Best Animated Short - 2023

It's been over a month since the release of the nomination list for the 2023 Oscars (because I have always believed that the Oscars year should refer to the year the films being celebrated were released), and I have been waiting to see if two of the five Best Animated Short nominees were ever going to appear online. I mean there was the Animation Showcase website that an anonymous commenter mentioned that had Our Uniform, but when I went to sign up the website said it was for industry professionals which kind of made me spooked, because I am definitely not in the animation industry. I am more of a freelance writer if anything. 

So it was down to searching constantly for Our Uniform or War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko. Of course, those searches have always been fruitless, so it came down to having to do something that I hadn't done since the 2018 Oscars, which is going to a showing of the animation shorts. While there were more theaters doing showings than there were five years ago, I was dismayed to find that the showings wouldn't open wide until February 16. I waited around but when the 16th rolled around I was dealing with some car issues that further delayed my being able to watch the films.

But finally my car problems were behind me, and I was able to find some time in my schedule to do not just one but two viewings of the Oscar nominated animated shorts. And at long last I can finally start my review of the 92nd set of nominees for the Best Animated Short category, growing ever closer to that milestone 100th year.

Letter to a Pig

It is Europe in the 1940s, and a young Jewish boy named Haim is running through the woods, trying to escape from his German captors. He hides in the only place he can find in the winter night, a pigsty. The German officers search the pigpen, but a pig steps in front of Haim's hiding place, even giving the boy a knowing glance. A German soldier gives the pig a pat on the head before resuming their search elsewhere. Haim would never forget this moment, and 50 years later he sits in an Israeli classroom and reads to them a letter he penned about how the actions of the pig changed how he viewed the animal. However, a disrespectful student interrupts his reading, and he launches into a tirade about his desire for revenge against his oppressors. How would this affect the impressionable minds of the youngsters? Letter to a Pig is a co-production between France and Israel, but it is primarily a Jewish story by a Jewish animator, and as such it is the first Israeli animated short film to receive a nomination in the Best Animated Short category. It was inspired by an event that happened in the life of the director Tal Kantor. As a child growing up in Israel, her school would bring Holocaust survivors to tell their story, and one such survivor did read a letter he wrote to a pig that he thought saved his life. According to Kantor she had a dream that would stick with her for years, even after she graduated from high school and went on to study animation in Jerusalem. And once she received her degree she decided to take that childhood memory and turn it into her first post-graduation short film, which is Letter to a Pig. In a series of making-of videos, she explained that her intention was to depict a generation that grew up listening to stories of one of the most horrific human tragedies ever inflicted to a group of individuals, and how it shapes their identity as they grow up into adults. The message becomes that much more timely with the eruption of the Israeli-Hamas conflict in late 2023. And while I have read a little bit about this conflict, I don't pretend to be an expert on global politics. If I say something in this review that is factually inaccurate and insensitive, then I do extend my sincerest apologies, but I feel it is difficult to talk about Letter to a Pig without addressing the conflict.

