From 120 films that originally qualified in the category here are the 10 that advance in the voting process for an opportunity to get a nomination.
The Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting at screenings held in Los Angeles. Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select three to five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in December.
Only one really calls my attention for the images, Helium but know story will be hard to see; perhaps worth watching are the shorts from Canada and UK.
The 86th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 16, 2014, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Shorts in alphabetical order.
Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me), Esteban Crespo, Spain,23 minutes
The short film tells the story of Paula y Kaney, two characters -an African child and a Spanish woman- who don´t have anything in common, but who will unite their lives due to a gunshot. Kaney is a child soldier from an African country. Along with many other children, he obeys a man´s order that has become a father, the General of the Rebel Army. Paula (Alejandra Lorente) is a Spanish volunteer worker who goes to Africa with his boyfriend, Juanjo (Gustavo Salmerón) with the goal of helping and rescuing the child soldier who live there. At a border post Paula and Kaney meet for the first time and that is the starting point of this dramatic story, in a fear, violence, terror and redemption scenario.
TRAILER Aquel no era yo from quieneslala on Vimeo.
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything), Xavier Legrand, France, 29 minutes
Grand Prix winner at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.
A young boy pretends going to school and hides under a small bridge. A teenager in tears waits at a bus stop. A woman picks them up and drives them to the parking lot of a supermarket. They step out of the car. The woman takes a big trash bag out of the trunk. All three rush inside the store…
Making of
Tournage AQDTP from bertrand PICAULT on Vimeo.
Dva (Two), Mikey Nedimovic, Croatia and Germany, 26 minutes
Croatia, 1993. Two marksmen – Robert, a Croat, and Stojan, a Serb – wander aimlessly through the desolate countryside. When their paths unexpectedly cross, the enemies immediately try to shoot each other. The first ‘click’, however, is not coming from a gun barrel, but from the ground beneath them: the enemies stepped on a landmine at the same time. One foot in the grave, they are involuntarily bound together by common destiny – the death of one means the death of the other. But not just their apparent differences make it difficult for them to overcome their dilemma. Nature, too, offers some challenges to test the soldiers’ solidarity and survival skills.
Helium, Anders Walter, Denmark, 23 minutes
“Helium” is the story of the young boy Alfred who is seriously ill in the hospital. He becomes good friends with the eccentric cleaning man Enzo and together they develop a magical fantasy world named Helium.
Kush, Shubhashish Bhutiani, India, 20 minutes
Winner of Best Short Film at 2013 Venice Film Festival Horizons Award.
Inspired by a true story: In 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards, causing anti-Sikh riots to erupt throughout the country. A teacher travelling back from a field trip with her class of 10-year-old students struggles to protect Kush, the only Sikh student in the class, from the growing violence around him.
Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?), Selma Vilhunen, Finland, 7 minutes
A comedy about a chaotic morning in a family with kids, and a mother who is determined that it’s best to take care of everything herself.
Record/Play, Jesse Atlas, USA, 11 minutes
A malfunctioning cassette tape captures more than just audio.
Teaser
RECORD/PLAY: TEASER from jesse atlas on Vimeo.
RECORD/PLAY from jesse atlas on Vimeo.
Throat Song, Miranda de Pencier, Canada, 15 minutes
Throat Song takes place in the small Arctic town of Iqaluit, Nunavut. In the snowy and mystic landscape of the Arctic, Ippik, a young Inuit woman, is caught up in an abusive relationship with her alcoholic husband. When Ippik gets a job with the Department of Justice, prepping victims of crimes for court, she connects with others in her community who are also suffering from pains of abuse. In hearing their stories, Ippik finds the strength to leave her husband and discovers that her voice is not yet entirely diminished.
Tiger Boy, Gabriele Mainetti, Italy, 20 minutes
2013 Nastro d’argento Best Short Film winner.
Matteo, a nine years old kid, builds a mask identical to the one of his hero: a wrestler of a roman suburb called The Tiger. Once the mask is on, Matteo never wants to take it off. What simply appears as a tantrum is in reality a call for help that nobody seems to hear.
The Voorman Problem, Mark Gill, UK, 13 minutes
Doctor Williams is called in to examine the enigmatic Mr Voorman, a prisoner with a peculiar affliction: he believes he is a god. The Doctor must decide on the sanity of Mr Voorman – is he a faker or a lunatic? Diagnose him insane and they can ship him off to the asylum. But before making a decision, the Doctor has several questions in relation to Voorman’s claims: why would a god choose to be straitjacketed in a prison, is there a way he can validate his boast and what has any of this got to do with Belgium?
