If you read my festival coverage, you’ll know that I am a proponent for short films. I enjoy the chance to take in a program or two of shorts when I attend film festivals. Shorts are more than just practice for aspiring filmmakers. Shorts get to the point quickly and often very effectively. Usually, the… [Read More]
Oscar-Nominated Short Documentaries
Short films are important enough for the Academy to award three Oscars to shorts each year: Best Animated Short, Best Live Action Short, and Best Short Documentary. Most people haven’t had a chance to view these films, which may be harbingers of tomorrow’s filmmakers. But each year, shortly before the Academy Awards are presented, programs… [Read More]
TIFF ’19: I Am in the World as Free and Slender as a Deer on a Plain
In her directorial debut, Sofia Banzhaf (Black Conflux, Splinters) introduces us to a young and unnamed female protagonist (Micaela Robertson), showing us fragments of her journey with sexual exploration. Incredibly stoic throughout the film, she is almost emotionless as she interacts with her three sexual partners (Spencer Macpherson, Daniel Maslany, and Andy McQueen). In fact,… [Read More]
Saturday at #NBFF20
Welcome back to the Newport Beach Film Festival presented by Pacific Sales. It was a full day for me, as you’ll see when you see the nine films I have to talk about. Okay, I’ll admit that six of them were shorts, but that still seems like a full day to me. Note that I’m… [Read More]
Oscar-Nominated Short Documentaries
When it is time to award the best in films each year, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences include three categories of short films in their Oscar presentations. Most people don’t get to see many shorts. They play at festivals, and occasionally in front of a feature film. But short films are an… [Read More]
Oscar Watch – Possible Live Action Short Nominees
This is the time of year when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences begins to winnow the fields of some of the Oscar categories, such as the short film categories. I’ve had the chance to see five of the films shortlisted in the Best Live Action Short category. Each of these films has… [Read More]
The Magical Mystery of Musigny: Mysterious Community
Winner of the award for Best Story from the Los Angeles Animation Film Festival, The Magical Mystery of Musigny is a short film that tells the story of John, a man whose life has been irrevocably altered by sipping a glass of Musigny wine. However, because his experience is so powerful, he struggles to communicate its… [Read More]
Sunday at AFIFest 2018
The American Film Institute, which oversees the AFIFest Presented by Audi, was created by Presidential mandate under President Lyndon Johnson, “to preserve the heritage of the motion picture, to honor the artists and their work and to educate the next generation of storytellers”. The festival is truly a celebration of film, its history, and its… [Read More]
Day 2 at NBFF
I always like to fit in some shorts at NBFF. From time to time I’ve seen shorts here that end up with Oscar nomination the following year. I started my day with a group of shorts called “Held Back & Shortly Set Free”, which was described in the program as “Insights into the human condition… [Read More]
Oscar Watch – Best Documentary (Short Subject)
The Oscar nominees for Best Documentary (Short Subject) show us some of the real life struggles that people face. Through these films we get a chance to examine issues of race, aging, drugs, mental illness, and chances for former prisoners to find new lives. Some of these films may be hard to watch because we… [Read More]
