Categories One-by-One: Live-Action Short

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FilmFan720
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Post by FilmFan720 »

I saw all five of these today, so figured I would chime in.

I could see all of these films finding supporters. The audience favorite today was probably New Boy, an Irish comedy that is extremely funny, with some great child performers, about immigration and a new child's entrance into a grade school classroom. The crowd really liked it, but it is a little too on the nose.

The Pig is the other comedy of the bunch, although it is a little more absurd than New Boy. It is about an old man who checks into a hospital and then becomes attached to a painting of a pig hanging in the room. It also deals with the problems of a multi-cultural Europe, but may come across as too slight or odd for voters.

Manon of the Ashphalt is an odd, elegaic film about a woman in a traffic accident. It was not well-recieved by the audience, and I can't see voters liking it more than the other four films (although I do think that it has wonderful merits).

Auf der Strecke (On the Line) is my favorite of the films, and I think it may have a decent shot. It is a Swiss morality tale about a security guard who makes a tricky decision and then deals with the consequences, both good and bad, that come from it. It starts off horribly, but once it picks up it is engaging, wonderfully acted, dark yet life-affirming. I can see the Academy voters either leaving it as too long and dark, or eating up its message.

My money would go on Toyland, though. Not only because it is very well made, and that it is a Holocaust film (does that rule fall under shorts too?) but that it really hits the audience in the heart. A woman looking for a son who she thinks has been wrongly taken to a concentration camp is far from the best film here, but it feels the most important.
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