Live and Let Live-Action

🏆 Dispatches from Awards Season

207 films! That’s how big the qualification pool is for Oscar Live Action Short. Is that a problem? I sort of think so. I share some feelings about that at the top of this latest deep dive into an Oscar short film category. You can also browse the new Shortverse collection with pages for all the films and trailers for most. Aside from my complaining, there is much to be excited for in the pool, and the piece looks at:

• Over 20 shorts you can watch right now, including six S/W selections

• AI films fighting for inclusion

• A host of celebs making their directing debuts

• Whether a genre short can break the trend and get nominated

• Plus more!

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To

1. Kill Bill x Fortnite Short Drops Online and in Theaters - Count me a sucker. I thought that, promotional origins aside, this was meant to actually sit alongside the original films as a component of the new Whole Bloody Affair cut that is in theaters this week, and allowed myself to be a bit excited for it. It’s not exactly painful to watch, but I found the build-up to be lazy, and the gratuitous Fortnite of it all to be off-putting. That this is paired with the theatrical screenings, even if it’s after the end credits, is kinda gross.

2. Hollywood in New Jersey? - Curbed has this interesting story about a finance billionaire building a huge new production facility in New Jersey. A lot of new production spaces are being built, but productions are still down post-COVID. Can anybody tell me what I’m missing here?

3. ACE Adds New Award Category For Shorts - American Cinema Editors, the org that represents film editors, has added ‘Best Edited Short’ to the lineup at its annual ‘Eddie Awards’. They’re also quite progressive with the qualifications—they mention us by name in the official press release. Thanks, ACE! That’s now ACE, BIFA, and Canadian Screen Awards we qualify films for; c’mon BAFTA, get your act together!

4. Farewell, Tammie Rosen - Perhaps not a household name, but well known to film journalists the world over as head of communications for Tribeca and then Sundance, Deadline has reported her recent passing from cancer. I won’t pretend a close personal relationship, but she’s been a presence in my inbox for years, and was always available when I needed her. Tammie held the impossible job of getting information out to stressed press members during the most chaotic of possible times, and did with supernatural indefatiguability and good cheer. Thank you, Tammie. You’ll be missed.

5. Oscar-Winner Hits Online At Last - Winner of Best Animated Short Film two years ago, this John Lennon-inspired animation from ex-Pixar animator Dave Mullins launched online this week. We’re not going to cover it as an official selection, but it’s certainly a noteworthy release, and a great opportunity to discover, or revisit the short.

6. Listen: Is Film School Still Worth It? - I don’t know if the timing was fortunate or unfortunate to have this episode of the industry-centric podcast The Town drop the same day that the Netflix/Warner Bros. deal was announced, but as this is a question we’re constantly asked, I enjoyed this conversation with Stephen Galloway, Dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.

7. Book Recommendation: The Future of Storytelling - I should probably hold off another couple of weeks on this recommendation, as I’m still only a couple of chapters in, but what the hey. Charles Melcher has run The Future of Storytelling as a summit in New York for several years, and now condenses a couple of decades of developments into a book. I’ve attended the event in the past, and Melcher and his team of programmers really do have their finger on the pulse of everything new in the immersive story space. This book is not revelatory, but serves as a handy compendium of the great works of recent years, and is a terrific primer for folks new to the space.

8. A ‘Deluge of AI Model Drops’ - It feels like AI has receded into the background slightly, but that might change if any of the well-capitalized AI shorts in contention move on in the Oscar race. In the meantime, the tech marches on at a blistering pace, with a bunch of new models getting released this week, including updates from Kling, Bytedance, Runway and others. VP Land has the rundown.

9. Are Direct Messages Coming to YouTube? - Tubefilter reports that the video giant is thinking about it! I used to get dozens of messages on Vimeo each month and, by and large, it felt like a good feature to have—we built it into Shortverse after all. YouTube is multiple orders of magnitude bigger, though…what do you think, do you want to chat with people or creators on YT?

10. What to Watch - Well, since Netflix is on everyone’s mind, how about one of their films? It’s technically an acquisition, but Netflix did pay a fair price for Train Dreams out of Sundance this year, and it’s even in theaters right now. The film is from S/W alum Clint Bentley, and I’ve been an avid follower of the journey he and his creative partner, Greg Kwedar, have been on this past decade: from shorts to indie features like Transpecos and Jockey, to the cusp of award season last year with Sing Sing, and now full-fledged contention with Train Dreams. Give the trailer a look.

📅 This Week on Short of the Week