I would rather "Ice Pirates" win, maybe even "My Year of Dicks" (2 years in a row there's warnings about adult content? Wow), but I don't think they will win.
My thoughts on the 2024 Oscar-nominated animated shorts:
OUR UNIFORM (7 min) – This film tells of an Iranian girl and her memories of wearing a hijab as her school uniform. There’s a disclaimer at the beginning of the film that states that the film does not intend to disparage the wearing of the hijab—probably a wise thing for director Yegane Moghaddam to make clear. But since the film takes no position on the hijab, it just ends up being a brief recitation of how it was a requirement of her school life, but that she could dispense with it when at home or out in the countryside. More interesting is the animation style, which is a combination of traditional animation and fabric animation. The film does not alternate between the two styles, but combines them in every frame, with the (mostly) human characters in the piece being made up of a piece of fabric with faces or limbs drawn on it. It would be interesting to see exactly how it was done.
LETTER TO A PIG (17 min.) – In this film, a Holocaust survivor is addressing a classroom of school children. He reads a letter he wrote to the pig who saved his life, when he hid from the Nazis on a farm. A young schoolgirl hears his testimony and sinks into a twisted dream. This film is another mixture of styles. It is basically a rotoscoped film, in which the film is first shot in live action, but is then covered over with animation. But in this case, the live action and animation are combined—not by alternating between the two, but by having them both together in each shot. So, for example, the minimally sketched man may have a live action arm, or as shown below, an eye.
This was visually interesting, to see what parts of the frame the animators would choose to leave as live action. The story itself was somewhat muddled in its symbolism with the pig, as it was unclear what it meant within the girl’s dream.
PACHYDERME (11 min.) - The film follows another young girl, Louise, who every year stays at her grandparents' home in the countryside for a few days during the summer holidays. This year she will confront death. The film is another memory piece, told in pastel colors and a gentle manner, of how a girl faces one of life’s harsh realities. The delicate animation style fits the way in which the subject is addressed. The film was overly subtle in my opinion.
WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko (11 min.) – Two soldiers in different areas of a World War I battlefield use a carrier pigeon to trade moves in a chess match between them. When it’s time to go “over the top,” the opposing sides engage in hand-to-hand combat to the death, when suddenly the two chess opponents discover one another. This traditionally-animated film is all about the buildup to the conclusion, where Lennon’s song comes in. It’s a nice feel-good tale, but rather conventional.
NINETY-FIVE SENSES (13 min.) – This film has a narrator describing the pleasures to be had through the various senses of our body. Tim Blake Nelson delivers the narration in a folksy homespun voice, and the film is wildly eclectic in its visual look. This is because a different team of animators was responsible for animating the depiction of each of the senses. The film also has a twist near the end that I didn’t see coming (although others might), which adds some poignancy. I also liked the guitar and fiddle score by John Hancock, which is in tune with the narration style. This film would get my vote for the Oscar.
With no mainstream studio (read Pixar/Disney) candidate this year, it’s hard to predict where the Academy may go. Since my choice never wins, I guess I’d go with the most conventional film, WAR IS OVER. In years past, I might have gone with LETTER TO A PIG because it’s related to the Holocaust, which is usually a winning theme. But this year, the war in Gaza makes an Israeli coproduction with a Hebrew language track a nonstarter in Hollywood, most of whose denizens are wishing that the WAR IS OVER.
I guessed right. My choice (NINETY-FIVE SENSES) didn't win, and the most conventional film (WAR IS OVER) did.
War is Over is a sweet little short but I hate the art style which is very popular nowadays in animated films. I think it was Disney or a Disney artist who once said, (possibly paraphrasing) "If you can see my brush strokes, I didn't do my job."
I watched a couple of these and they're so dark and depressing.
