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Bring on the subtitles

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Oscar Nominees: International Film

I like watching foreign-language films, taking the opportunity to appreciate the work of filmmakers and actors far from Hollywood. And I don’t mind subtitles – I much prefer them to dubbing by English-speaking actors. Too much of the performance is lost in dubbed films, and a voice that doesn’t fit the face is far more distracting than letters on the screen. The main problem with subtitles is you miss what’s going on if you briefly look away from the screen or get up to do something during the movie. (I remember one time long ago, back when watching TV required sitting in the living room, I was watching The Count of Monte Cristo mini-series in French. I needed to go to the kitchen to work on dinner, so I turned up the volume on the TV – until I remembered that listening to really loud French was not going to help me follow what was happening in the show.)

This year’s nominees take on some pretty tough topics, especially considering most are based on true stories and/or real events. The kind of movies where it’s hard to answer if someone asks, “Did you like it?” Easier to focus on production qualities and storytelling. I’ve listed the films in the order we saw them.

France (Spanish language): Emilia Perez

I really did not know what to expect when I saw this film. I had seen it described as a “musical crime film” that included gender reassignment. Not like anything I had seen before. It was not being shown at many theaters in our area, so we had to go a bit out of the way to see it. But it was getting lots of positive press, so I went in with an open mind.

I found the story pretty accessible, easy to get into. A kidnapping scene early on was a bit scary but I was able to go with it. From the start I liked the way music was worked into the film, not as big splashy numbers, but more conversational or explanatory, fitting in with the action. I also liked that the singing wasn’t always performance-perfect, but retained little catches in the voice or slight variations in pitch. The story was engaging and as the drug cartel leader went through what they felt was necessary to change their life, I was interested in finding out how things would develop. And when Emilia wanted to be reunited with her children – children who believed their father to be dead – I felt sure things were not going to go smoothly. And I was right.

I remember that as I watched, I wondered how the film’s focus on drug cartels and people gone missing due to cartel activity went down with Mexican viewers. From what I’ve read and heard, there’s been a lot of criticism and backlash on many levels, including use of Spanish words/phrases which do not reflect Mexican speech. The negative reactions after the initial high praise is unfortunate, but I guess that’s a risk when even one emotionally or politically-charged topic is portrayed in a film, and broad media coverage is rarely likely to keep things calm.

I thought Emila Perez was interesting and well done, but I don’t quite know how to gauge my reactions to it against those from people living in the country represented. I mean, what do I know? For me it’s a form of entertainment, a chance to maybe learn something about people’s lives in another country. But maybe not so much. This won the Golden Globe, but the Oscar? It got the most nominations overall, but seems to have lost some momentum with regard to awards buzz. We’ll soon find out.

Brazil: I’m Still Here

Seems to be a likely contender for the international feature Oscar, especially since it also received a Best Picture nomination.

This true story was happening when I was about 12 years old. I would have been aware of Brazil as a country, probably aware that there might be some political tensions there, but that’s about it. And it’s not like I know that much about Brazil now. This film does an excellent job of conveying the impact of those political tensions on a family when the husband/father disappears.

On one level, the plot of this film is straightforward. We meet a happy, close-knit family. We don’t know all the details about what has happened previously, but the father talks with some colleagues and obviously becomes concerned. He leaves home and does not return. His wife does all she can to find out what has happened to him while keeping her family together and she eventually succeeds.

That is of course a very simplified description of the film, but I guess what I’m trying to say is that we don’t need to be conversant with Brazilian political history to get into the film. We learn enough as it goes along to make sense of the actions taken, and to understand the fear and concern felt by this ordinary family and the boldness and determination of the wife/mother. The strength of the storytelling is in how it carries us along as we join in on the search for a husband and father. Her search is not frantic; it is methodical and relentless. We want her to succeed. Fernanda Torres’ performance drives the action of the film.

Denmark/Poland/Sweden (Danish): The Girl with the Needle

From the beginning, it’s clear this film is going to be grim. It’s post-WWI and a young woman is left with no widow’s compensation because her husband has not been declared dead. She moves to a nasty apartment and works as a seamstress in a factory. She begins a flirtation with the boss, which of course is doomed from the start. Once she finds she is pregnant, her battle-mutliated husband returns. After trying to abort the baby, she meets a woman who says she is running a secret adoption agency. When her baby is born, she takes the infant to the woman and rather than pay the fee, she becomes a wet nurse for babies brought to the woman until they find a home. Again, there is no hint of a hopeful, warm and fuzzy feeling in this whole setup.

