The Great Oscar Baiter

I honestly can’t believe we’re here. The final week of our Year in Shorts. There were times when I didn’t think I could keep it up, but I’m very glad I did. And I’m very grateful for everyone who’s been here for their journey, either from the very beginning or just stumbling upon it today. Just as a film isn’t really a film without an audience, a blog without readers isn’t worth much of anything. Anyway, enough of that nonsense. Since our last week of shorts is ALSO the week leading up to Halloween, we’re gonna spend the next seven days having some fun by watching some seasonally appropriate shorts. And we’re kicking it off with one of the spookiest shorts I’ve ever seen- Paul Berry’s The Sandman. (via IMDb) Released in 1991, The Sandman has nothing to do with either Neil Gaiman's epic comic series (which began two years earlier) OR the badass Metallica song (which, coincidentally, was released that same year). Instead it is inspired by a short story by E.T.A. Hoffman, aka the guy...

Artsy films are hit and miss for me, and I assume it’s like that with everyone. But what about an artsy film that’s about art? Wouldn’t that be interesting? Well I think it is at any rate. Look, introductions are hard to do, alright? You try coming up with a new one every day for 343 days in a row! Anyway, we’re looking at Joan C. Grantz’s 1992 short, Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase. (via TV Tropes) Light on plot but heavy on style, Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase is another one of those shorts made mostly to highlight the animator's talent more than anything. And when you've got talent like this, why not show it off? The film is mostly just a series of recreations of famous works of art, from the titular Mona Lisa to the works of such luminaries as Vincent Van Gogh and Andy Warhol. That might not sound like much at first glance, but it is pretty remarkable to see come to life, watching as the various pieces transform into one another. What makes this film especially imp...

It’s been quite some time since we’ve covered a One Joke Short, hasn’t it? For those of you new to the blog (welcome!), or perhaps just don’t remember, a One Joke Short is what I call any short film in which most of the film’s runtime is used for setup to the punchline at the end. I guess technically Negative Space was a One Joke Short, albeit an incredibly depressing one. There have been good examples of the One Joke Short, and there have been bad ones, and it all comes down to whether or not the punchline is worth the setup. And in the case of today’s short, the 1992 French film Omnibus, it was definitely worth it. (via Wikipedia) As a point of interesting trivia, Sam Karmann's Omnibus is the last short film to both win an Oscar AND the Short Film Palme d'Or at Cannes. The last film to win the Palme d'Or and be nominated was the 2016 film Timecode, which was the first film to do so since When the Day Breaks. Why the Academy's taste in short films have veered so w...

We've discussed the work of Aardman Animations a few times in our Year in Shorts, but so far everything we've covered has been a Wallace and Gromit short. And that makes a fair bit of sense; Wallace and Gromit are their flagship characters, and arguably the most successful animated duo since Tom and Jerry. But Aardman's output expands far beyond everyone's favorite cheese-loving inventor and his dog, and quite a few of their other films have been nominated for Oscars. The 1992 short Adam, directed by Aardman co-founder Peter Lord, is one such film. (via IMDb) Yesterday we discussed The Man Who Planted Trees, a short which I compared to a religious experience. Well today's short is more explicitly religious. Or sacrilegious , I suppose may be the better term. Either way, Adam is a short parodying the Genesis story, with the Biblical Adam alone on the planet Earth, hoping God (represented here by a real human hand) will create a companion for him. If you're the...