Oscar's 2007 Best Animated Short Videos

January 24, 2007 12:37 PM

"Best Animated Short" is the Oscar category that (arguably) gets the least love. But why? They're often the most accessible, usually coming in at less than 10 minutes in length. Thus, for you consideration, here are direct links to three of the five 2007 nominees: "Maestro", "No Time For Nuts", and "The Danish Poet" (via).
posted by JPowers (14 comments total)

What, no Idol?

I shake my puny fist at Hollywood.
posted by rokusan at 12:56 PM on January 24, 2007

This is great. Every year it's "Best animation shorts" but who ever sees them, where would you go besides film festivals?. I hope someone kindly posts them every year to MeFi, or suggest an RSS feed or email reminder or something automatic like that Low noise, high quality.
posted by stbalbach at 1:15 PM on January 24, 2007

These are the 2006 oscars, fyi. I vote for The Danish Poet!!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:19 PM on January 24, 2007

Great post. I agree we never get to see the animation shorts, and for that matter, even the film shorts.
posted by vodkadin at 1:20 PM on January 24, 2007

"Maestro" = "The Secret Life of Cuckoos"
posted by wah at 1:33 PM on January 24, 2007

"The Danish Poet" is really very good. The book by Sigrid Undset is Kristin Lavransdatter (1920s).
posted by stbalbach at 2:09 PM on January 24, 2007

"No Time For Nuts" is probably the funniest. The camerawork in "Maestro" is quite interesting. "The Danish Poet" would have to be my favorite, though. It's funny, well-animated and pretty meaningful. I'll have to try to see the other two, now.
posted by jiawen at 3:15 PM on January 24, 2007

It didn't win major awards, but my favorite animated short of all time is Korea's Doggy Poo.
posted by Brittanie at 4:24 PM on January 24, 2007

Yeah, theres no real venue for animated shorts anymore. Very sad. Unless youre selling Sprite, youre not getting your animation shown before a feature length movie nowadays.

"No Time for Nuts" is my favorite for sure. I think that "Little Match Girl" will win just 'cause the Oscars tend to overlook comedies for some reason. Not that "Little Match Girl" isnt deserving. Its freakin beautiful. You can see it on the re-released Little Mermaid DVD.

Lifted was cool, just not great. Kinda disappointed by Pixar this year.
posted by ElmerFishpaw at 5:38 PM on January 24, 2007

You didn't mention Little Match Girl which was also nominated. The video was taken down by Disney earlier today but is once again up. You can find it at the original site.
posted by Ajit AP at 6:43 PM on January 24, 2007

Thanks, Ajit. Now I'm bawling!!! COL. Oh boy, I guess that means I have to change my vote.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 7:05 PM on January 24, 2007

What about that Kiwi movie that made every freakin person in the room cry like a baby?
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:33 PM on January 24, 2007

Sorry for the double post, but I think I've found a working "Little Match Girl" link...
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:40 PM on January 24, 2007

Thanks! I thoroughly enjoyed all three. It's amazing how much whimsy you can get away with when you don't need millions of dollars to make your movie, and when the short time frame allows you to explore a simple idea, rather than forcing you to tell a more traditional story.

"Maestro" and "No Time For Nuts" are cinema at its purest--the creators managed to tell a story without using any words. This is such a rarity in an age when most movies are just plays set to music, with perhaps a few explosions thrown in. It's also amusing that "No Time For Nuts" manages to use such cutesy images to present a pretty compelling version of hell, which is self-inflicted, no less.
posted by epimorph at 10:05 PM on January 24, 2007