Some major trigger warnings in this film – horrible war wounds, PTSD, deadbeat dad (with a nasty controlling mother), abject poverty, drug abuse infant murder. And yet, in some ways this is a beautiful film. Black and white is used masterfully, providing a stark but stunning backdrop for the story, which the director calls “a fairy tale for grownups.” That description suits the film, since the original, non-Disney versions of most fairy tales can be rather gruesome. And it does have a sort of happy ending with healing and reconciliation and positive steps toward getting on with life and not being alone.

Iran/Germany/France (Farsi): The Seed of the Sacred Fig

A bold, gripping story that had to be filmed in secret. And it’s a pretty remarkable, well-made film, considering it had to be done completely on the sly. The story of getting the movie made could itself probably be made into a thriller, since the writer/producer/director has been arrested many times for violating censorship laws and had his passport confiscated. After making this film he was sentenced to 8 years in prison, flogging and confiscation of his property, but managed to escape to Europe over a 28-day “exhausting, long, complicated and anguishing journey.”

The story is ficitional but depicts a family in Tehran during 2022-2023 protests, in which students and women played significant roles. We meet a devout, honest lawyer – husband and father of a close-knit family – who receives a promotion to investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. He and his wife are pleased with the recognition of his years of hard work and talk about the perks of more money and a bigger apartment and the benefits for their daughters. It doesn’t take long to learn that moving up in a government position is more complicated than that.

At first, his wife is totally on board, encouraging their teenaged daughters to be cautious about talking with their friends about their father’s work, posting on social media, etc. She believes it’s all for the good and her husband will prove his skills in the new position and continue to be promoted. Then he brings a gun home. For protection of the family, he says. He also becomes more and more reticent about talking about his work and is clearly shaken, usually withdrawing to the bedroom alone at the end of his day.

Meanwhile the girls become ever more concerned about the protests they’re seeing on social media and even more concerned when a friend disappears – a friend who had previously been shot for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, making her a suspect for being part of the protesting mob. Their father becomes more paranoid each day and falls more in line with government policies and agendas, making himself believe the arrests, beatings and executions are justified. He takes the family away so they can have some time alone together, but he turns on them. They fight back.

The film does a great job of incorporating actual cell phone footage of the riots. Placing the chaos and fear during these events firmly into what was once a normal family setting is terrifying. I was forced to imagine – What must that have been like? As a mother, what would I have done? What could I have done? What would have happened to my daughter? It was difficult to watch, but we had to see it through. I’m thankful that the film made it into safe hands. I’m glad we saw it. Sometimes I need to be forced to remember that my little world is not the whole world.

Latvia/France/Belgium: Flow

An international film that requires no subtitles because it’s all animals, all the time. No humans were required in the making of this film. (Maybe a few behind the scenes.) We can understand meows and barks and squawks as well in foreign-language films as we can in English.

Even without a language that ties it to a specific country, this film suits the international category because it’s hard to pin down just where in the world the action is happening – sometimes looks like Europe, sometimes like Southeast Asia – and ocean-blue water is everywhere. I kind of felt like it was representing the whole world, the way it might work if the inhabitants worked together and accepted each other’s unique abilities no matter where they meet along the way. I doubt it will win best international feature, but it’s a lovely film.

Some stories work better without people getting in the way

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Oscar Nominees: Animated Feature

In recent years my husband and I have been going to the movies like it’s our job, but we typically skip most of the potential nominees for best animated feature. We don’t have anything against animated pics, but once our kids grew up, we stopped going out of our way to see them unless there was something new or special about them.

This year we actually saw all five of the animated feature nominees, partly because our 25-year-old daughter is currently living with us and she’s a fan of the genre. We saw the first two in the theater, the rest we streamed at home. I enjoyed all five of them and consider them worthy nominees. As I reflect on them now, I realize that they include fine examples of the use of animation to effectively address challenging subject matter.

