Father and Daughter

In my view, this piece is the equal to The Man Who Planted Trees (which is high praise indeed) and it should be in print and widely available. Sadly, all too many short animated pieces are not in print (or even seen, these days) and this reality will not be altered any time soon, I'm afraid. End of sermon.

Father and Daughter is simply breathtaking. The whole package-music, backgrounds, animation, story-everything is excellent, with nary a misstep. Basic themes repeat throughout and the attention to detail is extraordinary! Particularly watch toward the end, the shadows and the interaction of movement. That this won the Academy Award and deserved to is an understatement. There were three exceptional nominees, all of which is a testament to the committee overseeing the shorts nomination process. So far as I'm aware, only one (Rejected) is in print. I saw Father and Daughter on The Sundance Channel, as part of Shorts Program 103. Most highly recommended.

In 2000, Father and Daughter won the Academy Award for Best Short Film for its Dutch director Michael Dudok de Wit. For such a short (eight minutes) movie it has a remarkable capacity to move an audience. The story of a father who leaves his daughter and rows off into the ocean, it commences with two figures riding their bicycles, the smaller of the wheels in perfect symmetry with the larger. The father and daughter climb to the top of a hill at which point the father alights, hugs his daughter before climbing down to the seashore. He cannot resist running back and holding the girl one last time before rowing off towards the distant horizon. The girl runs up and down against the skyline as the sun gradually sets. There is no explanation. She returns again and again to her vantage point on the cliff to peer out to sea for his return. Each return marks a passage in her life from child to adolescent, mother and eventually old woman. And still she returns to search for the father who left her.

The landscape of the Netherlands with its wide skies and tall poplar trees is the backdrop to the movie. The sky and landscape is a delicate colour wash of brown, grey, sepia, sometimes hints of green or blue. The drawing is pencil and charcoal, the drawings scanned and colour added digitally. Remarkably in a film that deals in emotion, there is no facial detail whatsoever. Often the figures are drawn in silhouette. This can be remarkably effective in conveying mood: the old woman toiling up the hill, the flapping arms of the child, the teenager gliding down the slope on her bike, which in another later scene will simply not stand upright. Always the brushwork is spare, perhaps a stroke that transforms into a slender girl or a smudge for the squared old woman. Each shot is exquisite: the long shadows of trees or bicycle; seascape and sky, vast and empty. The seasons change with a rustle of leaves or the girl struggling up the hill against a wind that bends trees. The music by Norman Roger is sympathetic to the theme, essentially a lilting tune but arranged with tone and depth.

This astonishingly accomplished and poetic movie fulfils in every sense. Michael Dudok de Wit was born in 1953 and educated in Holland. In 1978, he graduated from the West Surrey College of Art in England. His films include Tom Sweep (1992), The Monk and the Fish (1994) and The Aroma of Tea (2006). You might also have seen the rather classy commercial for United Airlines, A Life. Given his draftsman-like qualities, Michael is much in demand as an illustrator for books. My Christmas present from my family, and well recommended, was Best of British Animation Awards Vol.4 that includes Michael's Oscar winning short.

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The film is a story about a father and his daughter, mainly about the daughter. When she is a child, I don't know why, she is left by her father. And leaving her, he goes far by rowboat. Later, she always comes to the river where he left and looks for him, but she can't find him. Finally, she becomes an old woman, and then...

I like this film for two reasons. The first reason is its background music. It is like a waltz. I like a waltz, so I like the music too. In addition to this, the music of each part of this film matches the mood of and represents her emotions.

The second reason is its imagery. The image is mostly a shadow picture. It makes me a little sad, but it is very artistic.

I am not surprised that this film won the 2000 Academy Award for Animated Short Film. Its music and imagery are perfectly sophisticated. It's beautiful and artistic. And its story, the father and his daughter's love for each other, is very moving. I like this film so much that I watched it many times. I'd like you to watch this film with someone who you love.

This is the story about a father and his daughter. First, the father went to somewhere by bicycle and boat. His daughter saw him off by the sea.

The daughter waited for a long time, because her father did not come back. A long time passed after he went. She waited and met for him on the rainy day and wind day, with her bicycle. She grew up. She made many friends. They spent their days the usual way. However, she did not go through. She stopped at the place she said good bye to her father. She had never forgotten.

This story makes me so sad. I want her to meet her father when he lived. However I like this movie, because I can see the love of the father and daughter. It is so beautiful.

I recommend this story. If you see this, you can see the love of father and daughter. You will feel so good.

I was lucky enough to see this at an animation masterclass in Glasgow in 2001. Thankfully the lights were dimmed when they showed this so we could all cry in the dark.

A masterpiece that does not waste a single frame. Stylish and straight to the emotional nerve.

The feeling of longing in this short is almost suffocating. Longing is such a strong emotion that is not expressed often enough in cinema. If anyone in film can get half as close to true longing as "Father and Daughter" they will touch the audience for life.

People MUST see this. Someone out there - What about a compilation video of "10 Years of Animated Shorts Oscar Winners" Please?