Sunday, February 12, 2012

84th Academy Awards – ‘Best Live Action Short Film’

****** Links to all 5 nominees below ******

A short film is defined as an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits.

This excludes from consideration such works as:
1.  previews and advertising films
2.  sequences from feature-length films such as credit sequences
3.  unaired episodes of established TV series
4.  unsold TV series pilots

A live action film uses live action techniques as the basic medium of entertainment.  Documentary short subjects will not be accepted in the live action category.

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Eligibility:
The picture must have been publicly exhibited for paid admission in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County for a run of at least three consecutive days with at least two screenings a day. Films must be screened in 35mm or 70mm film or in a 24- or 48-frame progressive scan format with a minimum projector resolution of 2048 by 1080 pixels; source image format conforming to SMPTE 428-1-2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Image Characteristics; image compression (if used) conforming to ISO/IEC 15444-1 (JPEG 2000), and image and sound file formats suitable for exhibition in commercial Digital Cinema sites.  The audio in a typical Digital Cinema Package (DCP) is 5.1 channels of discrete audio, and that is the preferred audio configuration.  The minimum for a non-mono configuration of the audio shall be three channels as Left, Center, Right (a Left/Right configuration is not acceptable in a theatrical environment).  The audio data shall be formatted in conformance with SMPTE 428-2-2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Audio Characteristics and SMPTE 428-3-2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Audio Channel Mapping and Channel Labeling.  Student films cannot qualify in this manner.

OR

The film must have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival, as specified in the Academy Festival List.  Proof of the award must be submitted with the entry.  The Academy’s Short Film Awards Festival List is available on the Academy’s Web site or may be obtained from the Academy.

A student film may also qualify by winning a Gold Medal award in the Academy’s 2011 Student Academy Awards competition in the Animation, Narrative, Alternative, or Foreign Film award category.  Winners in the Documentary category are not eligible.

A short film may not be exhibited publicly anywhere in any nontheatrical form, including but not limited to broadcast and cable television, home video, and Internet transmission, until after its Los Angeles theatrical release, or after receiving its festival or Student Academy Award.  Excerpts of the film totaling no more than ten percent of its running time are exempted from this rule.

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Voting Procedures:
Excellence of the entries shall be judged on the basis of originality, entertainment and production quality without regard to cost of production or subject matter.
A reviewing committee, consisting of volunteer active and life members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch, will view all motion pictures entered and mark all entries 10, 9, 8, 7, or 6 with the guidelines of 10 (excellent), 8 (good), 7 (fair) or 6 (poor).  In each category not more than ten pictures receiving the highest average numerical scores above 7.5 shall be considered further.  In the event that fewer than six pictures receive average numerical scores above 7.5, those with the next highest average numerical scores shall be included until six pictures are selected.

To determine nominations, all entries selected by the Reviewing Committee shall be screened by the Branch Nominating Committee consisting of all active and life members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch.  A member must see all shortlisted films for the ballot to be counted.  Those members of the branch who served on the Reviewing Committee, and who viewed all of the selected pictures, in either or both categories, will receive mail ballots.  The running order of the films in each category shall be determined by lot.  The 10-to-6 point system will be used for voting at this screening.  Those films receiving an average score of 7.5 or more shall be eligible for nomination.  However, there may be not more than five nor fewer than three nominations in each category.

Final voting for the Animated Short Film and Live Action Short Film awards shall be restricted to active and life members of the Academy who have viewed all of the nominated short films in a theatrical setting.  Academy members may vote for only one film in each of the two categories.  Those members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch who served on the Branch Nominating Committee, and who viewed all the nominated pictures, will receive mail ballots.  When a non-standard format nominated film cannot be included in the official Academy voting screenings for its category, members must submit evidence of having seen that film elsewhere in order to vote in that category.

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Nominations:

Pentecost – Peter McDonald and Eimear O'Kane
  • 1st nomination.

The film follows an eleven-year-old boy who is a last-minute call-in by his local parish to serve as an altar boy at an important mass.

Peter and Eimear have been working in the Irish television industry for quite some time.  Eimear is a producer, while Peter is a respected actor, having won ‘Best Actor’ at the Irish Film and Television Awards in 2000.  This is Peter’s first role as director.

Raju – Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren
  • 1st nomination.

The film follows a German couple whose child, that the adopted as an orphan in Calcutta, India, suddenly disappears.

This is Max’s first student film and so far he has won both the Angelus Awards Student Film Festival and the Brussels International Independent Film Festival.  Stefan is the producer.

– Terry George and Oorlagh George
  • 3rd nomination.

The film follows two boyhood best friends who are reunited after a 25 year division created by a misunderstanding from the days of the Northern Ireland Troubles.

Terry has been previously nominated twice for Screen Writing: ‘Hotel Rwanda’ and ‘In the Name of the Father’.  He also wrote ‘Hart’s War’ and ‘The Boxer’… in addition, he directed ‘Hotel Rwanda’.  Terry is by far the most seasoned and well known of the bunch.  It gives him a definite edge.  Oorlagh, Terry’s wife, produced ‘The Shore’


Time Freak – Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
  • 1st nomination.

‘Time Freak’ has been doing great in the Film Festival circuit.  It has won the Fort Collins TriMedia Festival, Route 66 Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, and the Stony Brook Film Festlival’… and it was nominated for Best Short Film Jury Award at the Omaha Film Festival.

Tuba Atlantic – Hallvar Witzø
  • 1st nomination.

The film follows a 70-year-old man who has six-days to live, and wants to reconcile with his brother after a lifetime of disagreement.

Hallvar is a student the Norwegian Film School and he is this years winner of the Academy’s Student Film Award.

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Oscar Trends:
There is no rhyme or reason.  Like the animated films, I would be inclined to give the edge to the film having received the most notoriety in the film festival circuit, but the trends don’t really hold up to that… for live action, it is all very subjective.  Sometimes a student film wins, sometimes a very successful short wins… sometimes a short no one has heard of wins.  Who knows!?!  That said I have carefully crafted my list below:

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Prediction

  • Winner:  The Shore – Terry George and Oorlagh George
    • Runner-Up:  Time Freak – Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
    • Wild Card: Raju – Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren
    • Unlikely:  Tuba Atlantic – Hallvar Witzø
    • No Chance in Hell:  Pentecost – Peter McDonald and Eimear O'Kane

Click HERE for a full list of my Oscar predictions.

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