Here are the nominees, in the order we saw them:

Inside Out 2

It’s been a while since I saw this one. I remember we watched the first Inside Out the night before to refresh our memories, and I was glad we did. Seeing the previous film made it clear that this was a better, more interesting film. Not that I didn’t like the first one, but the second had a more complex story and cooler animation. It also did a good job of highlighting the new emotions that come with adolescence. I loved how the portrayal of the new emotions – anxiety, envy, embarrassment, and ennui – had just the right balance between ridiculous and absolutely serious, because the emotions roused by the ravages of puberty fit into both categories.

I remember the animation as more impressive than I expected, showing texture and movement and color with what seemed to me to be new techniques. The consistency of colors and characters between the first and second movies was very good, but Inside Out 2 was an enjoyable improvement all around. But probably not the best animated film of the year.

The Wild Robot

When I saw the trailers for this movie, I wasn’t sure about how much I would like it. I was afraid it would over the top in some direction – maybe too much focus on robots or the environment, a bit like an updated Wall-E. Or sappy without much of an engaging story. But I knew it had great reviews, so when we went to see it I was hopeful.

For me the story got off to a bit of a slow start. It was visually interesting and pleasant enough, but I wasn’t quite believing it in the beginning (and some aspects of it did kind of remind me of Wall-E). But as Roz the robot got involved with the local wildlife, and especially when the flight training began for her adopted goose, I settled into the story. And it was an engaging story, taking me places I didn’t expect to go, mixing in a lot of great messages about working together and thinking about others more than yourself.

I appreciated the fact that the animation was kind of traditional, not trying to make the animals look like they’re almost real. It was colorful, creative, engaging. But overall, it seemed to me to be your standard, high-quality animated film – the type put out by major film companies every year. I enjoyed it. I even cried a bit. (My husband and I cry at movies more often than not. What can I say? We allow ourselves to enter the story.) From all I’ve read, this one is expected to win the Oscar, and if it does, then a hearty congratulations to all involved. It’s a well-made film with a positive message that’s not too heavy-handed, and it reached a lot of young people. I definitely don’t mind seeing a film like that win awards.

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

I love Wallace and Gromit. My whole family loves Wallace and Gromit. I was so happy to hear my three-year-old grandson nearly overcome with laughter while watching The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. So of course there was no question that we would watch and enjoy this film. And once again the intrepid duo delivered a grand adventure of a tale, and I will no doubt watch it again.

I’m always impressed by the time and skill it takes to make a good stop-motion animated film and Nick Park and Aardman Animations have been putting in the time with great success for decades. I love what they produce and will always watch their films. Is this the best animated feature of the year? If Wallace and Gromit win – fabulous. Heck, I think they should get a lifetime achievement Oscar.

Memoir of a Snail

After watching this film, the word that came to mind over anything else was “unforgettable.” I have definitely never seen a film like it – animated or otherwise. So many potentially-life-destroying topics are explored here. I’m not even sure I can remember all of them but they include: physical deformity, death of parents, bullying, abusive foster parents, religious fanatacism, abusive partner, hoarding, playing with fire, obsession, homophobia, alcoholism, loneliness. And yet, I laughed out loud more than once. The humor was often pretty grim, but it was clever and genuinely funny. This film was also quite touching, portraying deep and loving relationships. (And yes, I did get a bit teary-eyed at one point.)

Throughout, I kept wondering if I would even watch a live-action film that explored so many tragic real-life topics and tried to make viewers laugh. And I’m pretty sure I would give such a film a miss. I doubt if I could take it. If this is the story that needs telling, stop-motion animation is a perfect format. It gives us some space to process what’s happening without being overwhelmed. We can take a break from the sadness and admire the dense and intricate set constructed from clay.

The animation was exceptional and did not pretend to be realistic. It was fabulous, cartoonish claymation. I want to say it was colorful, but that’s not quite true. There was a muted tone about the whole film that suited it perfectly. And there was so much detail – a believable and complete clay world. I would award the Oscar for best animated feature to this film because it uses excellent animation to venture into very difficult territory. It stands out among the nominees.

Flow

This lovely film is unique among the nominees in that it uses no words. An international film that requires no subtitles. The animals in the starring roles are not pretending to be anything else, so they can’t talk. They can do a lot of surprising things, but they can’t talk.

