Oscar Shorts: Live Action and Animated

Just in time to capture your imagination a program of Oscar winning shorts moves into the Angelika Film Center this weekend. The screenings are divided between live action and animated short subjects, with showtimes alternating.
In the animated section the program also includes a handful of additional shorts. My favorite is Presto, which was the cartoon that ran before Wall-E. The winning short, Le Maison en Petits Cubes resembles a mind puzzle, constantly shifting in form and meaning with soft pastel colors. For the live action program my favorite was The Pig because I thought it achieved an emotional victory for its ending that you don't see coming. The Pig concerns an old man dealing with an unpleasant operation and the fact that the Muslim patient next to him wants a painting of a pig removed from the room. All the live action entries are enticing and the film that won the Academy Award last week, Toyland, plays with the conceit of the Holocaust being seen through a child's eyes.


Animated Program - Total Running Time 94 min
Lavatory - Lovestory - dir. Konstantin Bronzit - Russia - 10 min
Oktapodi - dir. Julien Bocabeille - France - 3 min
Le Maison en Petits Cubes - dir. Kunio Kato - Japan - 12 min
This Way Up - dirs. Adam Foulkes and Alan Smith - UK - 9 min
Presto - dir. Doug Sweetland - United States - 5 min
plus the following Commended Films:
Varmints - dir. Marc Craste - UK - 24 min
John and Karen - dir. Matthew Walker - UK - 5 min
Gopher Broke - produced by Blur Studios - USA - 4 min.
Skhizein - dir. Jérémy Clapin - France - 14 min.
Hot Dog - dir. Bill Plympton - USA - 6 min.

Live Action - Total Running Time 98 min
Auf Der Strecke (On the Line) - dir. Reto Caffi - Germany/Switzerland - 30 min
New Boy - dir. Steph Green - Ireland - 11 min
Toyland - dir. Jochen Freydank - Germany - 14 min
The Pig - dirs. Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh - Denmrk - 22 min
Manon on the Asphalt - dirs. Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont - France - 15 min