly
• The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg (Moonbot Studios)
• The Gloaming by Nobrain (Autour De Minuit) France
• The Lost Town of Switez by Kamil Polak (Human Ark) Poland *debut*
• The Magic Piano by Martin Clapp (BreakThru Films) Poland
• The Monster of Nix by Rosto *with voice work by Tom Waits & Terry Gilliam. It's a horror musical!*
• The Renter by Jason Carpenter (CalArts) *debut, Annie Award nominee last year*
• The Smurf’s A Christmas Carol by Troy Quane (Sony Pictures Animation)
• The Tannery by Iain Gardner (Axis Animation)

VICENTA (Spain)

• The Smurf’s A Christmas Carol by Troy Quane (Sony Pictures Animation)
• The Tannery by Iain Gardner (Axis Animation)
• The Vermeers by Tal S. Shamir
• Vicenta by Samuel Orti Marti
• Wild Life by Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby (NFB)

Yes, No, Maybe So: "The Iron Lady"

Okay The Film Experience simply must take a long break from Meryl Streep. I blog about her way too much I realize...  So we'll take a long break (by which we mean until she wins her first award or nomination of the season) ...so the long break might be a short one. Such is awards season! 

TOTALLY UNRETOUCHED! © The Film Experience

I have done battle every single day of my life."

Until then, a break. I need it for sanity. As The Iron Lady might say "It's absolutely non-negotiable." But I couldn't leave Streep be without sharing this  100% Authentic Screencap From the Film In Which Margaret Thatcher seems to be planning battle against all the Best Actress players this year. WTF?!

We also can't begin our official Meryl break until after posting this UK trailer of The Iron Lady in case you haven't seen it (no US trailer beyond that old teaser yet).

YES

• Well, we never miss a Streep movie.

NO

• Ehhhhh, I hope this doesn't glorify that woman (Thatcher not Streep). The neo cons have done enough damage to the world without a liberal goddess (Streep) endorsing one of their icons.
• This doesn't look that promising for Jim Broadbent and he deserves another year as great as 2001. 
• Phyllida Lloyd in the director's chair again. Really? If Meryl wants to support female directors we HIGHLY approve but we could name 23 off the top of our heads that would be more deserving of double dipping with some world class actress who could make financing their next film much easier. 

MAYBE SO

• Of course it's rude to assume that Ms. Lloyd couldn't make a huge leap forward in skill after that learning on the job business with Mamma Mia! 'So, this is what a camera is!' We would hate to be judged by our very first blog entry forever ;) 

10 Word Reviews: Hanna, Like Crazy, Puss in Boots, Coriolanus

Though I'm happy to have finally banged out a few thoughts on J Edgar, I'm never going catch up without engaging in some quickies. So herewith some miniature takes on things I've recently seen that I haven't written up. (And at the end of the post, a bit more on J. Edgar because you were asking... )

CORIOLANUS
For Fiennes directorial debut he adapts one of Shakespeare's lesser tragedies
10WR: Swings with brutish fists, occasionally landing blows. Impactful locale choices. B 
Oscar? Supporting Actress. It will be all about beastly mama Redgrave chewing determinedly on her own anger. (Fiennes does the spitting for their amusingly Oedipal bond).

LIKE CRAZY
Crazy College Kids Cuddling Cross-Atlantic 
10WR: Intermittently endearing / annoying, sensitively made. Starter kit for promising careers. B-
Oscar? Unlikely despite early buzz to the contrary. Best Actress is too crowded and romantic dramas don't win kudos for their male leads. On that note, I feel it's worth trumpeting that Anton Yelchin is every bit as strong as Felicity Jones in detailing the first crushing moments of love and the romantic confusion that often follows. Bonus points for giving us the most authentic "drunk but horny, trying to stay awake" face the movies have ever seen.

NO STRINGS ATTACHED
Crazy Post-Collegiate Kids' "NO CUDDLING!" Coitus
10 WR: 100% predictable but funny. Authentically acted despite proud sitcom leanings. C+
Oscar? LOL. But no embarrassment for Portman as post-Oscar performances go -- which it could have been. She's far better here than in The Other Woman. No really.

PUSS IN BOOTS
Puss invades another fairy tale (Jack and the Beanstalk) for treasure and personal redemption.
10WR: Indulgent backstories / setpieces bore. Charms with character and recurring gags.  B 
Oscar? Seems likely for animated feature but then they did ignore the last two Shrek movies. 

HANNA
in which a teen killing machine is on the run from...  because of... with only .....
10 WR: Carnage-filled collision of fairytales/Catholocism. Ridiculous. Unique. Very watchable B
Oscar? Stylized teen driven genre pieces are not their thing so "No". But how about that Chemical Bros score, eh? Cinematography was compelling, too.

J EDGAR & OSCAR?
Already reviewed and interviewed but y'all kept asking about Oscar. I only have it predicted for two nominations right now, Best Makeup and Best Actor. The makeup is getting mostly bad reviews but bad reviews have rarely stopped them from honoring "Most Makeup" in the past. As for the Best Actor nomination for Leonardo DiCaprio, I agree with Mark who says in the review comments.

I don't want to live in a world where Leo is given out of some sense of obligation but Fassbender is snubbed for his miraculous turn in Shame.

... but we do live in that kind of world, even if this year happens to pan out differently.

Otherwise, I don't see a way the film can find much Oscar traction. The costumes and art direction aren't particularly showy (and it's a crowded year). The cinematography seems to be one of the more divisive elements and historically the cinematography branch isn't as enamored with Eastwood's filmography as other branches tend to be. Even when his films are Best Picture nominated they don't often show up. Unforgiven (Jack N. Green) is the only one of his four Best Picture nominees to receive a cinematography nomination and Changeling (Tom Stern) is the only other one of his pictures so honored.

