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In Korea, the age of 19 marks the brink of adolescence – and in the same way, the Seoul Indie-Anifest seemed to be at a crossroads. Its programming this year looked both to the past and to the future. The special guest selection juxtaposed classic American animator Bill Plympton with a much younger contemporary, Jérémy Clapin; the film programming spilled over into more segments and now, web animation; and, in due turn, the festival turnout seemed greater in number than ever before.

Within the Korean selections of Independent Walk and First Flight, then, it is almost fitting to see the tension between past and future present in the awards. “Echo” (Kim Sangjoon), which follows a cannibalism case in the 1990s, took home the coveted “Star of Indie” Grand Prize this year. On the other hand, the speculative future of “How to get your man pregnant” (Noh Gyeong-mu) scooped the Prize for Independent Walk,...

Indie animation studio Baobab Studios has brought in Oscar-nominated producer Osnat Shurer (Moana) to serve as Co-Chief Creative Officer alongside Cco Eric Darnell (Madagascar).

Boasting 30+ years of experience in animation, Shurer comes to the company from Walt Disney Feature Animation, where she served as VP of Development, having simultaneously held a role as the executive producer of the short films group at Pixar. Going forward, she’ll be part of a creative brain trust which includes Darnell and Kane Lee (Chief Content Officer), and such advisors and investors as Ed Catmull and Oscar-winning filmmaker Glen Keane, among others.

Among the first projects Shurer will work on at Baobab are the Momoguro multiplatform franchise, which includes a digital collectibles game, an upcoming Roblox game, and a TV series in development, and two falling under a TV development deal with Disney+.

This weekend marks the inaugural Children’s and Family Emmy Awards, and like many awards shows, there are a number of notable names who you might not have realized could end up being winners. These names range from a former president and Oscar-winning filmmakers to famous actors and popular singers.

Probably the most notable of these nominees are former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. Barack just won his first Emmy back in September for Best Narration for Netflix’s “Our Great National Parks.” Now he and Michelle are nominated for four Emmys at the upcoming ceremony, all in their capacities as executive producers. They are nominated for Best Preschool Series (“Waffles + Mochi”), Fiction Special (“Waffles + Mochi’s Holiday Feast”), Preschool Animated Series and Short Form Program (“We the People”).

SEEChildren’s and Family Emmy nominations list: ‘Heartstopper’ among top nominees including Kit Connor, Joe Locke

Several other...

Exclusive: Pixar co-founder and longtime Disney Animation President Ed Catmull has joined the Board of Directors and Creative Advisory Board at Baobab Studios.

Honored with five Academy Awards as well as the A.M. Turing Award (referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Computing”) for his contributions to 3D graphics and CGI filmmaking, Catmull brings over 50 years of experience to Baobab’s board. He served as President of both Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar, from Pixar’s acquisition by Disney in 2006 through his retirement in 2019, and oversaw numerous groundbreaking films from both studios, including Disney’s Big Hero 6, Frozen and Zootopia, and Pixar’s Finding Nemo, Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4, to name a few. As a member of the independent animation studio’s boards, Catmull will guide creative and operations, as the studio accelerates its award-winning storytelling across both emerging and traditional mediums.

“I’m honored...

Exclusive: John Cho rounds out the Season 2 ensemble cast of Apple TV+’s hit murder mystery comedy series The Afterparty, from Oscar winners Chris Miller and Phil Lord.

Cho, who has been tapped as a series regular, joins fellow new cast members Elizabeth Perkins, Zach Woods, Paul Walter Hauser, Poppy Liu, Anna Konkle, Jack Whitehall, Ken Jeong and Vivian Wu, as well as returning stars Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson and Zoë Chao.

Cho will star as Ulysses.

Created by Miller, The Afterparty is a genre-defying comedy series in which each episode explores a different character’s account of one fateful evening, all told through the lens of popular film genres and unique visuals to match the storyteller’s perspective.

Season 2 will revolve around a murder at a wedding. Richardson, joined by Chao, reprising their respective roles as Aniq and Zoe, will take on lead duties solving the crime, with Haddish back as Detective Danner.

Netflix owned the Annie Awards on Saturday, picking up 20 of the night’s 31 competitive trophies during the virtual show. The streamer’s “The Mitchells vs. the Machines” was named best animated feature, topping the film categories with eight wins while “Arcane” ruled the TV side with nine, including best TV/media – general audience.

Neon’s animated documentary “Flee,” by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, was named best indie feature.

In addition to the top film award, “Mitchells,” from Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix, won awards for writing, FX, character design, production design, voice acting and editorial. The victory could give it an edge at the Academy Awards, with final Oscar voting set to start Thursday.

