- Title: Five different animated shorts compete for the Oscar
- Date: 29th February 2024
- Summary: BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 12, 2024) (Reuters) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR, TAL KANTOR, SAYING: "The symbol of the pig, it's an interesting animal in different cultures and societies it means different things. According to the Jewish faith, it's considered an impure animal and I thought it's quite an interesting symbol to examine the different wa
- Embargoed: 14th March 2024 10:51
- Keywords: Academy Awards Animated Short Letter to a Pig Ninety-Five Senses Oscars Our Uniform Pachyderme War is Over!
- Location: BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES; UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS
- City: BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES; UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS
- Country: US
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Film,North America
- Reuters ID: LVA00E423828022024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The animated short nominees for the Oscars demonstrate a wide range of artistic styles and influences, but each has a story to tell.
'Ninety-Five Senses' is from husband/wife filmmaker team Jared and Jerusha Hess ('Napoleon Dynamite') and talks about the order in which senses leave the body, when someone dies. The film has a twist, that Jerusha Hess said leaves audiences gasping.
"People are laughing at one moment, then there's an audible gasp in audiences when they realize this is a character on death row and not just this folksy retelling of one's life," Jerusha Hess told Reuters. "It's that gasp and people coming out just bawling and saying we didn't know that was coming and you made me feel so many things."
'War is Over!' is an homage to the song by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, which was written back in 1971.
Originally intended to be a music video, the director and Lennon and Ono's son, Sean, decided to make it a short animated film.
It shows warring armies in trenches who discover they have something in common during the conflict.
Sean Lennon said the message of the 1971 song still resonates today.
"All I wanted to do was represent the music and the message in a new light," Lennon said.
'Letter to a Pig' is a more surreal animation about children listening to a Holocaust survivor's testament in school. However, the lesson they learn isn't necessarily what was intended.
"The film speaks about trauma and how trauma can be transmitted from one generation to the next," the film's director Tal Kantor said "It was an opportunity to focus on global and universal issues related to this subject, to examine how this trauma can span generations after generations -- it's something that can move on -- and to question, is there something we can do regarding this to prevent this cycle?"
Iranian animation 'Our Uniform' is about the impact of clothing conventions on children and shows a young girl unfolding her memories from the material of the clothes.
'Pachyderme' tells the story of a woman remembering her childhood at her grandparents' house, and the strange symbolism around those memories.
The winner of the best animated short will be announced on March 10 at the Academy Awards.
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