Best Animated Short - 2018 - BAO

I'll confess that I was less enthused about the Oscars this year than the years past. I'm not entirely sure why, but it may be because I'm focusing more on other interests such as baseball, My Little Pony, and video games? I had considered skipping the Oscars entirely and just watching who won Best Animated Short online, especially as the Academy was considering presenting some categories during commercial breaks, but in the end I decided to tune in for the whole thing. That still meant that Best Animated Short was the category I'm most anticipating. And of course presenters Aquafina and John Mulaney called it a big one. And of course I have to present the winner? And the winner this year?

Bao



A lot to break down about this one. For one thing, Pixar won just two years ago for Piper. It was their first win since For the Birds won back in 2001 15 years earlier, and it continued the streak of Pixar winning once for every decade since the 1980s, with Tin Toy winning in 1988 and Geri's Game in 1997. Bao's Oscar win is historic for Pixar because it marks just the fifth time they won in this category (no matter how everybody thinks it wins all the time), and the first time they won this category twice in a decade.

Not only that, but Bao plays a historic role in Pixar history. It is the first short film directed by a female: Domee Shi (石之予). Shi was born in China but came to Canada at the age of two. She became interested in art and ended up studying animation. She graduated and ended up getting a job at Pixar as a storyboard artist, working on films such as Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, Incredibles 2, and the upcoming Toy Story 4. She ended up pitching and was approved to make Bao. And of course she becomes the first woman of Chinese descent to win in this category. (Shaun Tan had won for The Lost Thing in 2010.)

Am I happy that Bao won? Of course, but I would also have been happy with just about all of the other nominees. This was a strong year, but somebody had to win. I'm glad that Domee Shi got the win.

As far as the other categories, I don't know. I'm writing this before a good 1/3 of the categories have been awarded. I guess I'm a bit alarmed by how much Bohemian Rhapsody had won. With wins in three of the five categories in which it's nominated, and Rami Malek being the front-runner for Best Actor, it's not hard to imagine the film winning Best Picture as well. Of course, there's also Green Book with its PGA win, but it is a comedy that that the Academy usually disdains. And then they could always award it to Black Panther. But all that doesn't matter. This is the category that does.