Today the Academy announced the shortlist of ten animated short films that will be competing for nominations at the 2014 Oscars and I have gone ahead and found trailers/previews for seven of them, the complete short film for one of them and pictures for the two that didn’t seem to have any video preview online as of yet.
The Academy’s Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee viewed all 56 eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting at screenings held in New York and Los Angeles and now the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will select three to five nominees from among the 10 titles previewed below.
The 86th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 16, 2014, at 5:30 a.m. PT.
Check out the titles contending for this year’s race over the next couple of pages.
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A wild boy is found in the woods by a solitary hunter and brought back to civilization. Alienated by a strange new environment, the boy tries to adapt by using the same strategies that kept him safe in the forest.
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ never-before-seen short “Get a Horse!” stars the one and only Mickey Mouse and features Walt Disney himself as the voice of the iconic character. This black-and-white, hand-drawn short follows Mickey, his favorite gal pal Minnie Mouse and their friends Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow as they delight in a musical wagon ride — until Peg-Leg Pete shows up and tries to run them off the road.
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In this finale to his acclaimed twentieth-century trilogy, Theodore Ushev continues to brilliantly draw from his graphic design background, referencing Russian constructivist elements to imbue this 3D animation with potent and thrilling energy. The “Invasion” theme from Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 forms the backdrop to an explosive collage of the visual connections between art and war.
With their old bathtub in tow, a displaced couple arrives in a new land, where all is not as they expected it to be. Awaiting the birth of their first child, and in their effort to adjust to an oddly oppressive environment, they are challenged by cultural/gender roles and customs. Hollow Land is a brilliant animated film that captures the disruptions, and corrosive anxieties that are part of daily life for so many immigrants, refugees and misfits around the world. Asburd, dark and awkardly playful; it is an insightful story about humans.
Narrated by George Takei, The Missing Scarf is a black comedy exploring some of life’s common fears: fear of the unknown, of failure, rejection and finally the fear of death. All delivered under the misleading tone of a child’s storybook reading.
