Best Picture
Parasite
Honorable Mention: Jojo Rabbit
Best Actor
Will win: Joaquin Phoenix, Joker
Should win: Adam Driver, Marriage Story
Should have been nominated: Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems Continue reading
Best Picture
Parasite
Honorable Mention: Jojo Rabbit
Best Actor
Will win: Joaquin Phoenix, Joker
Should win: Adam Driver, Marriage Story
Should have been nominated: Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems Continue reading
Lots of “Should Have Been Nominated” notes this year.
Best Picture
Roma
Should Have Been Nominated: If Beale Street Could Talk
Should Have Been Nominated: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Should Have Been Nominated: Private Life
Should Have Been Nominated: First Man
Continue reading
Don Hertzfeldt is an impressive artist. Hertzfeldt is a two-time Oscar nominee, and a 2012 Indiewire Best Director poll placed Hertzfeldt above filmmakers like Richard Linklater and Steven Spielberg. While the short film genre has always been an artistic platform for profound ideas, few short films have captured the public’s attention more than Hertzfeldt’s. Rejected, for example, has gained a cult following. Rejected was first screened at the San Diego Comic Con and has since been viewed by Cartoon Network audiences and Sundance Film Festival attendees. Rejected is a simple, absurd animated short film that tackles big concepts. In about nine minutes, Hertzfeldt introduces audiences to an assortment of supposedly rejected cartoon clips. Though the characters seem basic and the narrative seems fractured, the short film as a whole shines a somber light on the plights of the forgotten.
Hertzfeldt’s latest short film, World of Tomorrow, is now on Netflix. Of World of Tomorrow, culture commentator David Sims writes:
The idea of the copy-pasted brain, and the moral quandaries that could stem from it, has enjoyed a quiet revival in sci-fi recently, with World of Tomorrow as the must-see standard-bearer. Hertzfeldt, whose work always tends towards the absurd, had never experimented with the genre before making this short, which was his first digitally produced film. As Emily and her clone drift through the “outernet,” the virtual reality through which all people in the future apparently communicate, the environment pops and crackles around them. But for all of his fantastical imagery, Hertzfeldt triumphs by focusing tightly on his protagonist’s emotions, which are seemingly haywire thanks to their being a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox. “I am very proud of my sadness, because it means I am more alive,” the clone proclaims, while acknowledging that she has occasionally fallen in love with inanimate objects in the past.
As World of Tomorrow proves, short films can wrinkle your brain as much as feature films can. Below are some short films (some by Hertzfeldt) that you can watch right now. Enjoy!
Everything Will Be Ok (2006) dir. Don Hertzfeldt
Created after Rejected and before World of Tomorrow, this animated short film is the first portion of a three-part story about Bill, a passive, thoughtful stick-figure man. Everything Will Be Ok is seventeen minutes of social commentary that slowly transitions from amusing and relatable to unsettling and poignant.
Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody? (2005) dir. Miguel Arteta
Written by Miranda July (The Future) and starring John C. Reilly (Step Brothers), this short film features three different responses to a seemingly simple question. Bob Davidson calls it a “profoundly simple short.” (Warning: Film may be a trigger for those with depression.)
Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”
Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”
Honorable Mention: Emma Stone, “Birdman”
Should not have been nominated: Keira Knightly, “The Imitation Game”
Should have been nominated: Tilda Swinton, “Snowpiercer”
Michael Keaton, “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)”
Should have been nominated: Ralph Fiennes, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Best Supporting Actor
J. K. Simmons, “Whiplash” Continue reading
Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”
Best Supporting Actress
Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”
Honorable Mention: Julia Roberts, “August: Osage County”
Best Actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”
Honorable Mention: Bruce Dern, “Nebraska”
Honorable Mention: Matthew McConaughey, “Dallas Buyers Club”
Should have been nominated: Tom Hanks, “Captain Phillips”
Best Supporting Actor Continue reading
Should win: Emmanuelle Riva, “Amour”
Will win: Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Best Supporting Actress
Anne Hathaway, “Les Misérables”
Best Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”
Best Supporting Actor
Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”
Honorable Mention: Robert Di Niro, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Best Picture
Should win: “Zero Dark Thirty”
Will win: “Argo”
Honorable Mention: “Les Misérables”
Best Director
Steven Spielberg, “Lincoln”
Should win: “Wreck-It Ralph”
Will win: “Brave”
Best Production Design Continue reading
Viola Davis, “The Help”
Honorable Mention: Rooney Mara, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Best Supporting Actress
Should win: Bérénice Bejo, “The Artist”
Will win: Octavia Spencer, “The Help”
Best Actor
Honorable Mention: George Clooney, “The Descendants”
Best Supporting Actor
Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”
Honorable Mention: Jonah Hill, “Moneyball”
Best Picture
“The Artist”
Best Director
Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”
Honorable Mention: Terrence Malick, “The Tree of Life”
Best Animated Film
Should win: “Kung Fu Panda 2”
Will win: “Rango”
Honorable Mention: “A Cat in Paris”
Best Art Direction Continue reading