In the lead up to the 83rd Academy Awards on February 27th, we are taking a closer look at this year's short film nominees. Today, one of this year's Best Live Action Short Film contenders, The Crush.
Best Live Action Short Film nominee, The Crush
THE CRUSH Ireland/15 MIN
Director/Writer: Michael Creagh
Producer: Damon Quinn
Cast: Charlie Bonner, Neilí Conroy, Oran Creagh, Rory Keenan, Olga Wehrly
Ardal Travis is in love. There's just one problem. He's an 8 year old schoolboy and the object of his affection is his Second Class teacher, Miss Purdy. But when her boyfriend arrives on the scene Ardal is heartbroken. His reaction, though, is a little unexpected. He challenges Miss Purdy's boyfriend to a duel. To the death.
Michael Creagh was born in Belfast. He received a degree in design at Belfast College before moving to Dublin to follow a career in advertising. After 12 years as an art director he has been trying to break into both films and commercials. The Crush is his debut short film.
The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2011 are in theaters across the US from tomorrow, 11 February.
A list of cinemas is available on our official website. We've also reproduced this data as a spreadsheet which provides an at-a-glance look at participating venues.
In the lead up to the 83rd Academy Awards on February 27th, we are taking a closer look at this year's nominees. Today, one of this year's Best Documentary Short Subject contenders, Strangers No More.
Best Documentary Short Subject nominee, Strangers No More
STRANGERS NO MORE USA/40 MIN
Directors/Producers: Karen Goodman, Kirk Simon
In the heart of Tel Aviv, there is an exceptional school where children from 48 different countries and diverse backgrounds come together to learn. Many of the students arrive at Bialik-Rogozin in the wake of poverty, political adversity and even genocide. Here, no child is a stranger.
Kirk Simon and Karen Goodman have made over twenty documentaries and in the process have garnered four Academy Award nominations, three Emmys and the DuPont-Columbia Award for Independent Programming. They have received filmmaking grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation, and the American Film Institute.
Their documentaries have been broadcast nationally on PBS, HBO, and MTV, and screened at festivals around the world including the New York Film Festival, Sundance, New Directors / New Films, London, Berlin, Montreal and St. Petersburg. In addition, they have overseen and filmed dance preservation projects for the Paul Taylor Dance Company and Lincoln Center's Library and Museum of the Performing Arts.
Both Mr. Simon and Ms. Goodman are active voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. They have served as consultants to the National Endowment for the Humanities Media Program, on the Documentary Screening Committee for the Academy Awards and as judges for the Emmy Awards and the DuPont-Columbia Broadcast Journalism Award.
View an exclusive clip from Strangers No More below.
In the lead up to the 83rd Academy Awards on February 27th, we are taking a closer look at this year's nominees. Today, one of this year's Best Animated Short Film contenders, Let's Pollute.
Best Animated Short Film nominee, Let's Pollute
LET’S POLLUTE USA/6 MIN
Director/Writer/Producer: Geefwee Boedoe
Cast: Jim Thornton
In the spirit of 50's & 60's educational films, Let's Pollute is a modern satire on how pollution is our heritage and keeps our economy growing strong, while instructing us how to be better polluters for a better blighted tomorrow.
Upon graduation from CalArts in 1988 Geefwee Boedoe has worked as an animator, and in story and visual development for Pixar, Disney Feature Animation, ILM, DreamWorks, and others.
The Opening Title Sequence to Monsters, Inc. which received high critical acclaim was conceived, storyboarded, and designed by Mr. Boedoe, who also directed the animation.
Since 2002 Geefwee Boedoe has been pursuing an independent career as a film maker, designer and writer/illustrator of children's books. In 2004 his first children's book, Arrowville, won a Ruben Award from the National Cartoonists Society and was voted a 10 best Illustrated Children's Book by the New York Times.
In 2006 he began work on his first independent film. Over three years in the making, Let's Pollute was completed late in 2009, and has been slowly picking up positive attention and momentum in film festival worldwide.
In the lead up to the 83rd Academy Awards on February 27th, we are taking a closer look at this year's nominees. Today, one of this year's Best Live Action Short Film contenders, God of Love.
Best Live Action Short Film nominee, God of Love
GOD OF LOVE USA/18 MIN
Director/Writer: Luke Matheny
Producers: Gigi Demant, Ryan Silbert, Stefanie Walmsley
Cast: Luke Matheny, Marian Brock, Christopher Hirsh, Emily Young, Miguel Rosales
Lounge-singing darts champion Raymond Goodfellow finds his prayers are answered -- literally -- when he receives a mysterious package of passion-inducing darts. The catch is that the one woman he loves -- Kelly, a drummer in his band -- is already in love with Ray's best friend Fozzie, the guitarist in the band. But when Ray uses the darts in a loony scheme to resolve this strange romantic triangle, he learns a surprising lesson about unrequited love and discovers his own place in the universe. Romance is in the air in this bohemian charmer.
Luke Matheny is a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based director, writer, actor and professor.
His short film God of Love – a comedy about a lounge-singing darts champion who receives a package of love-inducing darts – was winner of the Student Academy Award; special jury recognition at Aspen ShortsFest; as well as first prize and the King Award for Screenwriting at the NYU First Run Film Festival. The film has screened and won awards at dozens of festivals around the world. God of Love was Matheny’s thesis at NYU’s graduate film program.
Matheny has also co-written a feature-length coming-of-age comedy, A Birder’s Guide to Everything, with Sundance-award-winning director Rob Meyer. The project is currently in pre-production at Crossroads Films in New York.
His previous short film Earano -- a loose, comic retelling of the Cyrano de Bergerac tale – won the King Award for Screenwriting at the NYU First Run Festival, an honorable mention for the Fujifilm Audience Impact Award at the Angelus Student Film Festival, and Best Student Short at the Dam Short Film Festival in Boulder City, Nevada.
Earano was also called "charming and hilarious [and] quite romantic" by New York Magazine's website.
Matheny grew up in Wilmington, Delaware. He has a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University's prestigious Medill School of Journalism and has worked as a reporter and copy editor in a variety of newspapers, magazines and web sites. He has also worked as a synopsis writer for Netflix, a story editor for the MTV series MADE, and as a filmmaking teacher at the School of Cinema and Performing Arts (SOCAPA) in Brooklyn.
He is currently writing a feature comedy script called Ron Quixote. He enjoys jazz, Scrabble and cleaning his desk.
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