With six French shorts already qualified as eligible for the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, France once again demonstrates its mastery of the genre and confirms the international recognition of the high standard of its animation schools.
Among the 70 films eligible for the 2019 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, 6 titles are French productions—with France thus ranking as the country with the second highest number of submitted titles after the United States, and in equal position with Germany. Two of these French shorts were produced by the MoPA Animation School, which was also behind one of the finalists in last year's Oscars competition, Garden Party.
To date, the following films have been announced as eligible:
Presented for the first time in a special screening at International Critics' Week at Cannes in May this year, the film by Boris Labbé has been accumulating festival appearances ever since, including selections at Annecy, Vienna, Geneva, Toronto, and Ottawa. Winner of the Jury's Grand Prize at Animafest Zagreb in June, this cinematic tribute inspired by the work of Hieronymous Bosch has entered the race for the Oscars.
- The Green Bird by Maximilien Bougeois, Quentin Dubois, Marine Goalard, Irina Nguyen-Duc and Pierre Perveyrie (MoPA - L'École de la 3D)
Honored with awards at this year's Anima Festival in Brussels and the Ottawa International Animation Festival, the graduate film by Maximilien Bougeois, Quentin Dubois, Marine Goalard, Irina Nguyen-Duc, and Pierre Perveyrie is enjoying a successful career in the festival circuit, selected notably at Stuttgart, Taipei, Manchester, New York, Lisbon, and Uppsala. Winner of the Award for Best International Film at the Students' Academy Awards organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, this film is now officially eligible to compete for the Oscar.
The graduate film that has won the largest number of awards in France in 2018, Hybrids has been in hot demand at prestigious international film festivals (including Tokyo, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Brussels, and San Francisco). Co-directed by Florian Brauch, Kim Tailhades, Matthieu Pujol, Yohan Thireau, and Romain Thirion, the film offers a realistic portrayal of a dying planet and raises the alarm over pollution in the world's oceans. Hybrids is doubly eligible for the Oscars after winning both the Best Animated Film Award at the Sitges International Film Festival of Catalonia and the "Best in Show" Award at SIGGRAPH in Vancouver.
- The Night of the Plastic Bags by Gabriel Harel (Kazak Productions)
Discovered at this year's Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight section, this film by Gabriel Harel is a tribute to genre films coupled with an apocalyptic fable in which plastic bags have replaced zombies. Crowned last month with the Børge Ring Prize at the Odense Film Festival, The Night of the Plastic Bags is now in the running for the Oscars.
- Grandpa Walrus by Lucrece Andreae (Caïmans Productions)
Presented in the Official Competition at Cannes in 2017, this film by Lucrèce Andreae has attracted strong international interest, selected at festivals in Ukraine, Brazil, Japan, the United States, Germany and Turkey, Korea, and Australia, among others. Grandpa Walrus approaches issues of family and mourning with tact and a healthy dose of fantasy. Winner of the César Award for Best Animated Short Film this year, it joins the other contenders for the 2019 Oscar.
This new adventure for the character of Non-Non, known for his wacky, totally irreverent sense of humor, has enjoyed an extensive international career (Canada, Portugal, Belgium, the United States, to name but a few territories) prior to its release in theaters in France, distributed by Cinéma Public Films. With a release in the United States under its belt, this film can now join the other contenders for the coveted Oscar.
Qualification Requirements
A reminder that for a short film to be eligible for nomination at the Oscars, it must fulfill one of the three following criteria between October 1, 2017, and September 30, 2018:
- The film must have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival.
Or
- The film must have been screened for a period of at least 7 consecutive days at a commercial movie theater in Los Angeles.
Or
- The film must have won a major award in the Student Academy Awards competition.