Flow takes us on a wild boat ride with an unlikely crew of animals. A catastrophic flood hits a world that is filled with wildlife, but appears to be post-human. Plenty of manmade structures, but no people. Cat is our main character, who scrambles onto a passing boat just as the waters rise above the chance of any foothold – even for a cat.

There’s a capybara already onboard. The animals give each other a sniff and float off together. Things get a little crazy when a flock of secretarybirds fly over and the cat falls overboard, but is saved by a very interesting-looking whale. A bit later on, the capybara invites a ring-tailed lemur with a basket of trinkets to join them. Then a Labrador who was previously friendly to Cat joins as well. During a brief stay on land, a hostile flock of secretarybirds go after the little group, but one stands up for them and ends up injured and unable to fly. Naturally, the bird joins the crew.

The action and adventure in the film is nonstop and very entertaining. The animated world is lush and beautiful and always in motion. It reminded us a bit of the graphics for the 1993 video game Myst. It’s hard to pin down just where in the world the action is happening – sometimes looks like Europe, sometimes like Southeast Asia. That may be part of the point of the film – a story about acceptance and cooperation, finding ways to communicate and work together to get through difficult situations, no matter where you are or who you are. And in telling that story, it succeeds beautifully. It would be nice if it won.

Getting straight to the point – with a gut punch

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Oscar nominees: Live-action Short Film

When I bought tickets to see all of the Oscar nominees for live-action short film in a single showing, I was pleased for the opportunity of a new movie-going experience. This year I would have reason to pay close attention to that section of the Oscar presentations, rather than thinking, “Very nice, well done, let’s get on to the real awards.”

One thing I found in watching these short films is that they are very real, with obvious effort and heart put into their production. I also found that it’s one thing to watch a single moving tale about something that is out of joint in the world around us. It is a very different thing to watch five of them in a row.

We were emotionally spent. Exhausted. Sad, even heartbroken. Wondering if there was any hope for lasting positive change around the world. Despairing that there will always be people in desperate situations and people who care only about their own gain, their own power, their own beliefs. It was hard because we knew that, even though some were fictional, these stories were very real.

I’m listing the 5 nominees in the order they were shown at the theater. And spoiler alert – I’m going to talk these all the way through because the importance of these films is very much in the point they’re making, and that tends to be made clear in way it ends.

Croatia: The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

We watch an ordinary-looking man sitting quietly in his train car with a small group of people traveling through Boznia/Herzegovina on an everyday-looking train ride. The train makes an unscheduled stop but no official announcement is made. People get up to look out the windows at the commotion outside.

Paramilitary thugs board the train, demanding to see passengers’ identification documents, asking questions about their families’ patron saints. Passengers witihout documents or who are muslim are forced off the train and into the back of a truck. A young man in our car admits he has no documentation. Our ordinary man assures him it will be all right, that they won’t let anything happen to him.

But when the thugs appear in their car and try to take the boy from the train, most remain silent, intimidated by the bullies with rifles. Some feeble protests that he’s done nothing wrong. But one man stands and demands to know what right they have to treat passengers this way, demands to speak to their superior officer. His documents show that he is a retired naval officer. He refuses to back down and they take him out to the truck instead of the boy. No one in the car reacts. The train starts up again and enters a tunnel. The film ends with a tribute to Tomo Buzov, who was executed for his attempts to stop the massacre in 1993.

I appreciated the title of this film because I didn’t know the story. I didn’t know who could not be silent or why, so watching a car full of pretty silent people, I was kept wondering who it would be. I initially thought it would be the man we met first, so I kept watching him. Then he let us down. The undocumented boy didn’t speak up for himself much. Then we hear a voice rising up out of the frightened silence and it is powerful, even though by that point we know it will not end well for him.

United States (Hindi language): Anuja

We meet two orphaned sisters in Delhi. The girls live on their own in a shack on the streets and work in a garment factory making handbags. They are obviously close and trying to make the best of their lives.

The younger girl is clearly elementary-school age and we find that she is mathematically gifted when a teacher comes to the factory to insist she be allowed to come and take a test that would allow her to go to boarding school. The test costs 400 rupees ($5), which the girls do not have. The factory boss wants to keep the girls in the factory, claiming staying together and making some money will be better for them. Once he realizes the young girl is a math whiz, he also has ideas of using her for bookkeeping/accounting rather than paying a professional and tells her he wants her in his office first thing in the morning rather than going to take any test, suggesting that if she doesn’t, she and her sister may be out of a job.