Letter to a Pig is basically broken up into three separate sections. The first is essentially a prologue and depicts the experiences of Haim in the pigsty that was depicted in the summary. The second is a scene in an Israeli classroom of an elderly Haim reading his letter and its effect on one of the children, a girl named Alma. And the third section is a dreamlike sequence of Alma and several of her classmates going forth in a snowy landscape and taking on a mission put forth by Haim. Each section is distinct in their tone and in their animation quality. The prologue is extremely detailed in its animation and aural qualities and is the most cinematic in quality. The middle section is the most realistic and yet the animation is sparse and devoid of much detail, with the only music coming from when Alma visualizes a pig as Haim reads his letter. The final section is the most surreal, yet the animation is full of detail as the children are seen exploring an abandoned house before Alma finds a massive, brutal boar which she attacks with her friends and together they string it up to a chandelier. Then she later has a change of heart and lets it down, during which the pig had shrunk to become a normal pig. Then as the pig continues to de-age, she lets it out through an opening. I have seen reviews question this climactic scene, asking why the children attack this pig. I'll confess that I was also confused the first time I saw the film. Yet when I re-watched the film and really paid attention to Haim's words, then the meaning becomes a little more clear. As I explained in the summary, Haim was angered by the disrespect showed by one of the students. As he talked about his hatred of the Nazis, whom he compared to animals, he began discussing his desire for revenge, and the success he had with one of the Nazis. His final lines were spent bemoaning his age, and saying "For me, my real revenge is you." I took it to mean that his chance for revenge was for the younger generation to go through with it. Thus the militant nature of the students in the final section. However, the final change of heart for Alma mirrored the titular letter. Haim spent much of it talking about how much he was taught to abhor the creature, and indeed from what I can see pigs are the seen as the lowest of the low in Jewish culture. Yet his encounter led him to change his opinion. Similarly, the kids attack the pig because that was what was taught in their culture, yet their viewpoints as their hearts softened as they begin to see the pigs not as something disgusting but another living being. Anyways, to put it simply, the film's message is that of empathy. That message is sorely needed in the current conflict, where it seems that Israel answered a horrible atrocity perpetrated by the Hamas with horrible atrocities of their own. That has in turn led to rising antisemitism around the world. It's a very delicate situation, and one that I don't think can be fixed with a 17-minute short film, but sometimes a little empathy can go a long way. Anyways, I suppose I should mention mixed-media animation style that combines some filmed footage with animation as well as the exaggerated character design that includes massive ears for characters. Still, Letter to a Pig would perhaps be one of the more challenging films nominated, but its message is sorely needed today.
Where Can I Watch It?
Letter to a Pig was available on YouTube at one point, but it appears that whoever posted the video had taken it off, meaning the only way to watch it nowadays is at one of those showings. 

Ninety-Five Senses

Coy is an elderly gentleman living in Texas enjoying what he knows would be his final meal. As he snacks on onion rings, he marvels at a human's five senses. He explores each of those senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch, and how they have brought him to this point, as a condemned man sentenced to death for killing a family living in the auto shop that he burned down in retaliation for a firing he viewed as unjust. He muses on the regrets that he has had in his life and the paths that could have happened had things gone a little differently. And as his execution draws near, he is comforted by a possibility that he feels he could experience as he moves on towards his next life. Jared and Jerusha Hess is a husband-and-wife filmmaking duo that has made their name with quirky comedies that become cult classics, such as Napoleon Dynamite (2004) and Nacho Libre (2006). They had continued to make movies, but their later works had never achieved the critical or commercial success as their first two movies. And it soon began to feel completely laughable that they would ever come away with Oscar nominations. Yet here they are, almost 20 years after Napoleon Dynamite, with an Oscar nomination in a category that nobody would have ever expected, which is Best Animated Short. Of course, Ninety-Five Senses is no ordinary film. In fact the story of its production is worth telling. The Hesses are based on Salt Lake City, and they work closely with the Salt Lake Film Society, who have in turn founded MAST, a non-profit organization designed to discover artists and turn them into "artist-entrepreneurs" that would create film within the state of Utah. The Hesses were more than happy to serve as mentors for their first project, an animated short film that they would direct based on a script written by Utah screenwriters Chris Bowman and Hubbel Palmer. The animators would be selected from submissions to a contest held by MAST. The winners would be assigned to a segment in the short film that would turn out to be Ninety-Five Senses.

Ninety-Five Senses plays out like a death row interview, which has become somewhat of a fairly popular subgenre, with even Werner Herzog getting in on the action. It is split up into five segments, one based on each of the five senses, with a central segment connecting the other sections together. Each segment is animated by a different team of animators, based as close as Utah and as far away as Mexico, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. The animators were given the portion of the script that corresponds to their individual section, but were otherwise free to develop their own animation in their distinct styles. The result is a film that is film that is diverse in its visuals but never gets distracting. Of course, that wouldn't matter as much if it wasn't paired with a strong script, but thankfully that isn't a case. While each segment is nominally about a sense, it reveals a little bit more about Coy's life and what happened to him. In fact Coy's fate is only hinted at in the first two senses. It isn't only until the third segment Hearing where Coy reveals his crime, and it wasn't until the fourth segment Taste that he reveals his status as a condemned man. Then he spends the final segment Touch talking about an alternate life that he could have had before being left with nothing but his regrets. I do appreciate the piecemeal approach of storytelling, as I feel that it helps fill out Coy's story and helps make him a more sympathetic character, his status as an unreliable narrator notwithstanding. Of course, a lot of that probably also comes from the exceptional voice acting provided by Tim Blake Nelson of O Brother Where Art Thou and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs fame. It's full of emotion yet always manages to maintain an even keel. There is plenty of humor, and I've heard more chuckles at certain points of Ninety-Five Senses in both of my showings than any of the other films, yet one is left with a sobering sense of loss and regret at the end. Perhaps it is emotional manipulation, but the scriptwriters Bowman and Palmer said they wanted to pen a story that points out the injustices of capital punishment, and they certainly accomplish their goals. I do feel that when considering its visuals and storytelling, Ninety-Five Senses is the most complete of this year's nominees, and certainly would be a worthy winner.
Where Can I Watch It?
Ninety-Five Senses is streaming on Documentary Plus. It doesn't seem to allow me to embed the video, but it is free.