“This team never settled for anything that wasn’t original, bold or new and they broke the rules,” said Christopher Miller, who produced the film along with his Lord Miller partner Phil Lord and Sony Pictures Animation’s Kurt Albrecht.

The View Conference in association with Baobab Studios and Ogr is presenting free virtual panels with the creatives behind some of the season’s most critically acclaimed animated films.

First up is a free virtual screening and conversation with the filmmakers behind “Namoo,” the shortlisted animated short by Oscar-nominated Erick Oh. In addition to Oh, speakers will include Baobab Studios’ co-founders Maureen Fan and Eric Darnell, who produced “Namoo,” art director Eusong Lee and lead Quill artist Nick Ladd. Oscar-winning director Peter Ramsey will moderate.

The panel will take place Friday, Feb. 11, at 10 a.m. Pt.

“Namoo,” which means tree in Korean, follows one man’s journey from birth to death, touching on beautiful and heartbreaking moments throughout his life. The film, which was created in VR and 2D, was produced by Baobab Studios and executive produced by John Cho, and produced by Baobab’s Fan, Darnell, Larry Cutler and Kane Lee.

Erick Oh first got the idea for his Oscar shortlisted film “Namoo” about a decade ago when his grandfather died. “During the grieving process I made myself a little picture book drawings of a man who hangs his own objects and belongings on to a tree,” he tells Gold Derby during our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video interview above). Oh kept these drawings to himself until about two years ago when he had an inner calling. “Maybe it’s time for me to take it out and comprehend further and deeper and then share it with the world.”

“Namoo,” which is Korean for the word “tree,” centers on an artist and views his life from birth until death. As he ages, a tree next to him ages at the same pace and is also where the artist keeps all his belongings. The film was recently shortlisted for this year...

It took around a decade for all the stars to align for Erick Oh to make an animated short in tribute to his late grandfather. He needed both time to think of exactly what he wanted to say in just ten minutes, and the right medium in which to present it.

He knew the time had come after Oh discovered a program called Quill that enables artists to easily draw, paint and animate environments for a virtual reality headset. He also knew he was ready to tackle this project after the birth of his niece.

“In the decade-plus since my grandfather died, I’ve had to say goodbye to others in my family. But as I held my sister’s newborn in my arms I realized that this is all equally connected,” Oh told TheWrap. “The ending is connected to a new beginning.”

Oh’s desire to explore new boundaries...

Last year, filmmaker Erick Oh was nominated for an Oscar for his expansive and thought-provoking animated short “Opera,” which contemplated the contemporary world by exploring a huge pyramid where hundreds of little figures were born, lived, loved, went to war and died in a continuous loop.

He’s back in Oscar’s sights this year with a film that again looks at the cycle of life, but this time with an intensely personal, yet still universal, lens. “Namoo,” which was created in both 2D and VR with Baobab Studios, follows a man from birth to death. The short is on the Academy’s shortlist for consideration in best animated short film.

“’Namoo,’ which means tree in Korean, was inspired by the loss of my grandfather a long time ago,” Oh explains. “At the time, it was a sudden goodbye and we weren’t prepared for it, so during my grieving...

WarnerMedia OneFifty has acquired the short films, “Namoo” and “When the Sun Sets,” to be released on HBO Max.

Both films are shortlisted to be nominated for the 2022 Academy Awards, with “Namoo” as a contender in the animated short film category and “When the Sun Sets” in the live-action short film category. The nominations will be formally announced on Feb. 8.

“WarnerMedia’s ‘artist studio where innovation happens,’ OneFifty has built a track record of identifying incredible artists whose vision we believe in, and acquiring their extraordinary, groundbreaking content. We are excited to continue working with these filmmakers for many years to come,” Axel Caballero, Vice President of Arts & Cultural Innovations and Head of WarnerMedia OneFifty, said in a statement announcing the acquisitions.

Leslie Cohen, senior vice president of film acquisitions for HBO/HBO Max, finalized the deals for both titles. Amanda Trokan, HBO Max director of content acquisitions, worked on...

If there’s one category that can be the most difficult to predict at the Oscars, it’s probably a three-way tie with all of the short film categories. It can be especially hard to do for the nominations. But do not fear dear Derbyites for we are here to help! With the shortlist for these categories having been unveiled, we are giving you the best chance at making the correct choices in our predictions center. To help with that, we’re giving you all the details on the 15 finalists for Best Animated Short Film.

“Affairs of the Art” – An offbeat family demonstrates their weird but somewhat charming obsessions.

“Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman’s Apprentice” – For her first test, a young shaman must venture underground to meet Kannaaluk, who has the answer as to why a member of the community has become very sick.