The older sister reveals that she has been secretly making handbags with scrap material and decides they should go into the markets and sell the handbags to raise money for the test. They sell enough for the test and for a trip to the movies. But on the morning of the test, we are left watching young Anuja as she stands out in the street deciding between staying with her sister – her only family and best friend – and moving away to a future that she understands little about. For us, the story ends there.

I thought that ending was great because as the film progressed, I was more and more unsure about what the best choice was. When it came down to it, the factory boss wasn’t a terrible guy. He employed minors, yes, but didn’t seem to be abusive. He would pay her more for her accounting work and would no doubt treat the sister well to keep them happy. The teacher didn’t show a huge interest in the girl, other than it might be a feather in his cap if he found a prodigy for the boarding school, one that would also tick a box to show how inclusive they were. (In the factory office he slips up at one point and says good opportunities are rare for “that kind of girl,” likely referring to her poverty and dark skin tone.)

I enjoyed the film because of the obvious love between the sisters and their positive attitude about life. At the end we get to see the star of the show happily watching the movie with her classmates at a school for street children in Delhi.

Netherlands/Belgium: I’m Not a Robot

Opens with a quiet office scene, a woman working at her laptop. A system update prompts her to restart her laptop and requires her to go through some “I am not a robot” tests that anyone using smart phones or computers has seen. She fails the tests time after time, until she gets to a link asking her to answer some questions. When she completes that task, she gets a message that informs her that there is an 87% chance that she is, in fact, a robot.

This is obviously extremely annoying and she wonders if it’s a glitch or a prank. No one at work can help her and she calls her boyfriend to vent. He becomes more and more uncomfortable as they talk and then falls back on the old, “Sorry, you’re breaking up. We’ll have to talk later.” Obviously, he knows something she doesn’t. Sure enough, he later arrives at the office with a woman representing the company from which he had bought her years ago.

The young woman really does not want to be a robot and has trouble accepting that many of her memories are merely programming. Her boyfriend assures her he loves her and it shouldn’t change anything about their relationship. He had her programmed so that she could think freely and have her own opinions and he loves that she is a strong woman. She’s not having any of it. During the course of the conversation/argument, she learns that she cannot die until after he does. She asks if his former girlfriend had died. The answer is yes, so he wanted to make sure that could never happen to him again. Thus, a robot girlfriend who can’t predecease him. She gets mad and tries to prove him wrong by jumping off the roof of the parking structure. She hits the ground, blood seeps out beneath her head. Her eyes open and she begins to weep.

For me, this film was the least satisfying of the lot. It was less emotionally charged, and it left me feeling a bit flat. In the end, I was not sure what the main point was. It didn’t leave a strong feeling about abuse of women or dismissal of their rights as people. It didn’t seem to be a strong message about misuse of technology or a science-fiction-style warning about the potential dangers of sentient robots. And I wasn’t left with any feeling that maybe we’re all in danger of becoming like robots. It just kind of ended as a tale about a robot who would have been a lot happier not knowing she was a robot.

United States: A Lien

This was tough to watch. A bit too close to home and very, very current. We see a young couple and their daughter rushing to a meeting. The husband has a mandatory interview as he seeks US citizenship. He has lived in the US most of his life. His wife of six years is a US-born citizen. He served in the US military. While he is in his interview, his wife sees people being taken away in handcuffs. His name is called over the loudspeaker. The wife panics, runs from person to person asking questions, demands that their passports be returned. Everyone she talks to tells her it’s not their department, she just has to wait. During a distraction, she snatches the passports.

She runs outside to see her husband and 5-year-old daughter being forced into a car by ICE agents. She screams and forces one of the officers to look at her daughter’s valid US passport. He grudgingly allows the girl to return to her mother, but husband and wife have to say goodbye for now as he is taken away. The film ends with text on the screen about ICE regularly intercepting applicants for citizenship at their mandatory interviews.

The film is frantic, recorded by handheld cameras (at least that’s what it looks like to me). The surroundings are constantly in motion and everything is in confusion. The main characters don’t know which way to turn and there are no clear answers for them from anyone. They wait and plan to fight back because they have no other choice.

