The Little Match Girl (top, © Disney Enterprises); West Bank Story (bottom)
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present the program "Shorts!," featuring the ten Academy Award nominees in the Animated and Live Action Short Film categories. The screening will be held on Tuesday, February 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Hosted by producer-director Taylor Hackford, who won an Oscar for the 1978 live action short Teenage Father, "Shorts!" will feature onstage discussions with the nominated filmmakers (subject to availability).
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, 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)
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 (above), Borja Cobeaga, director (after his wife leaves him, Joaquín enlists his son to get this ex-wife'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, Ari Sandel, director (a musical comedy set in the falafel stands of the West Bank)
According to the Academy's press release, free advance tickets to "Shorts!" are necessary to secure admission. Tickets will be available beginning February 1 at the Academy's ticket office at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Free parking is provided at the garages located at 8920 and 9025 Wilshire Boulevard. There is a two ticket per person limit. For ticket order information, call (310) 247-3600, or visit www.oscars.org/events.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. All seating is unreserved.
The 2007 Oscar ceremony will be held on Sunday, February 25 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center.