“Bad Seeds” – A world of carniverous plants...

Korean director Erick Oh follows up his Oscar-nominated “Opera” animated short with the more personal and intimate “Namoo” (Korean for tree), which captures the beautiful and heartbreaking moments of a painter’s life, constructed around a symbolic tree. Produced by Baobab Studios, the festival favorite was made simultaneously as a virtual reality experience as well as a 2D/theatrical short using the innovative VR animation tool Quill (formerly owned by Oculus).

Oh was inspired to make “Namoo” while grieving the loss of his grandfather, using his personal life as the centerpiece. “I went on a journey to ask questions,” Oh said. “I asked questions. Of course, I document my thoughts and provide a room for the audience to probe it and think about themselves too. That being said, I think I discovered a lot about who I am while making this film.”

The “Namoo” narrative explores the passage of time...

Inspired by the loss of his grandfather, writer-director Erick Oh takes a deeply personal story into the virtual reality space for Namoo. Coming off of an Oscar nomination for his last animated short Opera, Oh returns with an equally complex short filled with many discoveries.

Namoo, which is Korean for “tree,” is a narrative poem, held close to Oh’s heart for 10 years, told in an animated virtual reality space. The animated short follows the journey of a man’s life, from beginning to end, next to a tree that collects all of his memories. As he goes through the highs and lows of life, from love to loss, his tree changes and reflects how a person buries their hurt memories.

In his first foray into virtual reality storytelling, Oh decided to use Quill, Oculus’s VR animation tool, to tell this personal story. Although personal, the universal experience of life shines through in Namoo.

Exclusive: John Cho will receive the Legacy Award, presented by Lexus, at the 19th annual Unforgettable Gala at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on Saturday, Dec. 11.

The Cowboy Bebop and Searching star will receive the top honor at the annual gathering that seeks to celebrate Asian and Pacific Islander artists and change-makers who represent the community through their creativity and excellence. Additional honorees for the upcoming ceremony are Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu, 88rising Collective founder Sean Miyashiro and Shohei Ohtani. Additional creatives receiving honors will be Sandra Oh, Justin Chon, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Adele Lim and Destin Daniel Cretton.

“Asian Americans have made tremendous strides in the arts, entertainment and culture, with more representation than ever before, which the Unforgettable Awards is proud to celebrate,” said James Ryu, publisher at Character Media and founder of the Unforgettable Gala. “At the same time, given...

Blush

Apple/Skydance Animation

A horticulturist/astronaut crash-lands on a desolate dwarf planet. When another visitor arrives, he soon sees more to life.

Far From The Tree

Disney

A young raccoon lets curiosity get the best of him when his parents try everything to keep him safe on a beach in the Pacific Northwest.

Footsteps On The Wind

Freak

Famed rocker Sting supplied filmmaker Maya Sanbar with his refugee-inspired song “Inshallah” in this tale of two siblings who go on a mysterious journey after losing both of their parents.

Namoo

Baobab Studios

Written and directed by Erick Oh (the director of the 2020 Academy Award-nominated Opera),...

Blush

Apple/Skydance Animation

A horticulturist/astronaut crash-lands on a desolate dwarf planet. When another visitor arrives, he soon sees more to life.

Far From The Tree

Disney

A young raccoon lets curiosity get the best of him when his parents try everything to keep him safe on a beach in the Pacific Northwest.

Footsteps On The Wind

Freak

Famed rocker Sting supplied filmmaker Maya Sanbar with his refugee-inspired song “Inshallah” in this tale of two siblings who go on a mysterious journey after losing both of their parents.

Namoo

Baobab Studios

Written and directed by Erick Oh (the director of the 2020 Academy Award-nominated Opera),...

Exclusive: Award-winning actor John Cho (Searching, Star Trek) has signed on to Erick Oh’s animated short, Namoo, as an executive producer.

Pic is Oh’s follow-up to Opera, which landed him an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film earlier this year.

Namoo­—which translates in Korean to “tree”—is a hand-painted narrative poem inspired by the passing of Oh’s grandfather. The short follows the beautiful and heartbreaking moments of a man’s life, from beginning to end, and is billed as the writer-director’s most personal work to date. It’s being produced by nine-time Emmy winner Baobab Studios.

“Though Erick’s film is based on his grandfather, it resonated for me in a very personal way. A valentine as well as a testament to the artistic process, this film is a little miracle in that it was animated during the pandemic by artists across the world,...

Annecy’s short film competition is many things. It is a celebration of the best short, animated films from the previous year, a barometer of bigger things to come from filmmakers on the rise, a place of recognition for established filmmakers still going strong decades into their careers, and a home to experimentation impossible to find almost anywhere else.