Our Uniform

A young lady is getting ready to fly back to her home country of Iran. She enjoys watching the people around her and the different style that they wear. As she makes note of these differences, she thinks back to her childhood in the capital city of Tehran and how her life's path seemed to have been sketched out for her as represented by the restrictive uniforms that she was forced to wear. She remembers the lessons she was given, both about necessity of the hijab head covering that she was forced to wear as well as the moments of indoctrination. Yet deep inside she years for the freedom that she could not possibly have while living in Iran. Our Uniform is an autobiographical film by Iranian illustrator and animator Yegane Moghaddam. It is the first animated short film from Iran to receive a nomination in this illustrious category, which is probably a strange statement considering some may argue that Iran is the birthplace of animation through the discovery of a 5,000-year-old vase that feature five images with slight differences to tell a story. Modern Iranian animation got its start in the 1950s, with Belgian-trained animator Noureddin Zarrinkelk. However, like many forms of art its progress was stunted with the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the authoritarian government that was ushered in. The religious fundamentalism that was instituted with the Islamic Republic influenced more than just arts and entertainment but Iranian culture as a whole. For one thing it led to the adaptation of restrictive dress codes for women, a reality that was not lost on Marjane Satrapi who lived through the Revolution and experienced its effect on Iranian society which inspired her award-winning graphic novel Persepolis which was eventually adapted into an Oscar nominated feature film, and Moghaddam. 

With Our Uniform Moghaddam her memories of her schooling in Tehran, together with its anti-Western indoctrination and its often contradictory rules and regulation  propelled by oppressive religious beliefs. Tying it all together is the school uniform which includes a black cloak and a hijab. According to interviews she meant to present the material in a matter-of-fact fashion, and she even put a disclaimer in the beginning how the film is not meant to criticize the hijab but to depict a setting where the hijab is mandatory. However, I can't help but sense there is some resentment especially as during the film she talks of her secret desires to let loose in public as she does at home, and the freedom in dress outside of Iran. Of course this could just be me the viewer projecting my own views on clothing in my interpretation of the film. Anyways, one of the most distinctive features of Our Uniform may not necessarily be the subject matter but the animation. The entire film has the look of animation being drawn onto articles of clothing themselves, although Moghaddam has mentioned in interviews that the film utilizes a technique that takes 2D animation and compositing it with stop-motion shots of the clothing. Still, the effects are quite charming as the combination of the animation and the clothing are done very well. For example, grown up Moghaddam doesn't just walk down just any path, but along the folds of her jeans. And when talking about her deep thoughts regarding the hijab, the depth is depicted with three layers that is unlocked by buttons, a zippers, and finally safety pins. There is also plenty of humor in the animation, although the sobering moments are still present, such as when the children are shown chanting anti-Western phrases such as "Down with the USA," "Down with England," and "Down with Israel." Moghaddam's decision to be reportedly non-judgmental in the depiction of the events may give viewers a chance to project their own biases onto the film and allow for more open-ended interpretations, but I do wonder if that also contributes to the film feeling more slight than the other nominees, especially at seven minutes it is by far the shortest of this year's nominees. Still that doesn't change the fact that Our Uniform is a charming little film that represents a major milestone in the history of Iranian animation.
Where Can I Watch It?
I did find a place where one can rent or buy the film. The payment never seems to be getting processed, but then I get to a website where I can watch the film, so I dunno. 

