See the 2023 Oscar nominated short films now
Image: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
The short films nominated for this year’s Academy Awards in both Live-action and animated categories are being shown in select cinemas across Australia ahead of the ceremony. The films come from all over the world, including an animated short from Australia, and span a range of genres, themes, styles, and techniques.
In contention for the Short Films (Animated) statuette are five extraordinary works. Each film uses a different animation style with a leaning towards traditional, organic film-making, that is, hand drawn frames, luscious colours and detail, stop-animation, and a sparse yet effective soundtrack.
The stories are quite poignant in each case, reflecting current social issues and perennial life challenges including climate change, teen sex, distorted reality, fragile mortality, and life’s complex journey.
The nominated short animated films are:
An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It – Lachlan Pendragon, Australia, 12 min.
Ice Merchants – João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano, Portugal/France/UK, 15 min.
My Year of Dicks – Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon, USA, 26 min.
The Flying Sailor – Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby, Canada, 8 min.
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse – Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud, UK, 33 min.
Humour, absurdism, familial love, as well as more sombre subjects are among the themes in the Live-action films. Again, they demonstrate a breadth of imagination in their approach to film-making as well as subject matter, scripts and casting.
From a bizarre and quirky Italian orphanage to the icy, cold landscape of a deeply unsettling Danish drama, to a triumph of the marginalised, it is a spectrum of life experiences.
The nominated short live-action films are:
An Irish Goodbye – Tom Berkeley and Ross White, UK, 23 min.
Ivalu – Anders Walter and Rebecca Pruzan, Denmark, 17 min.
Le Pupille – Alice Rohrwacher, Italy, 39 min.
Night Ride – Eirik Tveiten and Gaute Lid Larssen, Norway, 16 min.
The Red Suitcase – Cyrus Neshvad, Luxembourg, 18 min.
You can watch the full list of films at selected cinemas nationally on 4, 5, 10, 11 & 12 March.
Sydney cinemas include:
Dendy Newtown, Randwick Ritz, Golden Age (5 March), Cremorne Orpheum, Event George St, Event Macquarie, Event Burwood, Event Liverpool, Event Castle Hill, Event Bondi, Event Miranda, Event Parramatta, Greater Union Beverly Hills.
See cinema websites for screening times.
