Oscar Nominated Shorts: Animation— Reviewed
The 92nd Academy Awards were an interesting bag of snubs and nominations, especially concerning diversity, but here’s a quick rundown of an area that could often get overlooked: the animated short films.
Hair Love (USA)
This short normalizes black hair and celebrates black beauty. It shows a father tenderly helping his daughter to do her hair and embracing her femininity. Director Matthew A. Cherry says “We’re not used to seeing black fathers depicted in this light. In the media, black dads are often not present or if they are, it’s some kind of negative connotation. This seemed like a good opportunity to tell a story about a black family that has natural hair, and in the medium of animation,” And the director has succeeded in showing a compassionate and affectionate father-daughter relationship and the themes of self-acceptance, love, and beauty shine through.
KitBull (USA)
Kitbull’s title is a portmanteau of Kitten and Pitbull, the two central figures in this short. These two figures, despite their differences, slowly develop trust and a friendship. Their friendship gives them the courage to get out of their situation (the pitbull has an owner who mistreats him and the other is a scared alley cat) and eventually and escape to a better life. It’s a sweet short with an enduring message of friendship and hope between species and that our differences aren’t as important as the way we treat each other.
Dcera/Daughter (Czech Republic)
Perhaps the most original of the bunch, this Czech student short also looks at father-daughter dynamics, but in a much different light. It tackles themes of loss and creatively explores grief and memory. The dynamic camera work gives the story momentum and the paper mache figures express so much without facial expression, a testament to this short’s artistry. The stop motion animation and the hand drawn faces conveys a humanity that allows for emotionally powerful sequences.
妹 妹 / Sister (USA)
“Dedicated to the siblings we never had.” This sweet sibling love letter displays Siqi Song’s quirky and inventive style. She uses wool as “The texture is really dreamy; that resonates with the themes about memory and about childhood.” This felted stop-motion animation delivers a sweet, honest, and intimate portrait of family life in China with the one-child policy. The message of potential loss of sibling-hood and therefore childhood is powerful and well-executed.
Mémorable (France)
This irreverent short follows a painter and his wife coping with his advancing dementia. As he starts to lose his memory and sense of reality so does the animation become more hallucinatory and abstract. This is probably the most visually striking and compelling of all of these, with a memorable end sequence and also equipped with humor and visual gags.
OSCAR WINNER: HAIR LOVE
INCLUVIE WRITER’S CHOICE (combination of General/Incluvie score): HAIR LOVE