Pachyderme

Louise is a young lady that thinks back to her childhood, particularly a summer trip she took to her grandparents when she was only nine. She recalls specific memories, such as her grandparents' penchant for neatness as well as the tusk of a large animal long deceased, a pachyderm. Her grandfather takes her to a lake where she can go swimming with the other kids, and also into the forest where she can experience the sounds of nature. Yet her memories from this trip is not one of happiness but one of dread, even with her grandmother's reassurances of what could possibly happen. She spends her nights trying to hide in the wallpaper or killing monsters in her head. However, one night it snowed and a monster dies in real life. Childhood is supposed to be an idyllic time for an individual, as it is an opportunity for them to explore the world around them and form connections with other people. Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development provides a list of milestones that an individual should pass through in order to live a happy and fulfilling life. At least, that is in an idealized world where a child's needs and sense of security are met. However, for some people this sense of security is betrayed by those whose jobs are to protect them, leading to some tragic results. That is the sort of question that Stéphanie Clement poses in her film Pachyderme, which is basically the French word for "pachyderm," a former order of thick-skinned animal that may include hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and elephants. In this case, the pachyderm refers to the tusk of the animal that is on display, which is in itself a symbol for something sinister that is going on under the roof.

One would expect that a summer holiday would be a reason for joy or celebration, and but Pachyderme subverts this expectation with its expert use of atmosphere. Yes, the world of Louise's grandparents house is very neat and colorful with a lot of things to see and do. She goes swimming in the lake with the other kids, and goes to listen to the sound of nature. Yet each of these events are not joyful but tinged with a distinct sense of dread that is elicited from the shot composition that provide a sense of being trapped as well as the creepy sound effects, the emotionless narration, and the haunting music that is largely a girl humming without joy. Louise's unsmiling face and her desires to hide in the wallpaper betrays a sense that something bad is going on, in spite of her grandmother's reassuring words of "What could possibly happen to you?" Yet what could possibly happen to Louise doesn't become clear until later in the film, that she is being molested by her grandfather. Some more perceptive viewers might pick up on the fact earlier than I did, but early or late, it doesn't make the events any less horrifying. Especially since child sexual abuse is a real problem that plague millions of children around the world, one that will greatly increase the risk of development of psychiatric or substance abuse problems further down the line. The scope of the problem might not even be completely understood as so many victims are likely to be loath to report this abuse. And indeed, in interviews Clement revealed that she wanted to make a film that explored the topic of incestual molestation, and several of the defensive mechanisms used in victims, such as the dissociation that Louise practices by hiding among the wallpaper. Furthermore she also wanted to explore the denial of such abuse by other family members, as portrayed by the character of the grandmother. The fact that this sort of abuse is reality for millions of individuals is what makes Pachyderme perhaps the most terrifying that had ever been nominated in this category. I suppose I should mention the animation that is done in CGI but with shading that is similar to watercolor painting, is similar to that of Paperman and Feast. Either way, Pachyderme is not for the faint of heart.
Where Can I Watch It?
It was on YouTube, but now it appears that it was removed from YouTube and put on Vimeo on Demand instead. What a pity.

War is Over!

A carrier pigeon flies over a war-torn landscape, where two European countries are fighting a brutal trench war. After receiving a message from the military leadership and delivering to a sergeant on the front, the pigeon's keeper secretly engages in an activity that is truly important to him: playing chess by mail with a soldier on the other side of no man's land. The pigeon carries the players' moves from one side to the other, and as the game progresses it becomes quite clear that the keeper of the pigeon playing the white piece has the advantage. Yet before he can deliver the coup de grace, the sergeant storms in, interrupting the game and sends the soldier on a final full frontal assault. Seeing this the opposing country launches a counter-assault. Soon the two chess-playing soldiers will meet face to face under far different circumstances than either of them could have ever imagined. John Lennon is one of the most influential figures in the history of popular music, first with his involvement with the Beatles in the 1960s then later with his combination of music and political activism during his solo career. His status was only elevated with his untimely assassination at the age of 40 in 1980. He was already featured prominently in the Best Animated Short category in the past, with the 2007 nominee I Met the Walrus being an animation set to an interview done with Lennon by a Canadian teenager. Of course, I Met the Walrus was a film produced by Jerry Levitan, the teenager behind the interview. Sean Ono Lennon, John's son with his second wife Yoko Ono, wanted to make a film that would be more personal. By the late 1960s with the Vietnam War raging in southeast Asia, Lennon became heavily involved in the peace movement, and in December 1969 he and Ono purchased billboards with simply the phrase "WAR IS OVER! If you want it" along with a Christmas message. Two years later, after the song "Imagine" showed him the power of music in political activism, Lennon composed a song that uses the same message as his billboard campaigns and released it in time for Christmas 1971. The song "Happy XMas (War is Over!)" became a powerful standard for its message of peace.

