Academy Award Shorts
February 16, 2012
Every year, just before the Oscars, the Landmark Theater chain, among a few others, shows compilations of the Academy Award nominated short films, with some other good ones thrown in to fill out the 90 minutes. The showings alternate between animated and live action. All of them, of course, are excellent. Any of them would make great Oscar winners. Most years, I can't make up my mind in either category. But in the animated category, only; The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore made me laugh and cry in equal measure. I was honestly moved. On the Live-Action side, two of the films stood out for me. I like my short amusing, and Pentecost, about a soccer-loving reluctant choir boy, and Tuba Atlantic about a man given six days to live, and the "death angel" who looks after him, were fantastic. Of course, Time Freak, about a man living the same day over and over, was a sentimental favorite because of my feelings about Groundhog Day.