What's next review wise?
More substantial takes coming on Melancholia and the Scandinavian Oscar submissions...

Naked Gold Man: Roles For Which Meryl Streep Was Not Nominated

For this week's gold man column, we're skipping the general overview and getting really specific. Who doesn't enjoy a good zoom in on Meryl Streep? The Iron Lady, her Margaret Thatcher biopic performances, begins screening very soon -- they moved the release date back but not the screenings. So we need to discuss this before it does and the focus shifts from groundless speculation to case evidence.

Every time I've floated the notion that Meryl Streep cannot be an Iron Lock for a Best Actress nomination since her film has not been seen, people object. "But Meryl is ALWAYS nominated," sayeth everyone. Not so, not so. While it's true that The World's Greatest Actress™ seems as much a can't miss prospect in Best Actress as she did in the 80s what with nominations for Prada, Doubt and Julia fresh in our minds, she has missed the shortlist. Yes, even THE MOST NOMINATED is not always nominated. Some of those roles even looked good on paper and in some of them she was marvelous onscreen. If there'd been Oscar blogs back in in the 80s and 90s, for example, pundits would've leaned on her whilst predicting each and every year with as much lazy force as voters do when balloting. There is no such thing as someone who is Oscar-nominated for everything they've ever done -- unless they only made one film or their name is Stephen Daldry (three-for-three thus far in Best Director). Even James Dean, who famously received two post-humous Oscar nominations, was only nominated for 66% of his three iconic film roles...

...yeah, yeah. true, true. okay, okay...

You can't be nominated in the same acting category twice in one year so theoretically Dean could have been nominated for Rebel Without a Cause if it hadn't been for East of Eden. This is an important point which we will discuss in the following "snub" list. 

25 Streep Roles That Weren't Oscar Nominated

Meryl's entrance into the cinema she would soon reign. Julia (1977)

1977 Julia
"Anne Marie" is really just a cameo (two scenes) but it's magically fitting that this then unknown actress's first screen role was opposite two acting legends: Jane Fonda & Vanessa Redgrave (a probable Best Supporting Actress this year as she is quite sensational in Coriolanus). For most people the only way is down from there but for Meryl she's all, like, 'hey shove over. I'm here!' If she felt intimidated it doesn't remotely show in her haughty, funny, scene-stealing bit. But only important actors get nominated for cameos, even cameos this juicy, and Meryl was not yet a star. [More on Meryl's debut]

1978 The Deer Hunter -1st nomination

1979 The Seduction of Joe Tynan and Manhattan
This was the year of Kramer vs Kramer (her first win, following her first nom for The Deer Hunter in '78) so Academy voters couldn't have nominated her politico's mistress "Karen Traynor" or her angry lesbian ex-wife "Jill" in Woody Allen's other 70s masterpiece. Though these roles undoubtedly helped her win (note that the critics awards she won that year include all three) they wouldn't have won her nominations in a theoretical Kramer absence given the Oscar reception of Tynan (zero noms) and her internal competition in Manhattan. [More on this her year of actressy ascendance]

1979 Kramer vs. Kramer -2nd nom/1st win
1981 The French Lieutenant's Woman - 3rd nom

1982 Still of the Night  
This noirish femme fatale role arrived two weeks before the Sophie's Choice juggernaut (her second Oscar win) so technically she couldn't have been nominated for it unless they demoted her to "supporting" which they didn't. (The actress who got the 'demotion so we can double dip' you was Jessica Lange for Tootsie, who went on to win supporting while losing lead to Meryl.)  Though this noir may have added to surface cries of "Meryl can do anything!" Meryl herself didn't think so; according to some reports she wasn't particularly thrilled with her own work in it.

1982 Sophie's Choice -4th nom/2nd win
1983 Silkwood -5th nom

1984 Falling in Love
Meryl's work as "Molly Gilmore" a married woman who falls for a fellow commuter (her Deer Hunter co-star DeNiro) is actually rather touching. But it arrived fast on the heels of five shape-shifting legend-making iconic roles. This normal contemporary woman probably felt underwhelming to voters. Something "Magic Meryl" could probably do in her sleep and why not take a wee break from the exhaustingly perfect new legend? Trivia Note: We can't prove it but we believe any American actress not playing a farm wife that year was disqualified in a special one-year-only AMPAS ruling.  That's the only feasible explanation for the psychotic snubbing of Katheen Turner in Romancing the Stone.

1985-2009 including the 3 most interesting case studies in When Meryl is Not Nominated AFTER THE JUMP.

Click to read more ...

Well, That Was Fast... Billy Crystal To Host the Oscars

Strike while the iron is... short-circuiting? The Brett Ratner (producer) / Eddie Murphy (host) Oscar telecast resignations have been the talk of the town... make that both towns and February's Oscar night was starting to seem like an impending disaster. 

Despite a fun-to-think-about Muppets Oscar campaign*, many AMPAS voters and Oscar fans will get their wish and see the return of Billy Crystal. He's had the gig eight times in the past (1990-1993, 1997-1998, 2000 and  2004) but apparently eight is not enough. Billy is a good host but we just hope this doesn't mean yet more changes to the show. The last time Billy Crystal spoke about hosting he said he'd return only if they made certain (unspecified) changes to the broadcast. (Sigh) The Oscar ceremony is not broke. It just always thinks itself to be. It's like a beautiful girl who looks in the mirror and only sees her flaws. The only "fixing" the ceremony needs is some good old fashioned self-esteem. 

* I was just about to say that we'll still see Muppets on Oscar night, never fear -- I mean they've done the show several times before -- when I saw this tweet.

So now I don't need to. Perhaps this is the best of both worlds!