Fast forward to 2021. With the 50th anniversary of "Happy XMax (War is Over!)" coming up, Sean was hoping to produce a music video for the song. However, he chanced upon a meeting with animator Dave Mullins, who received a Best Animated Short nomination for Lou back when he worked for Pixar but now led his own independent animation studio. In discussing the visions for a potential music video, they came to the mutual agreement that in order for the song's message to have the greatest effect there should be a narrative that involves a war ending, and they settled upon the Christmas Truce of World War I, when the two sides had unofficial ceasefires in Christmas 1914, as a model. Sean and Mullins formed a team of that soon included Oscar winning director and Beatles historian Peter Jackson who got involved with his special effects company. Using the Unreal Engine as an animation software, the team crafted a film that may have been too late for the song's 50th anniversary, but still right on time in terms of the events going on in the world, especially with wars going on in Ukraine and in Gaza. The story plays out pretty much as written in the summary above, told without any dialogue. In fact, this is the only nominee this year without any dialogue. Nevertheless it does a good job showing the humanity of these characters, and the military industrial complex's attempt to strip away this humanity. The ending of the film may be a bit too clean, but it still teaches an important lesson in that there are casualties even in relatively happy endings. The animation done in Unreal Engine is decent. I haven't played Unreal or Unreal Tournament so I don't really know the graphical capabilities, but apparently it does very well. The animation is clearly 3D models animated with a 2D palette, but it is still clean and vibrant. The song itself that inspired the film didn't show up at the end. The rest of the film is accompanied by a soundtrack from the Oscar nominated composer Thomas Newman, but to be honest I don't really remember the music. War is Over! certainly has the backing of the most high profile names, and maybe it needed it with its timely message. I just wish that it was easier to watch.
Where Can I Watch It
As far as I know, this is the one nominee that has not yet been put online, and the only way to see it is to get to one of thee showings.

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Whoo-wee. I don't think I've ever written this much for one of my reviews*. Of course I don't think we've ever had a set of nominees that were as deep thematically as we had this year. We have a film from Israel, a film from Iran, and a film called War is Over! being nominated alongside a film about crime and punishment and a film about child sexual abuse. Yeah, no wonder the Academy didn't have room for Once Upon a Studio. Of course it really does seem that the Academy is using the Best Animated Short category to deal with some deeper geo-political themes, after all the previous years have seen the nomination of films like Boxballet, Bestia, and If Anything Happens I Love You. Even in those years there are some lighter fare to lift the mood, but there is no such levity this year. I wish I was a better writer and was more successful in getting my thoughts out instead of having to sit here and ramble about the themes of the film, but this review has already taken me five days to write. I'm ready for it to be done. 

*I did go back and look up the word count all of my previous reviews, and I was right, I had never written so many words in any of my reviews if we just look at my comments on each of the films. The only other review that came close to this one was that of 1941, and that was the year there were ten nominees! I said more about five films this year. 

I really don't know what to make of who might actually win. Each film has its strengths. I'm personally partial to Ninety-Five Senses, but I've seen places online place their bets on War is Over! or Letter to a Pig. Even Pachyderme has its supporters, and who knows, the Academy might just reward Out Uniform for its inventiveness. I am going to do my usual rankings by quality and preference, but this is only one man's opinion.

My Rankings (By Quality)

Ninety Five Senses > Letter to a Pig > Pachyderme > War is Over! > Our Uniform

My Rankings (By Preference)

Ninety Five Senses > Pachyderme > Our Uniform > War is Over! > Letter to a Pig

Less than two weeks until the ceremony? WTH? Where does the time go???