Each year, Variety watches each of the shorts in Annecy’s main competition selection and picks ten of our favorites. We’re not saying these are the best 10 shorts this year, we’ll leave that to the judges, but we believe each brings something that shouldn’t be missed.

“Affairs of the Art”

24 years after sweeping the Special Jury, Ufoleis and Mellow Manor awards at Annecy 1987, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Joanna Quinn is back with her iconic creation Beryl, in a new story of aging, body image, sisterly love and fond memories. One...

The Best Animated Short category at this year’s Oscars is looking like it’s going to be an easy one to predict. According to our racetrack odds, the Netflix short, “If Anything Happens I Love You,” is way out front to capture the prize. These odds are derived from the predictions made by our Expert film journalists, Gold Derby Editors, Top 24 Users and the numerous Gold Derby users making their own predictions.

But is the short film really that safe? Let’s dive into this category with a closer look at all five nominees in order by their current Gold Derby odds.

“If Anything Happens I Love You” (odds of winning: 31/10)

A husband and wife are forced to navigate their grief after experiencing the tragic and unexpected loss of their daughter.

This is the first Oscar nomination for both Will McCormack and Michael Govier.

Pros: The short may not...

One viewing is simply not enough for the ambitious animated short Opera, an Oscar nominee. Designed as both an art installation and for cinema, Opera unfolds as one continuous take, with the camera moving up and down a pyramid in which interconnected vignettes populated with a range of humanoid characters engage in multiple scenarios simultaneously. What viewers take in depends on where they direct their attention, with scenes that can run from the mundane (workers in a meeting) to the surreal (characters tossing severed heads into a furnace). Overtly allegorical, the work allows Korean American helmer Erick Oh to comment on the ills ...

One viewing is simply not enough for the ambitious animated short Opera, an Oscar nominee. Designed as both an art installation and for cinema, Opera unfolds as one continuous take, with the camera moving up and down a pyramid in which interconnected vignettes populated with a range of humanoid characters engage in multiple scenarios simultaneously. What viewers take in depends on where they direct their attention, with scenes that can run from the mundane (workers in a meeting) to the surreal (characters tossing severed heads into a furnace). Overtly allegorical, the work allows Korean American helmer Erick Oh to comment on the ills ...

As the longer-than-usual Oscars race stretches into a marathon, there’s more time than ever to delve into some of the more obscure categories. Though certainly frowned upon, voters may not always have made time to view every nominated short film in previous years, which makes predicting these categories something of a wild goose chase. With the added time this year, Academy voters have little excuse not to do their due diligence. They will find a rich array of socially-conscious short form narratives, from the traditional to the experimental.

The five animated short film nominees vary widely in tone, visual style, and storytelling approach. Pixar and Netflix, which dominate the Best Animated Feature category with two films apiece, both landed a single nominee among the shorts. The other three, two from outside the U.S., blur narrative conventions to offer poetic moments of social critique. Their perspectives range from playful to fatalistic,...

For his Oscar-nominated animated short film, Opera, director Erick Oh wanted to create an animation that captured the essence of human history. The looping cycle style of animation was ideal for the story he wanted to tell, which Oh attributes to the cyclical nature of history.

Comprised of many small scenes interacting and playing out beside each other in a large pyramid structure, Opera is a large-scale reflection on the cyclical nature of humanity. In this nine-minute animation, the film plays out the history of a civilization, from beginning to gruesome end, only to repeat itself again and again.

Duality was a big factor in Oh’s decision-making process for the short film, which was shown conceptually with the two opposing sides of the pyramid. The left side, with warm, reddish colors stood opposed to the cool, bluish palette of the right side. “Left and right really stand for whatever is opposite to one another,...

Erick Oh’s “Opera” is an outlier in the race for Best Animated Short. Inspired by Bosch, Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Renaissance fresco mural paintings, it consists of a giant pyramid with cyclical activities revolving around human conflict. “There are a lot of things happening,” he said, “but it’s about polarization: division, discrimination, and conflict caused by… religion, politics, racism, ideologies and contests.”

Oh, who was an animator at Pixar before joining the anime-influenced Tonko House (“Pig: The Dam Keeper Poems”), made “Opera” as an 8K installation before adapting it into a nine-minute 2D short as one continuous motion. It took four years to complete with a team of 34 volunteer animators, and nearly a year was devoted to the intricate design and world building. “It was almost like making an old-fashioned clock,” he said, “planning every action with different story lines that represent humanity [based on cause and effect].”

It’s almost entirely drawn in 2D except for CG-enhanced water,...

