The short film award winners are incredibly hard to predict, but—for what it’s worth—here are my predictions for the best live action, animated and documentary short films at the 84th Academy Awards, along with their trailers:
Short Film (Live Action)
Predicted Winner: Raju (Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren)
This is my personal favourite of the nominated live action short films, followed by Time Freak (Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey)—but The Shore (Terry George and Oorlagh George) is also a contender. The other nominees include Pentecost (Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane) and Tuba Atlantic (Hallvar Witzø).
Short Film (Animated)
Predicted Winner: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg)
My fellow jury members and I awarded this film a special jury prize at the Nashville Film Festival last year. It is my personal favourite of the animated short films. I also love and would be happy to see Wild Life (Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby) win, although the award could go to Pixar’s La Luna (Enrico Casarosa). The other nominees include Dimanche/Sunday (Patrick Doyon) and A Morning Stroll (Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe).
Short Film (Documentary)
Predicted Winner: Saving Face (Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy)
This award could also be given to The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen) or Incident in New Baghdad (James Spione)—both of which are strong contenders. The other nominees include The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement (Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin) and God Is the Bigger Elvis (Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson).
For those of you who haven’t seen the nominated shorts films (or if you have and would like to watch them again), three of them (Raju, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and Pentecost) were released on iTunes today, along with—for the first time internationally—the very funny 2007 Academy Award winning live action short film West Bank Story (Ari Sandel).
The 84th Academy Awards will be presented this Sunday, February 26, 2012.
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