3 Short Animation Nominees for BAFTA 2024
The big concern usually involves the animation features (both at the BAFTA Awards and elsewhere). And, to get it out of the way, 'The Boy and the Heron' nomination (the new Hayao Miyazaki film) was an expected one. The film was nominated along with Aardman's 'Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget', Disney's 'Elemental', and Sony Pictures' 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse'.
Yet the British animation shorts (only 3 of them) have their own things to say. Time to explore them:
CRAB DAY by Ross Stringer (dir.), Bartosz Stanislawek, Aleksandra Sykulak (pr.)
As part of a fishing community’s annual ritual, a young boy must kill his first crab in order to become a man and gain his father’s approval.
This is a NFTS school film by UK, Norfolk-born animation filmmaker Ross Stringer. Stringer has already one more film in his arsenal (Trunk Calls, 2020). 'Crab Day' has already been out to festival, already screened at Anibar Festival (audience award), Animafest Zagreb, Cinanima (official competition).
VISIBLE MENDING by Samantha Moore (dir.), Tilley Bancroft (prod.)
A short animated documentary about the ways we repair ourselves through knitting, even when we can’t be fully mended.
Samantha Moore works with her own hands and senses in films like 'Treasure' (2021), 'Loop' (2016), 'A Language of Shapes' (2022). In the stop-motion 'Visible Mending', which started as a collaborative Shropshire project, she investigates tactility and mental health by presenting different cases of people knitting, reconnecting, and ultimately, 'repair' themselves (more here).
WILD SUMMON by Karni Arieli, Saul Freed (dir), Jay Woolley (pr.)
The 14-minute eco-film narrated by British singer Marianne Faithfull depicts the life of a female salmon, in the human form of a free-dive
The Oscar-shortlisted 3D animation short has garnered critical acclaim, since its Cannes Film Festival premiere. 'Karni & Saul' experimental filmmakers duo attempt to bring a message of empathy and care for nature and each other". Read our review by Olga Bobrowska
The 2023 BAFTA winner was 'The Boy The Mole The Fox and The Horse' 2D animation film by Peter Baynton, Charlie Mackesy, Cara Speller, Hannah Minghella.
The EE BAFTA Film Awards will take place on Sunday 18 February on BBC One and iPlayer.
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