Those who typically scope the Academy Award-nominated shorts programs hoping to win the Oscar pool will have a particularly tough time of it with this year’s animated roster, as the options are wide-ranging but lack a clear front-runner. A few of the talents have ties to Pixar, though only one short was actually developed at a studio, while the other four are far more personal, independent expressions with little in common, least of all technique. Compared with past editions, this is a relatively weak year, though it’s always a treat to survey the range of offerings, released in theaters and on demand by ShortsTV.

Madeline Sharafian’s adorable but basic bunny toon “Burrow” was developed within Disney/Pixar’s SparkShorts program, a creative sandbox for up-and-coming voices, which also produced previous nominee “Kitbull.” Choosing hand-drawn techniques over the studio’s traditional hyper-polished 3D rendering, the film boasts an old-fashioned,...

Every year, ShortsTV brings the best in short film to the big screen, with a presentation of Oscar nominated shorts in the Animated, Live-Action and Documentary arenas. While movie theaters only recently reopened in Los Angeles and Orange County—with Covid cases, hospitalizations and fatalities on the descent—the distributor has already set theatrical and virtual premiere dates in both counties, for the Oscar Nominated Shorts of 2021.

ShortsTV’s live-action and animated short film programs will be released theatrically and virtually on Friday, April 2. Its documentary program, meanwhile, will become available virtually on April 2, with a theatrical opening scheduled for April 9.

Nominees in the category of Best Live-Action Short Film that will screen for LA audiences include Feeling Through (directed by Doug Roland), Oscar Isaac-starrer The Letter Room (Elvira Lind), The Present (Farah Nabulsi), Two Distant Strangers (Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe) and White Eye (Tomer Sushan).

Doc...

The 28th SXSW Film Festival revealed the Audience Award winners Tuesday, with Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free, The Fallout and Not Going Quietly among the list of honorees. The news comes after the online edition of the fest announced its jury awards.

The Mary Wharton-directed docu Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free chronicles the iconic musician’s work on his lauded 1994 record Wildflowers via newly discovered archived footage. The film won the Audience Award in the Headliners category, while The Fallout, Megan Park’s reflection on teen grief and trauma after a mass shooting — something all too familiar right now — won under the narrative feature competition banner. On the documentary competition banner, Nicholas Bruckman’s moving feature docu Not Going Quietly took the Audience Award.

Over the course of five days of SXSW Online, the SXSW Film Festival screened 75 features including 57 world premieres, three international premieres, four North American Premieres,...

The documentary “Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free” and Megan Park’s “The Fallout” won the audience awards from the 2021 SXSW Film Festival, it was announced Tuesday.

Mary Wharton’s “Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free,” which tells the backstory behind the late rock star’s “Wildflowers” recording sessions, won among the three headlining films playing the festival. “The Fallout,” a teen drama starring Jenna Ortega and Maddie Ziegler, won the audience prize for narrative features after it also won the category’s jury prize.

“Not Going Quietly,” a documentary by Nicholas Bruckman about progressive political activist Ady Barkan and his fight with Als, won the audience award for films in the documentary feature competition. Director Natalie Morales also won the Narrative Spotlight audience award for her film “Language Lessons,” and Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler won the Documentary Spotlight Audience Award for “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America.

The Oscar race for animated short reflects the zeitgeist and the ascendance of streaming. And all five nominees explore the turmoil of a divided country and world, where the need for unity is the best salvation for attaining happiness and closure.

The favorite is Netflix’s first animated short, “If Anything Happens I Love You,” about a grieving mother and father visited by shadows of themselves and their deceased young daughter (who was the victim of a school shooting). The monochromatic, hand-drawn short, directed by Will McCormack (who wrote the original “Toy Story 4” script with Rashida Jones) and Michael Govier (“Conan”), boasts an illustrated style that represents haunting memories, bolstered by an all-female animation team supervised by CalArts graduate Youngran Nho. Laura Dern executive produced the short and Maryann Garger (“The Lego Ninjago Movie”) produced with Gary Gilbert (“La La Land”), Gerald Chamales (“The Irishman”), and Govier.

This season,...

Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Adarsh Gourav's co-star in The White Tiger and her husband, actor-singer Nick Jonas, today announced the Oscar nominations of Writer-director Ramin Bahrani's The White Tiger. Ramin Bahrani's film has been nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category at the upcoming 93rd Academy Awards.

Mank, with 10 nominations, has garnered the highest number of nominations this year. The black and white biopic, based on the life of 'Citizen Kane' co-screenplay writer Herman J Mankiewicz, garnered nominations in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director (for David Fincher), Best Actor (Gary Oldman) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Amanda Seyfried).

Other notable films that won multiple nominations include "The Trial Of The Chicago 7" (six nominations), "Judas And The Black Messiah" (six), "The Father" (six) and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (five).

