Dec 21, 2022

15 Animated Short Films Nominated for Academy Awards; "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio" Selected for Best Sound, Best Composition, Best Song

The Academy has announced the 15 animated short films that have been selected as finalists for the 95th Academy Awards, which will be held on March 12, 2023.

This year's diverse list includes films by main producers from 10 countries; six are directed by women and two are debuts. Eighty-one films were nominated for this category, and the shortlisted films are voted on by the members of the Short Films and Animated Feature Films sections, which will select the final nominees.

Last year, the Academy expanded the short list from 10 to 15 films, a significant benefit for independent and international films.

This year, those responsible for selecting the shorts needed no extra incentive to choose films that were unique, independent, international, student-oriented, and challenging. It is an impressive shortlist, more like what we would expect to see at a film festival than what we would expect to see at the Academy.

This year's nominees include two-time Oscar nominees Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby (her third nomination), BAFTA nominee Elizabeth Hobbs, award-winning Argentine Juan Pablo Zaramella, Slovenia's remarkable Spera? This year, there are few of the big-budget commercial short films by major studios that have become popular in the category in recent years.

There are some exciting new talents among this year's nominees. João Gonzalez's "Ice Merchants" is his second film, while Robert-Jonathan Conyers' "It's Nice in Here" and Lachlan Pendragon's "An Ostrich Told Me..." are debuts, the latter of which has already won a Student Academy Award.

In the feature film shortlist announced Wednesday, Guillermo del Toro's "Pinocchio" was selected for sound, original score, and original music ("Ciao Papa").

And if James Cameron's "Avatar: The Way of Water" were not such a strong contender, the shortlist for this year's VFX category would be an incredibly crowded one, with 10 films selected It's going to be an incredibly tight race.