The 2017 Oscar Nominated Animated Short Films

Movie Information

The Story: This year's nominees in consideration for the Best Animated Short Academy Award. The Lowdown: While some are better than others (as usual), this year's batch of animated Oscar nominees is worth a look for anyone interested in short-form animation.
Score:

Genre: Short Animation Compilation
Director: Various
Starring: Various
Rated: NR

This year’s batch of animated shorts are either stronger than in years past, or my memory isn’t what it used to be (honestly, both could be true). One is great, two are very nearly as good, and the likely winner comes second-to-last in my qualitative estimation — but will probably take the prize on the basis of its technical virtuosity and mass appeal.

bt070_401.film_cc_HD

Borrowed Time. Directors: Andrew Coats, Lou Hamou-Lhadj. Country: USA. 7 min. Despite its Western setting and seemingly juvenile aesthetic, Borrowed Time is a deceptively moving piece of filmmaking, and possibly the closest on this list to functioning as pure cinema. Sporting only five spoken words of dialogue, it tells the story of a world-weary sheriff reflecting on a formative trauma from his youth, harboring a decades-old regret that threatens to consume him until a fortuitously placed memento literally draws him back from the brink of the abyss. My only complaint with this one is the tonal dissonance between its style and content, but beyond that, it’s remarkably affective.

Screenshot_2017_01_24_11.11.45.0

Pearl. Director: Patrick Osborne. Country: USA. 6 min. A schmaltzy and disorganized heartstring-tugging melodrama told from the point of view of a car, as it houses a single-dad slacker who makes his living busking from town to town until he decides to settle down for his daughter’s sake. Predictable teen-rebellion and subsequent reconciliation ensue. By a wide margin my least favorite of the bunch, this one feels like it could easily have been a car insurance ad aimed at listless Millennials.

1031925-nominees-announced-2017-canadian-screen-awards

Blind Vaysha. Director: Theo Ushev. Country: Canada. 8 min. By far my favorite of this year’s nominees, which probably indicates that it hasn’t got a chance of winning. Vaysha is a young girl born with one eye that only sees the past, while the other only sees the future, leaving her blind to the present. Told with a mythic, fairytale structure through a beautifully rendered animation style that evokes German Expressionist woodblock prints, the parable relayed through Vaysha’s story is both timely and well executed. Probably the only one of this year’s animated shorts that I’d like to rewatch for my own benefit.

pear_cider_and-_cigarettes07

Pear Cider and Cigarettes. Director: Robert Valley. Countries: Canada and UK. 35 min. Up there in terms of enjoyability with Borrowed Time but not on the level of significance or subtlety with Vaysha, Pear Cider and Cigarettes recounts the autobiographical tale of writer-director-animator Valley’s mission to a retrieve a self-destructive childhood friend who is drinking himself to death while awaiting a liver transplant in China. An intensely personal freewheeling narrative with a consistently distinctive and engaging animation style, my chief complaint with this is that it goes on ten or fifteen minutes too long. Your mileage may vary on that count.

895b91dce35e36fdc5a42154fda5e63f1b22aab5112e174e4bf61713d4927682

Piper. Director: Alan Barillaro. Country: USA. 6 min. Those of you who saw Finding Dory probably caught Piper before the feature. It’s a technical masterpiece, and may well end Pixar’s fifteen-year losing streak in the animated short category. Originally conceived as a test animation in new techniques for modeling difficult textures such as sand and feathers, it absolutely succeeds in that regard. As a marginally fleshed-out narrative, its highly derivative and uninspired. It worked well as an intro to a kids’ movie like Dory, and it absolutely cements Pixar’s preeminent position as the leading animation studio in the world, but its saccharinity and lack of purpose left me cold. If I had to guess, I’d say this is your presumptive Oscar winner.

Not Rated.

Opens Friday at Grail Moviehouse.

SHARE

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

3 thoughts on “The 2017 Oscar Nominated Animated Short Films

  1. T.rex

    This year’s nominees are all pretty weak except Blind Vaysha. I agree with you, it is the best of the lot however I thought all of the “highly recommended ” shorts were far better especially ONCE APON A LINE.

    • T.rex

      far better than any of the nominees. Very very sad there was no stop motion puppetry or hand drawn nominees out side of Vaysha.

  2. Raleigh-ite

    In previous years, there were higher highs and lower lows. This year’s selections were more middle-of-the-road. Nothing was transcendent or moved me to tears as in past years. But nothing was a dog, either. Having had a parent with dementia, The Head Vanishes was quite moving. And Once Upon a Time was a joy, with innovative use of hand drawn animation.

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.