The late Chadwick Boseman is a contender in the Best Actor category for "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom...

David Fincher’s monochromatic “Mank” dominated the Oscar crafts on Monday for Netflix, grabbing six nominations for Erik Messerschmidt’s cinematography, costume design, makeup and hair, production design, score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and sound. Paul Greengrass’ post-Civil War western, “News of the World,” followed with four nominations.

Netflix also did well by collecting three nominations apiece from Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”, in addition to solo nominations from George Clooney’s sci-fi “The Midnight Sky” (visual effects), Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” (Terence Blanchard’s score), and “The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se),” as Diane Warren secured her 12th original song nomination for “Io Si (Seen).”

Significantly, Chloé Zhao’s Best Picture frontrunner, “Nomadland,” the recessionary road odyssey, scored two nominations for Joshua James Richards’ cinematography and her editing, which puts Zhao in a select...

Director Erick Oh spent six years working as an animator at Pixar, working on titles such as “Finding Dory and “Inside Out” before joining Tonko House.

His nine-minute long animated shortlist contender “Opera” is inspired by the great Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo and Botticelli. Oh was also inspired by society and humanity; Trump was president and in Korea, President Park Geun-hye had just been impeached.

The animation, which can be played on a continuous loop, looks at a society that exists within a pyramid-esque structure and how each interaction and action of individuals impact the society within which they live.

Oh looks at racism, terrorism and religion as well as war and education within this pyramid, following a day to night pattern.

The idea of the loop was to reflect the vicious cycle of history.

Over four years, Oh and his team of 34 animators worked on creating the sequence which comprises 24 different sections.

When Erick Oh first started outlining what would become the animated short film, “Opera,” he didn’t envision it as a film, but more of an installation piece. “Think of it as it’s playing on a gigantic wall and you are there to watch it a couple of times to observe all the details. That’s how it was designed,” he tells us in our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video above). When he started taking inspiration from fresco mural paintings is when it became clearer that this could work as a short film. “Then I thought of fresco mural paintings like Michelangelo’s “Genesis” in the Sistine Chapel, because usually those murals capture some historical moment in human history. It’s a contemporary version of fresco murals.”

The short, which has just made the shortlist for the Best Animated Short Oscar, focuses on a society that all exists within a pyramid-type structure.

The film “Taipei Suicide Story,” a drama about a “suicide hotel” in Taiwan, has won the top prize from the 2021 Slamdance Film Festival.

The film, written and directed by Keff, won the Narrative Grand Jury Prize Award as well as the Audience Award and the Acting Prize for the film’s star Tender Huang.

“Taipei Suicide Story” follows a receptionist at a suicide hotel who forms a fleeting friendship with a woman who can’t decide if she wants to live or die. The film was also a selection of Cannes 2020.

The Slamdance jurors described “Taipei Suicide Story” as a film that “is concise and emotionally effective as it portrays isolation with humanity and complex pathos.” The jury was composed of Carlos Aguilar, Kier-La Janisse and Jennifer Reeder, and the jury also gave an honorable mention to the film “A Family” directed by Jayden Stevens.

This year’s Slamdance was...

The Slamdance Film Festival unveiled winners for its 27th edition Thursday, with the compact drama Taipei Suicide Story directed by Keff taking both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for narrative features and the best actor prize during a virtual awards ceremony.

The drama is about a receptionist at a suicide hotel in Taipei who forms a friendship over the course of one night with a guest who can’t decide if she wants to live or die. The pic, which also was in the official Cinéfondation selection of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, runs 45 minutes.

Tender Huang, who plays the hotel receptionist, was named best actor during the ceremony wrapping this year’s edition, which ran as a virtual edition February 12-25.

“A film that is concise and emotionally effective as it portrays isolation with humanity and complex pathos,” the jury said in its comments about the pic today.

Variety's Awards Circuit is home to the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars from Film Awards Editor Clayton Davis. Following Academy Awards history, buzz, news, reviews and sources, the Oscar predictions are updated regularly with the current year's contenders in all categories. Variety's Awards Circuit Prediction schedule consists of four phases, running all year long: Draft, Pre-Season, Regular Season and Post Season. Eligibility calendar and dates of awards will determine how long each phase lasts and will be displayed next to revision date.

To see all the latest predictions, of all the categories, in one place, visit The Collective

Draft>>>Pre Season>>>Regular Season>>>Post Season

2021 Oscars Predictions:

Best Animated Short Film

Updated: Feb. 25, 2021

Awards Prediction Commentary: The Academy announced the shortlist for the animated short contenders, and they produced an interesting crop of selections. Netflix is placing all their power and influence behind the emotional “If Anything Happens I Love You.

