10 Animated Shorts Make the List in 2009 Oscar Race

AMPAS announced late Friday afternoon that 10 animated short films will  move on to  the voting process for the 82nd Academy Awards. Thirty-seven pictures had originally qualified in the category.

The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company:

• “The Cat Piano,” Eddie White and Ari Gibson, directors (The People’s Republic of Animation)
•  “French Roast,” Fabrice O. Joubert, director (Pumpkin Factory/Bibo Films)
• “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty,” Nicky Phelan, director, and Darragh O’Connell, producer (Brown Bag Films)
• “The Kinematograph,” Tomek Baginski, director-producer (Platige Image)
• “The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte),” Javier Recio Gracia, director (Kandor Graphics and Green Moon)
• “Logorama,” Nicolas Schmerkin, producer (Autour de Minuit)
• “A Matter of Loaf and Death,” Nick Park, director (Aardman Animations Ltd.)
• “Partly Cloudy,” Peter Sohn, director (Pixar Animation Studios)
• “Runaway,” Cordell Barker, director (National Film Board of Canada)
• “Variete,” Roelof van den Bergh, director (il Luster Productions)

The Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting in screenings held in New York and Los Angeles.

Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in January 2010.

4-time Oscar winner, director/creator Nick Park, provides a look at his animated short  in this 20 minute, making-of WALLACE AND GROMIT: A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH. Even though it premiered on BBC One on Christmas in  2008, Park missed the October 1st deadline that year thus making W & G eligible for the upcoming Academy Awards in March.

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center ®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Source: Oscars.org

Here’s a sampling of some of the other animated shorts in the running for the Oscar.