The past, present and future of the human experience is explored in the race for the best animated short film at the 96th Academy Awards.
The Best Animated Short category has a proud tradition, even if it isn’t always considered one of the “big” prizes on the night. After all, good things often come in short packages.
Starting in 1932, a category once dominated by Disney is now a showcase for both emerging and established filmmakers experimenting with the form. This year we see hybrid blends of 2D and CG animation, storybooks and songs brought to life and animating directly onto physical fabrics.
Following last year’s category winner The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse — a syrupy exploration of place and identity packaged as a childhood fable — there’s arguably a childhood lens at various stages in their narratives. This is certainly the case with Letter to a Pig, Ninety-Five Senses, Our Uniform and Pachyderm, all of which add the additional running thread of dealing with past trauma.
So, without any further ado, the nominees in focus are:
Letter to a Pig
Tal Kantor takes the incredibly weighty subject matter – an old man relating his memories of the Holocaust to a group of kids – and filters the trauma through animation. The layered piece combines beautiful brush-painted images, traditional 2D animation and live action footage combined into a unique whole. That said, I struggled to connect with the film’s construction following a midpoint turn into something more abstract, especially given that it depicts violence against the titular animal. Still, as an Oscar contender for 2023, it would also make an interesting double-feature with The Zone of Interest, both being important reminders about being complicit and complacent in the face of state-sanctioned horrors.
Will it win? The poignant subject matter is often favoured by Academy voters and its powerful message will not be one lost on any viewers. Purists may quibble over the use of live action elements, but it is done in such a seamless mixed media fashion that they are all parts of a visual whole.
Ninety-Five Senses
This one took me by surprise. One of the stronger contenders from the five Oscar nominated animated shorts, starting (as many of the others do) as a nostalgic journey and turning into something else entirely. Directed by Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess, perhaps best known for Napoleon Dynamite, it follows a man who looks back on his life through the lens of his five senses. Yet, as he reflects on his life’s mistakes, we realise the truth behind his preoccupation with mortality. (I won’t spoil that for you here). Using several different animation styles, from more traditional 2D cel animation to more experimental pieces, it starts as Up and ends up a little more Shawshank Redemption.
Will it win? This is perhaps the only short in the category that has a creative team recognisable outside of the world of animation, and also one that has the most traditional narrative structure. The familiar touchpoints make it one of the leads in the group, and is certainly one of my favourites.
Our Uniform
Looking at the memories of an Iranian schoolgirl through the lens of the titular uniform, director Yegane Moghaddam uses the unique technique of literally using canvas as her canvas, animating directly onto the fabrics. While it’s ostensibly about Iranian school uniforms, there’s a universality to this when we consider the ‘uniforms’ that we all wear in our daily lives, especially (as Moghaddam put it in an interview) the “clothing convention imposed on women.” From an animation point of view, it’s a fascinating blend of real fabrics, stop motion and 2D animated layers composited on the stop-motion layer.
Will it win? Another short with an incredibly strong tie to current issues facing the Iranian women it depicts, as well as many other women around the world. It’s one of the more unique examples of animation this year as well.
Pachyderm
As I said, if there’s a loose theme in the Best Animated Short Film category this year, it’s dealing with childhood trauma. Stéphanie Clément’s gorgeously illustrated short film is arguably both the most subtle and powerful of the crop. There’s a storybook quality to the art, taking Clément’s original drawings and recrafting them in unique CG that gives depth and weight to the pieces. This is spectacularly achieved in a sequence by the lake, one where all of the techniques come together in a heartbreaking way. It’s like a Shaun Tan book with a thoroughly European animation sensibility — especially as the real weight of what the lead child is carrying slowly dawns on the viewer.
Will it win? This is everything that every storybook inspired cartoon wishes it could be: pure art. At any rate, this is probably one of my top two choices in the field.
WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko
Subtle, this is not. There’s a solid narrative at the heart of this, and given the global landscape at this point in time, it’s one that could have really made a mark. Indeed, the very song that this was “inspired” by wasn’t just a song, but the culmination of more than two years of peace activism that include the infamous bed-in, interviews and large-scale advertising. Yet presented in this package, with some admittedly striking designs, it simply comes off as cloying and laden with unfilled potential.
Will it win? A popular song, some aesthetically pleasing animation and a message against war in 2024? How can the Academy possibly resist?
Bonsai Films in association with ShortsTV will be releasing the 19th annual Oscar® Nominated Short Films from 22 Feb at 37 cinema locations nationally with sessions that will be staggered through to early March. The ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 10, 2024. (Monday March 11 Australian time).