My husband thought this was the best film of the lot because of the depiction of frantic intensity and confusion. For me it’s too much a current reality to appreciate on an artistic level. But maybe that’s part of the point.

South Africa: The Last Ranger

This film is visually beautiful, scary and intense. We get to experience the wonders of a game reserve in South Africa, along with the fight against poachers. We ride along with rangers dedicated to the conservation of the wild areas and the protection of the animals that live there. And we get to see that they are willing to risk their own lives in that fight.

Walking along the road, a young girl meets a ranger that she knows and is invited to ride along to visit some rhinos. Poachers attack as they watch the grazing animals. The ranger tells the girl to duck down in the car and she draws her weapon and calls for backup. Gunfire erupts, a poacher is wounded, the ranger is killed. A tranquilized rhino’s horn is removed with a chainsaw. The young girl records it all on a phone. As she goes to the side of her dying friend, she sees her father and learns he had helped the poachers by tranquilzing the rhino in his desperation for money to support his family. He helped in the end by tranquing one of the poachers and apologizes to his daughter for his part in this horror.

The ranger’s partner arrives, sees the injured rhino is still alive and asks for the girl’s help. Cut to the future and the young woman is working as a ranger. We learn that the story is true, that the rhino survived, had many calves and is still alive and protected. We learn that poachers have killed over 100,000 rhinos and killed 1,000 rangers in their theft of rhino horns. Horns that are no more magical or medicinal than fingernails or hair. The film closes with video clips of the hornless rhino living a good life and an interview with a ranger who assures us she will be a ranger for her whole life and would die to protect the wildlife she loves. Even with the grim reality of poaching, this film gets my vote for best short film because it leaves us with some hope.

Though watching these films was a rough 90 minutes, I’m glad we saw them. All were well done, gripping, very watchable. Maybe it would be easier to watch them individually over time, but I’m not sure it would be better. Maybe it’s not such a bad thing to have 5 talented filmmakers hit us with their best shots all at once, reminding us of the importance of venturing outside our own safe bubbles to take a hard look at the world around us.

Definitely not my Saturday morning cartoons

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Oscar Nominees: Animated Short Films

I can’t help but begin my musings about the 2025 Oscar nominees with those I’ve seen most recently, mainly because I’m still thinking about them. My husband and I saw 10 short films in one afternoon – 5 animated/5 live-action – and it was a lot to process in a short time (roughly three hours).

Especially since we started with the live-action shorts. I quickly realized that filmmakers are likely creating short films to make an intense, emotional, gut-wrenching point. It was quite an experience to watch five of those in a row before lunchtime. I was glad we had some time to go outside and walk around a bit before our next set of films. Happily, the animated shorts were generally easier on the emotions. but they were definitely nothing like Looney Tunes, The Flintstones, Scooby Doo or any of the other cartoons I grew up with.

I know nothing about filmmaking, but I assume that there are skills and tools needed for animation that are very different from those needed for live-action films. And simply because I’ve been watching animated films for 60+ years, I recognize that they have been dramatically changed by use of computers – just like everything else in the world. And honestly, using the word “computers” for what I mean doesn’t really sound right anymore. Sounds old-fashioned and too limited to suit the range of technology utilized in modern animation. But that’s just me fussing over linguistics. Let’s just say I find modern animation astounding and fascinating. I have grown accustomed to being surprised by something each time I see a new animated film.

For the most part, we watch animated films for the same reason we watch live-action films – a good story. We’ll likely have different expectations for animation compared with live-action, but whether we’re looking for laughs, for frights, for romance, for adventure, or for a good cry, we can find it all in films that have moved far beyond the Saturday morning fare of my childhood.

I’ve listed the five nominees for Animated Short Film in the order they were shown in the theater.

[Spoiler alert: I am famous in my family for inadvertantly providing too much information for shows they haven’t seen yet, potentially spoiling surprises. So if that matters to you, beware!]

Japan: Magic Candies

A little gem of a film. We meet a young boy named Dong-Dong playing marbles in a park. He plays alone with a dozing dog for company, and claims to be content that none of the other kids ask him to join in their games. On his way home he picks up a bag of what looks like more marbles, but is actually a bag of magic candies. When he gets home and tries one, he finds that as long as the candy is in his mouth, he is able to have conversations that are definitely magical. But once the candy melts, the magic is done.

