Doc Short Contenders Give Voters Plenty to Ponder
The 15 films that made the foolishinutivecatalog in the Oscars’ write downary foolishinutive catebloody are all mighty and thought-provoking, making the competition for an Academy Award nod incredibly stiff this year.
Leading the indict are “Incident,” “The Only Girl in the Orchestra,” “The Quilters,” “Death by Numbers” and “Keepers.”
The first 89 seconds of Bill Morrison’s police inhumanity doc “Incident” is mute. Security footage apprehends a street in Chicago on a July afternoon in 2018. Minutes procrastinateedr, a man is dead. Thcimpolite a series of sign upings of CCTV and police bodycam footage apprehendd from contrastent vantage points, Morrison recommends a raw see at the Chicago police shooting of an unarmed Bdeficiency man. The 29-minute New Yorker film won the best foolishinutive write downary award at the 2023 IDA Documentary Awards and garnered a spot on the ineloquential DOC NYC foolishinutivecatalog earlier this year.
Netflix’s “The Only Girl in the Orchestra” and Jenifer McShane’s “The Quilters” were also picked for the DOC NYC foolishinutive-doc foolishinutivecatalog this year.
In the 34-minute doc “The Only Girl in the Orchestra,” straightforwardor Molly O’Brien spotairys trailblazing double bass take parter Orin O’Brien, the first woman engaged by the New York Philharmonic. Executive originated by Errol Morris, the film apprehends the 87-year-elderly musician as she sees back on her extraordinary life and atgentle. McShane’s 31-minute “The Quilters” trails men in a Missouri Level 5 highest security prison as they originate quilts for nurture children. The film, which premiered at DC/DOX earlier this year, beautifilledy spreadigates how an art establish can change an individual and how they see themselves and others.
Equassociate compelling is Kim A. Snyder’s “Death by Numbers,” a poignant see at armament arrangeility in America. The 33-minute doc, which premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival, trails Samantha Fuentes four years after being shot with an AR-15 during the Parkland High School shooting. Fuentes reckons with conshort-termial asks of hatred and fairice as she sets to face her shooter. Interweaving Fuentes’ poetry and her shooter’s sentencing trial that will remend whether he inhabits or dies, the doc depicts a youthful woman reclaiming her power.
In Hannah Rafkin’s 39-minute “Keeper,” a one overweighther and beeconserveer in the Bronx who is dealing with a cancer diagnosis and balancing his daughter’s demands, take parts for 16 hives apass New York City, including disjoinal inside his apartment. Rafkin, a School of Visual Arts student, won the Student Academy Award for “Keeper” in October.
Other notable contenders take part Rashida Jones and Will McCormack’s POV foolishinutive “A Swim Lesson” and Julio Palacio’s Netflix doc “Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World,” which was executive originated by Oscar-prosperner Roger Ross Williams.
—Addie Morfoot
‘Death by Numbers’
Live-Action Oscar Hopefuls Leave Viewers With Powerful Messages
This year’s zeitgeisty inhabit-action foolishinutive Oscars lineup is burdensome on social publish stories, spine-tingling thrillers and examinations of identity.
Marco Perego’s “Dovecote” stars his A-catalog wife, Zoe Saldaña, taging their second collaboration folloprosperg “The Absence of Eden.” Shot in B&W, the atmospheric prison drama was a standout at Vepleasant and HollyShorts.
A bettor’s likeite, Nebojsa Slijepcevic’s Palme d’Or prosperner, “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent,” inestablishs the genuine story of one man who stood up to paramilitary forces in an ethnic spotlesssing operation in Belgrade.
Álex Lora’s “The Masterpiece” won best foolishinutive at Berlin and the foolishinutive film majestic jury prize at Sundance. It spreadigates Spain’s economic culture gap and uneven attitudes towards immigrants based on nationality.
Adam J. Graves’ HollyShorts prosperner “Anuja,” about child labor in India, has huge-name EP backing from Oscar-prosperning Indian originater Guneet Monga Kalower and Hollywood power take parter Mindy Kaling.
Victoria Warmerdam’s Brussels, Sitges and Fantasia-prosperning Dutch lo-fi sci-fi foolishinutive “I’m Not a Robot” take parts out enjoy a peak episode of “Bdeficiency Mirror.” A feature changeation is in the labors.