The 10 shortlisted films in the Oscars Best Animated Short category include four from major U.S. studios and a number of international entries.

The category also contains a couple of straightforward commercial shorts designed to amuse and charm, and a few experimental ones that at times border on the surreal.

These 10 will be narrowed down to five with the nomination voting from March 5-10. This is the second in TheWrap’s guide to the shortlisted films in all three shorts categories. Read the guide to the shortlisted short documentaries here.

“Burrow” (Pixar)

“Burrow”

Director: Madeline Sharafian

The first of two Pixar films on the shortlist is a guided tour of all the things that live underground, courtesy of a rabbit who is looking for his own home. To the strains of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” the bewildered and intimidated bunny encounters bugs, badgers and a whole menagerie of burrowing...

One of the most understated pieces at Sundance’s New Frontier this year was Namoo, an animated short by Baobab Studios and director Erick Oh. Baobab has been pushing the boundaries of top-tier animated virtual reality since its founding in 2015, with its short immersive films growing in depth, length, and complexity and leading to a slew of awards and spun-off properties including feature films and series. Erick Oh is an award-winning director and animator from South Korea and based in California who’s worked at Pixar and with Tonko House and whose work has shown at Annecy, Anima Mundi, and other festivals. […]

The post The Filmic Equivalent of a Haiku: Erick Oh on his Sundance VR Film Namoo first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

One of the most understated pieces at Sundance’s New Frontier this year was Namoo, an animated short by Baobab Studios and director Erick Oh. Baobab has been pushing the boundaries of top-tier animated virtual reality since its founding in 2015, with its short immersive films growing in depth, length, and complexity and leading to a slew of awards and spun-off properties including feature films and series. Erick Oh is an award-winning director and animator from South Korea and based in California who’s worked at Pixar and with Tonko House and whose work has shown at Annecy, Anima Mundi, and other festivals. […]

The post The Filmic Equivalent of a Haiku: Erick Oh on his Sundance VR Film Namoo first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The creators behind Baobab Studios will talk about building their award-winning VR animation house as it celebrates its five year anniversary during a PreVIEW virtual talk on Saturday, Jan. 30, beginning at 10 a.m. Pt, presented by the View Conference.

Baobab is behind the innovative animated VR shorts ““Asteroids,” “Invasion,” “Crow the Legend,” “Bonfire,” “Jack: Part One” and its current VR experience “Baba Yaga,” which features the voices of Kate Winslet, Jennifer Hudson, Glenn Close and Daisy Ridley.

On hand to share stories behind Baobab’s journey will be CEO Maureen Fan, chief creative officer Eric Darnell, chief technology officer Larry Cutler and head of content Kane Lee will look back on an eventful half-decade, which has included creating the shorts “Asteroids,” “Invasion,” “Crow the Legend” and “Bonfire.” The Baobab team will also discuss its current VR experience “Baba Yaga,” which explores the Eastern European legend through a tale of climate change.

Baobab Studios has released the trailer for its new virtual reality experience film “Namoo” ahead of its Sundance premiere.

“Namoo,” which means “tree” in Korean, will be premiering as part of Sundance’s New Frontiers. The feature is written and directed by Erick Oh, who previously worked on “Heart” and “How to Eat Your Apple.”

The film is brought to life through virtual reality and celebrates a grandfather’s passing. It follows the journey of a budding artist — and his tree of life — from start to end.

Speaking exclusively with Variety ahead of the premiere, Oh said, “This story is deeply inspired by the loss of my grandfather a long time ago. It took me a while to finally put this together in an art piece because I wasn’t ready to share this idea with the world yet. He passed away almost 10 years ago, and it was a sudden goodbye.

Exclusive: Baobab Studios has announced a new virtual reality experience film directed and written by Heart and How to Eat Your Apple director Erick Oh. Namoo, which means “tree” in Korean, is a virtual reality narrative that features hand-painted props, characters and environments and will come to Oculus platforms in 2021.

“Erick Oh is an exciting, emerging director in animation, and from the moment he first shared his vision of ‘Namoo’ with us, we knew we wanted to work with him. His wondrous artistic sensibilities are a natural fit for what we do at Baobab in that he crafts deeply personal films which connect with viewers both emotionally and universally,” said Maureen Fan, co-founder and CEO of Baobab Studios. “We are very proud of ‘Namoo’ and look forward to sharing it with audiences very soon.”

Created in Facebook’s VR animation tool, Quill, Namoo is a narrative poem brought to life...

