Oscar’s Shorts to Screen in New York City
by Andre Soares
The New York City version of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences annual “Shorts!” program will be presented on Saturday, February 17, at 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. at the Academy Theater.
The screenings will be hosted by none other than Robert Osborne, Hollywood Reporter columnist, Turner Classic Movies host, and official biographer of the Academy Awards.
The screening films are:
Short Film (Animated)
- The Danish Poet, Torill Kove, director (the tale of a Danish poet who travels to Norway to meet a celebrated writer)
- Lifted, Gary Rydstrom, director (alien abductor-in-training tries to get a sleeping farmer onto its spaceship)
- The Little Matchgirl, Roger Allers, director; Don Hahn, producer (Hans Christian Andersen’s sad tale of the little girl and her matches)
- Maestro (above), Geza M. Toth, director (a singing bird gets ready for its grand performance)
- No Time for Nuts, Chris Renaud and Michael Thurmeier, directors (while trying to bury a nut in the Ice Age, Scrat discovers a time machine)
Very big falafel deal in Palestine! in Ari Sandel’s West Bank Story
Short Film (Live Action)
- Binta y la gran idea / Binta and the Great Idea, Javier Fesser, director; Luis Manso, producer (A seven-year-old African girl talks about her father, who has an idea he believes will change the world)
- Éramos Pocos / Too Few of Us , Borja Cobeaga, director (after his wife leaves him, Joaquín enlists his son to get the woman’s mother to help them keep house)
- Helmer & Son, Soren Pilmark, director; Kim Magnusson, executive producer (a man must go to a rest home to deal with his father, who has locked himself up inside an armoire)
- The Saviour, Peter Templeman, director; Stuart Parkyn, producer (a Mormon evangelist finds himself in love with a married woman)
- West Bank Story (above), Ari Sandel, director (I was expecting a tragic Palestinian-Israeli romance, but this is a musical comedy set in the falafel stands of the West Bank)
Tickets for “Shorts!” are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students with a valid ID. All seating is unreserved. Tickets may be reserved by calling 1-888-778-7575. Depending on availability, tickets may be purchased the day of the screenings. Doors open at 11:30 a.m.
The Academy Theater is located at 111 East 59th Street in New York City.
One must thank Osborne for the recent TCM showing of the rarely seen 1951 Paramount comedy The Mating Season, which aired this past Thursday. The Mating Season stars Gene Tierney, John Lund, Miriam Hopkins (more on Miriam Hopkins), Jan Sterling, and multiple Oscar-nominee Thelma Ritter.
Now, when will NBC/General Electric/Vivendi get their act together and form a Paraversal (Unimount?) Movie Channel? Those big suits who own/rule Universal are sitting on a cinematic treasure trove that dates back to the silent era. (Universal, I should add, owns most of the pre-TV Paramount films.) Apart from a handful of DVD releases in the last couple of years, those rare titles only see the light of day when Time Warner’s Turner Classic Movies bothers to lease them.
Oscar-Nominated Shorts to Screen at AMPAS
Oscar Nominations 2007 - Article
Oscar Makeup Symposium in Hollywood
Helen Mirren at the 2007 Oscar Luncheon
Sundance Film Festival Awards - 2007 Winners
Jessica Lange Speaks Out in the BELFAST TELEGRAPH
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