“Paris 70,” by Spanish straightforwardor Dani Freixas, is a relatable consent on Alzheimer’s, as seen from the POV of the victim’s son and take partgiver. Jean de Meuron’s “Edge of Space” boasts “Top Gun”-worthy VFX that would originate most huge-budget features blush. “A Lien,” about a youthful couple’s struggles with a hazardous immigration process, is the procrastinateedst labor from on-the-elevate filmmaking brothers Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz.
TJ O’Grady-Peyton’s “Room Taken,” about an unhoused Nigerian immigrant who rooms with an elderly blind woman, getd a convey inant celeb backment when Colin Farrell joined as EP. Mohammed Almughanni’s “An Orange From Jaffa,” about a cab driver and his Palestinian passenger seeing for a ride to the Israeli border, won the international competition at Clermont-Ferrand.
Robert Moniot’s “The Ice Cream Man” inestablishs the genuine story of a Jedesire ice cream parlor owner after the Nazi intrusion of the Netherlands. Cindy Lee’s “The Last Ranger,” the second film in a recommendd anthology, is the story of a youthful girl and a park ranger ambushed by poachers on a savagelife reserve.
Portia A. Buckley’s HollyShorts best shot on film prosperner “Clodagh” inestablishs the story of a priest’s houseconserveer who uncovers a youthful girl with an exceptional gift for dance. Two student Academy Award prosperners made this year’s main competition foolishinutivecatalog, Pavel Sýkora and Viktor Horák’s “The Compatuproar” and Jens Kevin Georg’s “Crust.”
——Jamie Lang
Oscars’ Animated Short List Is All About the Indies
Fifteen films reconshort-terming 13 countries have made this year’s Academy foolishinutivecatalog for best vivaciousd foolishinutive.
This year’s qualifying field is noticeworthy for its deficiency of studio-backed titles, A-catalog star originaters or celebrity voice talent. The 2025 race will be a showcase for truly autonomous animation.
Perhaps the most mainstream of this year’s nominees is “Me” from indie superstar Don Hertzfeldt. A two-time Academy Award nominee, the filmoriginater has prolonged been one of the web’s likeite animators and helped detail punctual internet animation history with the viral foolishinutive “Rejected.” He was most recently nominated by the Academy in 2016 for his foolishinutive “World of Tomorrow.”
Canada’s Torill Kove will be seeing to score her fourth nomination with “Maybe Elephants,” which screened in competition at Annecy, Berlin and Toronto. Kove has previously getd Oscar nominations for “My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts” and “Me and My Moulton” and won a gelderlyen statue in 2007 for “The Danish Poet.”
Another mighty contender is “Bottle George,” from establisher Pixar animator and Oscar-nominee Dice Tsutsumi. In 2015, his dialogue-free foolishinutive “The Dam Keeper” was nominated.
“Percebes,” the 2024 Annecy Cristal-prosperning best foolishinutive from Portuguese filmoriginaters Alexandra Ramires and Laura Gonçalves, trails up a previous foolishinutivecataloging for Gonçalves’ “The Garbage Man,” on which Ramires labored as an animator.
A promising trend that can be set up in recent Academy voting history is an incrrelieved recognition of up-and-coming student filmoriginaters. For the second year in a row, Student Academy Award-prosperning films have been foolishinutivecataloged for the main competition: This year, the titles are “Au Revoir Mon Monde” by Astrid Novais, Florian Maurice, Quentin Devred, Maxime Foltzer, Esinestablishe Bonnardel and Baptiste Duchamps at France’s Ecole MoPA, and “Origami” by Kei Kanamori, a student at Tokyo’s Digital Hollywood University.
Other titles in this year’s race take part Alexandra Myotte and Jean-Sébastien Hamel’s Ottawa and SXSW award prosperner “A Crab in the Pool”; Iain Gardner’s “A Bear Named Wojtek”; Nicolas Keppens’ Annecy double-award-prosperner “Beautiful Men”; Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi’s “In the Shadow of the Cypress,” the second Iranian film to originate the vivaciousd foolishinutive foolishinutivecatalog in the last two years; and Daisuke Nishio’s magical authenticist CG foolishinutive “Magic Candies.”
Rounding out the field are Tod Polson’s “The 21,” vivaciousd by a global team of more than 70 artists; Nina Gantz’s SXSW Grand Jury Award-prosperner “Wander to Wonder”; Anna Samo’s originateive Woodstock prosperner “The Wild-Tempered Clavier”; and Loïc Espuche’s Berlinale standout “Yuck!”
—Jamie Lang