Five years ago, art directors Robert Kondo and Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi traded in stability at Pixar for the unknown as they launched Tonko House, a Berkeley-based multimedia production company. Since then, they’ve developed a range of projects and educational initiatives to support their mission of telling stories that inspire curiosity and increase social awareness.

Mere months before founding Tonko House, the filmmakers’ animated short “The Dam Keeper” was nominated for an Oscar. The film is about Pig, who is bullied by an entire town, and Fox, who offers him friendship. The company takes its name from combining Japanese terms for pig (ton) and fox (ko).

While the publicity from the short gave Tonko House a confident start, building a company is never simple. “We had a lot of rough times, as much as great times,” says Tsutsumi, a native of Japan. “We’re very fortunate that we’re able...

The 17th edition of the Florence Korea Film Fest is opening its doors to the public. The festival dedicate to the South-Korean cinematography will be held from March 21st to to the 28th at Cinema La Compagnia in Firenze, Italy.

As explained by the Festival organisers: “The aim of the Florence Korea Film Fest, is to promote the seductive Korean cultural universe through the magnifying glass of the big screen, art exhibitions and conferences”.

Unique in its kind throughout Italy, the Festival, offers premieres and contemporary classics, documentaries, short films, and extensive retrospectives of the leading directors of Korean cinema, often with the participation of the authors themselves.

The 17th edition of the Festival will present 45 titles, between shorts and feature films, most of them in Italian and European premieres.

Jung Woo Sung, one of most beloved performers in his country (and also in Japan) will be honored by a...

Berkeley-based animation studio Tonko House, founded by the creators of the 2015 Oscar-nominated short “The Dam Keeper,” has big plans for 2019, starting with a slate of four projects in development, including a feature-length version “The Dam Keeper.”

Until recently, “The Dam Keeper” feature had been in development at 20th Century Fox, but following Fox’s sale to Disney, the pic returned solely to Tonko House, which is actively seeking a new studio partner. The film is being directed by Tonko House founders Robert Kondo and Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi, and produced by Kane Lee. The feature will expand on the world of the short, which tells the tale of shunned, orphaned Pig, who cares for a windmill that keeps his village safe from a dangerous fog, and his popular friend, Fox.

“We were partnered with Fox and everyone there was truly amazing,” Kondo says. “But with all the big changes that are...

The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television will be honoring Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Eric Heisserer (Arrival), Annie Award-nominated animator Erick Oh (Finding Dory) and director Reed Morano (The Handmaid's Tale) will be honored at its 26th Annual Film Festival, This year, the festival takes place June 10-14 at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and at the Directors Guild of America. A multi-hypenate (screenwriter, producer, director and…...

You've got to watch this wonderfully intense and exciting animated short film called Heart, which was directed by Erick Oh. The film was supported by The Simpsons creator Matt Groening. It's described as being "an exploration of transcendence," and it comes along with the following note:

Heart presents questions through abstract metaphors and symbols, illustrated by the human heart.

There's not a dull moment in the short. It's exciting to watch, and there is a lot of emotion and soul packed into it. I really loved this film, and I hope you do too. Check it out...

Heart from Erick Oh on Vimeo.

Source: Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/52369262)...

Lorne Hiltser's Le Jeu des Soldats (Army Game) Finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 38th Annual Student Academy Awards competition in four categories, Alternative, Animation, Documentary and Narrative, have been announced. The finalists are (listed alphabetically by film title): Alternative Bitter, Vlad Korishev, the Art Institute of California – San Francisco The Dust Machine, Damon Mohl, University of Colorado, Boulder The Vermeers, Tal S. Shamir, The New School, New York Unreal City, Bryan Bykowicz, University of Michigan-Dearborn Animation The Birds Upstairs, Christopher Jarvis, New York University Correspondence, Zach Hyer, Pratt Institute, New York Defective Detective, Avner Geller and Stevie Lewis, Ringling College of Art and Design, Florida Dragonboy, Bernardo Warman, Academy of Art University, California The Girl and the Fox, Tyler Kupferer, Savannah College of Art and Design, Georgia Heart, Erick Oh, University of California, Los Angeles The Renter, Jason Carpenter, California Institute of the Arts Swing,...

Today’s official news from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is the announcement of the U.S. Finalists for 2011′s Student Academy Awards®. Here’s what the Academy had to say…

33 students from 22 U.S. colleges and universities have been selected as finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 38th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. Academy members will view the finalists’ films at special screenings and vote to select the winners. Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal awards, along with accompanying cash grants of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000, respectively, may be presented in each of four categories: Alternative, Animation, Documentary and Narrative. The winning filmmakers will be brought to Los Angeles for a week of industry-related activities and social events that will culminate in the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 11, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

The finalists are (listed alphabetically by film title):

Alternative

“Bitter,...