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Film Fests & Special Screenings Movies & TV

Sizing up shorts

OSCAR SHORTS at TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King West) from Friday (January 30). tiff.net. Rating: NNNN


Before jumping into this year’s Oscar pool, you’d best familiarize yourself with the nominated live action and animated short subjects, screening in separate programs this week at the Lightbox. 

The live action slate once again betrays the Academy’s weakness for dramas in which two people change each other’s lives forever. Aya, Parvaneh and The Phone Call (co-starring Sally Hawkins and Jim Broadbent) all play some variation on that theme. Meanwhile, Boogaloo And Graham tries a different but equally time-worn premise: a pair of cute kids grapple with the harsh realities of life in Northern Ireland.

But there’s still room for an original vision to break through, and this year that’s Butter Lamp, which employs an intriguing visual device and an unconventional narrative structure to relate the tale of a commercial photographer and his Tibetan subjects.

The animated nominees are more innovative, taking conceptual risks and changing up the way they tell their stories. Given the medium, anything should be possible.

The Dam Keeper is a painterly morality play enacted by funny animals. The Bigger Picture uses multiple formats to tell a small, deeply human story. The jaunty, time-shuffling A Single Life shifts from adorable to seriously disturbing in a matter of seconds, while Me And My Moulton – this year’s sole Canadian entry – is a charming memoir of a childhood in Norway recounted in simple 2D animation.

I’m not sure I had a more fulfilling six minutes in a movie theatre last year than I did while watching Feast, the tale of a Boston terrier, his owner and their shared dietary habits. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

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