Sister

A short animation inspired by the demographyc policy of China. Beautiful crafted, inspired defined by the two parts, touching message and a story very powerful for siblings, parents. A boy and his sister. And the cold truth about adventures - only imaginated, disputes and secrets. Short, just gentle and precise portrait of a sad reality.

This short is so beautifully shot with great use of colors. The story is even better and it is very touching. It made me think about it's message and honestly I'm rooting for this to get Oscar.

A man talks about his relationship with his sister when they were young.

I think this one was nominated because of its political content, because it's animation technique makes the two characters look like they are made out of cheap, white felt. Just as I often think less of a cartoon because it could have been done as a live-action short - as this could have been - sometimes a cartoon looks wrong because of innovations that cause me to wonder "why do it that way?"

While a couple of the shorts nominated for best animation make effective use of novel techniques, this one seems to use its "animated felt" for no clear purpose.

The storyline says "A man thinks back to his childhood memories of growing up with an annoying little sister in China in the 1990s."

The Chinese title is little or younger sister. In Chinese, siblings have different terms based on relative age. I can't add much to that, except that I found it touching, and consider it the best of the Oscar-nominated shorts that I saw as a package.