LOS ANGELES — ShortsHD, the short film channel (www.shorts.tv), and Magnolia Pictures, will open The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2016 on over 400 screens across the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America on Friday, January 29th. The program will showcase the Live Action, Animation and Documentary short film nominees compilation as three separate theatrical events.
This marks the 11th year of the Oscar-nominated short films theatrical experience and is the only opportunity for audiences to watch the nominated short films prior to the 88th Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, February 28th.
In 2015, the Oscar Nominated Short Films earned over $2.4 million worldwide, nearly doubling from just a few years prior. One of the most diverse categories in Academy consideration, this year’s Oscar Nominated Short Films feature with projects originating from United States, France, Germany, Palestine, United Kingdom, Kosovo, Austria, Chile, Russia, Liberia, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Canada.
“Films make us laugh and cry; they inform us, entertain us and make us think. Short film is like film on steroids. For talent, short film vastly expands opportunities, provides an incredible forum for experimentation and creates a pathway for further success. For viewers, short film offers an abundance of dynamic stories, which are told in ways that they cannot be or are not being told in feature film, including films that may be uniquely relevant to their cultures. As the short film genre continues to pick up in popularity and competitiveness, with it comes an increase in the quality of production and diversity of voices ” said Carter Pilcher, Chief Executive at ShortsHD, the TV network behind the annual theatrical compilations.
This year’s complete release includes the following nominated short films:
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM NOMINEES
Ave Maria
Directors: Basil Khalil and Eric Dupont
Synopsis: Five nuns living in the West Bank find their routine disrupted when the car of a family of Israeli settlers breaks down outside the convent. Unable to use the telephone due to Sabbath restrictions, the family needs help from the nuns, but the sisters' vow of silence requires them to work with their visitors to find an unorthodox solution.
Country of origin: France | Germany | Palestine
TRT: 15
Language: Arabic | English | Hebrew
Day One
Directors: Henry Hughes
Synopsis: On the heels of a painful divorce, an Afghan-American woman joins the U.S. military as an interpreter and is sent to Afghanistan. On her first mission, she accompanies troops pursuing a bomb-maker, and must bridge the gender and culture gap to help the man's pregnant wife when she goes into labor.
Country of origin: United States
TRT: 25
Language: English | Dari
Shok
Directors: Jamie Donoughue
Synopsis: In Kosovo in 1998, two young boys are best friends living normal lives, but as war engulfs their country, their daily existence becomes filled with violence and fear. Soon, the choices they make threaten not only their friendship, but their families and their lives.
Country of origin: United Kingdom | Kosovo
TRT: 21
Language: Albanian | Serbian
Stutterer
Directors: Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage
Synopsis: For a lonely typographer, an online relationship has provided a much-needed connection without revealing the speech impediment that has kept him isolated. Now, however, he is faced with the proposition of meeting his online paramour in the flesh, and thereby revealing the truth about himself.
Country of origin: United Kingdom
TRT: 12
Language: English
Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)
Directors: Patrick Vollrath
Synopsis: Michael, a divorced father devoted to his eight-year-old daughter, Lea, picks her up for their usual weekend together. At first it feels like a normal visit, but Lea soon realizes that something is different, and so begins a fateful journey.
Country of origin: Germany | Austria
TRT: 30
Language: German
ANIMATED SHORT FILM NOMINEES
Bear Story
Directors: Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala
Synopsis: Every day, a melancholy old bear takes a mechanical diorama that he has created out to his street corner. For a coin, passersby can look into the peephole of his invention, which tells the story of a circus bear who longs to escape and return to the family from which he was taken."
Country of origin: Chile
TRT: 11
Language: No Dialouge
Prologue
Directors: Richard Williams and Imogen Sutton
Synopsis: 2,400 years ago, four warriors -- two Spartan and two Athenian -- battle to the death in an intense struggle witnessed by a little girl, who then runs to her grandmother for comfort.
Country of origin: United Kingdom
TRT: 6
Language: English
Sanjay’s Super Team
Directors: Sanjay Patel and Nicole Grindle
Synopsis: Young Sanjay, a first-generation Indian-American, is obsessed with television, cartoons and his superhero action figures. He is reluctant to spend time in daily prayers with his devout Hindu father, but a flight of imagination helps him develop a new perspective that he and his father can both embrace.
Country of origin: United States
TRT: 7
Language: English
World of Tomorrow
Directors: Don Hertzfeldt
Synopsis: A little girl named Emily is taken on a fantastical tour of her distant future by a surprising visitor who reveals unnerving secrets about humanity's fate.
Country of origin: United States
TRT: 17
Language: English
We Can’t Live Without Cosmos
Directors: Konstantin Bronzit
Synopsis: Two best friends have dreamed since childhood of becoming cosmonauts, and together they endure the rigors of training and public scrutiny, and make the sacrifices necessary to achieve their shared goal.
Country of origin: Russia
TRT: 16
Language: No Dialouge
DOCUMENTARY SHORT NOMINEES
Body Team 12
Directors: David Darg and Bryn Mooser
Synopsis: In Monrovia, Liberia, Garmai Sumo is the only female member of Body Team 12, one of the many teams collecting the bodies of those who died from Ebola during the height of the 2014 outbreak. Despite the perilous nature of her job and the distrust with which she is often met, Garmai remains dedicated to her work.
Country of origin: Liberia
TRT: 13
Language: English
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres Of The Shoah
Directors: Adam Benzine
Synopsis: Thirty years after the release of the documentary SHOAH, filmmaker Claude Lanzmann discusses the personal and professional difficulties he encountered during the more than 12 years it took to create the work. Lanzmann also discusses his relationships with Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, and his teenage years spent fighting in the French Resistance during World War II.
Country of origin: Canada | United States | United Kingdom
TRT: 40
Language: French
Chau Beyond the Lines
Directors: Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck
Synopsis: Chau, a teenager living in a Vietnamese care center for children born with birth defects due to Agent Orange, struggles with the difficulties of realizing his dream to become a professional artist and clothing designer. Despite being told that his ambitions are unrealistic, Chau is determined to live an independent, productive life.
Country of origin: United States | Vietnam
TRT: 34
Language: Vietnamese
A Girl in the River
Directors: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
Synopsis: Every year, more than 1,000 girls and women are the victims of religiously motivated honor killings in Pakistan, especially in rural areas. Eighteen-year-old Saba, who fell in love and eloped, was targeted by her father and uncle but survived to tell her story.
Country of origin: Pakistan
TRT: 40
Language: Panjabi
Last Day of Freedom
Directors: Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman
Synopsis: When Bill Babbitt realized that his brother Manny had committed a crime, he agonized over the decision to call the police, knowing that Manny could face the death penalty but hoping he would instead receive the help he needed. Manny, an African-American veteran who served two tours in Vietnam, suffered from PTSD and had found it difficult to obtain healthcare.
Country of origin: United States
TRT: 32
Language: English
This year’s list of 2016 Oscar® Nominated Short Films feature a number of repeat nominees. Prologue marks Richard Williams’ fourth Academy Award nomination. He previously won 3 Oscars, 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Best Visual Effects and Special Achievement Award, and 1973’s A Christmas Carol (Best Short Subject). We Can’t Live Without Cosmos Director Konstantin Bronzit was previously nominated for Lavatory-Lovestory (Short Film) in 2008. The World of Tomorrow director Don Hertzfeldt was previously nominated for Rejected (Short Film Animated). This is also the second nomination for A Girl in The River; The Price of Forgiveness Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, she won an Oscar in 2011 for Saving Face (Documentary Short).