Academy-Award nominated shorts

Every year the general public is exposed to oh, about twelve seconds of real ground-breaking cinema on network television, when the Oscars flash their little montages of the Academy-nominated shorts and animated shorts. When that blips on my screen, I try not to blink and miss it, and for years wondered, why can't people living OUTside of Los Angeles and large markets, get a chance to see these little gems that somehow have the prestige to get nominated every year, but never get exposure.

That changed a handful of years ago, when somebody finally assembled these shorts into a pair of programs (one live, one animated) for exhibition at indie cinemas. And, for the past three years, they have come to my local arts plex, praise the gods of Kulcha. I also noticed in the fine-print at the tail-end, these programs are also available to some On-Demand platforms for cable systems.

Well, I just got home from screening the animated one this evening, and without hesitation, I recommend - no, COMMAND! - you check your cable channels, and see if you can see these! Not only does the animated one boast an extremely clever Wallace & Grommit opus, but also a touching Polish story about a man who is so absorbed in developing the film process at the end of the 19th Century that he misses the developments in his family life...and then, one of the most subversive action-style films I have ever seen (in that everything in the film is fashioned out of corporate logos), enough to make me wonder, how long will this be able to get screened, let alone how did it even get made!

Makes me proud to be an animation fan/student!