2011 Short Films Predictions

I had an opportunity to catch the short film nominees this year, so here are my predictions on which films will win these categories.

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

• Day & Night, Teddy Newton
• The Gruffalo, Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
• Let’s Pollute, Geefwee Boedoe
• The Lost Thing, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
• Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary), Bastien Dubois

I have to say I'm a little disappointed that Bill Plympton's The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger wasn't nominated. It may not have won, but I think it deserved a nod.

As far as who is going to win... I think those bastards at Pixar have done it again. Such an amazing company; they keep coming through with strong movies -- shorts and features -- year after year. While all the nominees have their charms and deserve your attention, Day & Night (which you probably saw before Toy Story 3) was the real standout. I'd expect that to win. If not, The Gruffalo could come through as the victor.


BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT

• The Confession, Tanel Toom
• The Crush, Michael Creagh
• God of Love, Luke Matheny
• Na Wewe, Ivan Goldschmidt
• Wish 143, Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

A very strong crop of films this year. Tough to choose a winner. God of Love was a great concept, and snappily executed. It has a good chance of winning. But the one that really sticks with me is Wish 143, about a teenager with cancer whose Make-A-Wish-type request is to lose his virginity. Funny and touching, and avoids easy sentimentality.

Unfortunately, the BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT program was unavailable to me, so I can't place an informed guess. But here are the nominees, which I'm sure deserve the attention:

• Killing in the Name, Jed Rothstein
• Poster Girl, Sara Nesson and Mitchell W. Block
• Strangers No More, Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
• Sun Come Up, Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
• The Warriors of Qiugang, Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon

The live-action and animated nominees are available through iTunes and your cable provider's on-demand starting February 22nd, presented by Shorts International. It's great that these days everyone has a chance to see these films. Be sure to check them out.

Read the rest of my 2011 Oscar predictions here.