These magical candy-fueled conversations are funny, heart-warming, bittersweet and beautiful. Dong-Dong takes it all in stride and seeks to make the most of the experiences. There is a good balance of silliness and humor, a bit of melancholy and plenty of warm and fuzzy sentiment. The stop-motion animation is clever, colorful and fun to watch. In terms of sheer enjoyment, this would be my top choice for an award.

Iran: In the Shadow of the Cypress

Compelling and sometimes tough to watch. This wordless story introduces us to a man and his adult daughter, clearly at a crisis point. We see evidence of regular violent outbursts and sorrow. The weeping young woman has prepared dinner for her father and has packed her bags to leave, clearly unable to cope any longer. She opens the door. He hangs his head and does not try to stop her. And on the beach in front of their house they see a stranded whale.

Both run to the whale to try to help it, digging sand from beneath it, tying a rope to the tale and trying to use a small motorboat to pull it back into the water. When that fails, the father continues out to an offshore shipwreck and stays while the daughter tries to keep the whale wet and cool as the day heats up. On board the shipwreck, we share in flashbacks to an aerial attack, gunshots, explosion, a drowning woman and a small child. Both father and daughter continue to work to rescue the whale – the daughter struggling on her own, the father forming a daring plan between his devastating flashbacks.

The animation makes effective use of simple lines and movements and soft, pale colors. The story’s conclusion is both triumphant and heartrending. A well-told tale, definitely not light entertainment.

France/Belgium/UK/Netherlands: Wander to Wonder

For me, this is the film that lingers. It opens with a clearly worn-out recording of a children’s TV show. We see an older man talking with small furry creatures living in a miniature woodland setting. Think of Captain Kangaroo or Mr. Rogers talking with their puppet friends about their activities and what they’re learning. Flies often buzz past the screen as the show plays.

We meet three very small aging characters wearing scraps of clothing, including remnants of the furry costumes seen in the old video. One male character runs around in no pants, quoting Shakespeare. The female reads old letters from children who wrote in to the TV show and tries to record new shows. The other male bumbles around and smiles vaguely, looking like a lost street performer. They work hard to break open a pickle jar and then share a pickle for dinner. Flies are present in most scenes. We eventually see a pair of shoes on the floor, still on the feet of a motionless body. Among their various activities, a crisis arises which brings about devastation and, just maybe, new possibilities.

This short film evidently took 8 years to make. The animation is incredible. I’ve never seen such lifelike movement in a stop-motion film. It was hard to shake the notion that I was watching actual tiny people. I came away unsure whether the story was about aging, coping with death and/or change, pursuing one’s purpose in life, imagination and reality – or all of that and more. It was mesmerizing, disturbing, wistful, hopeful. I found it powerful and unforgettable, even though I’m still not exactly sure why. If I had to choose which film I thought was the best, it would be this one.

France: Yuck!

This film was cute and easy to watch. More like a traditional cartoon than any of the others. Young kids at a very crowded campground, playing together and getting grossed out by anyone engaging in public displays of affection – especially kissing.

Not surprisingly, a couple of the kids are secretly not so grossed out by the idea of kissing and much of the film is about how and when they’re going to get together to try it out. Throughout the film, lips glow pink whenever someone feels the urge. Again, it’s cute.

Not much more to say about this one. It was cute, colorful, mildly entertaining. As far as I could see, the message is that people love love and it’s not gross.

Belgium/France/Netherlands: Beautiful Men

Interesting and unusual topic for an animated film. Three European brothers are in Turkey for hair transplants. There’s a mixup and it looks like only one will be able to get the surgery done.

In the meantime there are some brotherly discussions and some arguments about relationships, about health scares, but not really much discussion about the reasons for wanting hair transplants. They mostly spend their time waiting and talking. But we do get to see the eventual outcome of their trip.

Another excellent use of stop-motion animation, in a very real-looking setting. Facial expressions, emotions and activities come across as natural and genuine. Very well done, but again, seems an unusual topic for animation.

While I enjoyed these short animated films, I couldn’t help wondering about the reasons behind choosing animation to tell these stories, especially stop-motion, which can take a long, long time to complete. It seems unlikely that these films will become widely known or commercially successful. Is it the artistic challenge? A chance to advance filmmaking in general? A simple love of the art form? Or just the best way to tell the stories the filmmakers wanted to tell?

I’m not sure, but I’m glad I saw them. May the best film win.

My private Oscar race

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I love movies. I grew up watching a lot of movies, probably because my mom loved watching them. When we were little, I think kids’ matinee tickets cost 25 cents, so Mom would pile all four of us into the car and we’d go to see pretty much any Disney film that was playing. She’d carry in a big knitting bag like it was her purse, filled with popcorn in a Tupperware container and bottles of Pepsi. It was great fun.

Before multiplexes were the norm, we watched our Disney films in style at a fancy old-style theater with a balcony, velvet curtains across the screen and big pipe organ that rose up out of the floor. A man in a uniform stood at the door to gather our tickets. He would tear them in half and hand the ticket stubs to my younger brother saying, “The gentleman always carries the stubs.”

Now it’s hard to even imagine that up until my late 20s, the only way I could watch movies was in a theater or on one of the broadcast television stations, which could only show movies that had been around for a while. We basically had five channels to choose from: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and PBS. Cable TV existed, but I don’t think we had it till our son was in middle school. If you couldn’t go to the theater when a film was showing or you missed it when it was on TV, you just missed it.

When video rental became a thing and VCRs were easy to buy, I was in heaven. We could watch movies at home when we wanted, go back to old films that we’d always wanted to see, with no need for a babysitter. Perfect. I bought a big movie guide to help me find quality films to rent and would bring home a stack of videos each weekend – many of them in black and white and/or with subtitles. My husband and son jokingly called it my “film school.” Then Netflix appeared and I could have DVDs mailed to me with no due dates, just mail them back when we were done with them. No more late fees and no need to chase my toddler daughter around Blockbuster anymore. Even more perfect.

Now that streaming is so readily available it’s easier than ever to watch almost any movie we can think of – which is amazing – but as soon as we became empty-nesters, free to go out to the movies whenever, we found outselves a nice theater with a wait staff that brings food and drinks to our seats. (Usually the same seats every time – on the end of the first row behind wheelchair accessible seating – kind of like first row balcony.) We go often enough that we get a lot of free tickets through the theater’s rewards program, plus some staff members recognize us and ask what we’re seeing. I’d say it’s a fun night out, but hey, we don’t like staying out late so it’s more like a fun afternoon out.

We’ve always enjoyed watching the Oscars, and decided it would be more fun and interesting if we were actually familiar with more of the nominated movies. So over the past several years, my husband and I have made an effort to see as many likely Oscar nominees as we can before the presentation of the awards. I follow the buzz about likely contenders, we assess the films for ourselves, try to predict nominees and winners, as well as choose who we think should win.

We usually don’t go out of our way to see all of the animated feature films, and we don’t bother with documentaries. We don’t really care about films that are nominated simply because they have one good new song, though we do care about original score. And if there are any films that we just don’t want to see for whatever reason, we skip them. We used to ignore all of the short films, but I recently discovered that for the past 20 years, ShortsTV has packaged the Oscar-nominated short films for release in theaters, so this year we decided to check them out. We attended two showings – five animated short films and five live-action short films.

This year the Oscar nominations are spread across 50 films, which includes 15 short films. (And not including whatever science and tech awards they give out ahead of time.) So, how many films did we watch to get ready for the 2025 Oscar ceremony?

  • We’ve seen 35 of the nominated films
  • We skipped 5 films due to lack of interest, as well as all 10 documentary films
  • Plus prior to the nominations, we watched 23 films that we thought might be considered

So after putting in all that time, my own private Oscar race will take place over this coming week, as I work to gather my thoughts and post some observations about the nominated films before the awards are handed out at the Dolby Theater – which is housed in the Hollywood Boulevard shopping mall pictured below.

It’s likely the whole block presently looks a lot more like my pre-Oscars photo from a few years ago as they glam things up for the big night:

I’ll close this intro to my Oscar observations (Oscarvations?) with my favorite fact learned during a tour of the Dolby Theater. A lot of the nominees – especially those favored to win or who are at least sure to be on camera lot – get ready at the theater. So they get dressed, get hair and makeup done, get in a limo at the back of the mall and drive around the block to be dropped off at the red carpet.

And the nominees are….. (to be continued)