ShortsHD working with Magnolia Pictures will release The Oscar® Nominated Short Films 2012 in over 200 theatres across the United States and Canada on February 10th, 2012.
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012 Animation, Live Action and Documentary at the IFC Center, 323 Sixth Avenue, New York.
Los Angeles Release Date: February 10, 2012 Animation and Live Action at Landmark’s The Nuart Theatre, West LA and Regency Theatres’ South Coast Plaza, Santa Ana.
Los Angeles Release Date: February 17, 2012 Documentary Shorts at Laemmle’s Music Hall 3
Three theatrical programs will give audiences around the country an opportunity to watch the nominated shorts in the Animation, Live Action and Documentary categories prior to the 84th Academy Awards® ceremony on February 26th.
**Separate admission for each program**
AnimationTitle: DIMANCHE /SUNDAY [CANADA]
Los Angeles Release Date: February 10, 2012
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Animation
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 9 minutes
Language: English
Directors: Patrick Doyon
Producer: Marc Bertrand, Michael Fukushima
Synopsis: Every Sunday, it’s the same old routine! The train clatters through the village and almost shakes the pictures off the wall. In the church, Dad dreams about his toolbox. And of course later Grandma will get a visit and the animals will meet their fate.
Title: THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS OF MR. MORRIS LESSMORE [USA]
Los Angeles Release Date: February 10, 2012
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Animation
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 17 minutes
Language: No Dialogue
Directors: William Joyce & Brandon Oldenburg
Producer: Lampton Enochs Jr., Trish Farnsworth-Smith, Alissa M. Kantrow
Synopsis: Inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation) co-directors William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg present a hybrid style of animation that harkens back to silent films and MGM Technicolor musicals. Morris Lessmore is old fashioned and cutting edge at the same time.
Title: LA LUNA [USA]
Los Angeles Release Date: February 10, 2012
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Animation
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 7 minutes
Language: English
Director: Enrico Casarosa
Producer: Kevin Reher , John Lasseter (Executive Producer)
Synopsis:
“La Luna” is the timeless fable of a young boy who is coming of age in the most peculiar of circumstances. Tonight is the very first time his Papa and Grandpa are taking him to work. In an old wooden boat they row far out to sea, and with no land in sight, they stop and wait. A big surprise awaits the little boy as he discovers his family’s most unusual line of work. Should he follow the example of his Papa, or his Grandpa? Will he be able to find his own way in the midst of their conflicting opinions and timeworn traditions?
Title: A MORNING STROLL [UK]
Los Angeles Release Date: February 10, 2012
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Animation
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 7 minutes
Language: No Dialogue
Director: Grant Orchard
Producer: Sue Goffe
Synopsis:
When a New Yorker walks past a chicken on his morning stroll, we are left to wonder which one is the real city slicker.
Title: WILD LIFE [CANADA]
Los Angeles Release Date: February 10, 2012
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Animation
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 14 minutes
Language: English
Directors: Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby
Producers: Marcy Page, Bonnie Thompson
Synopsis:
Calgary, 1909. An Englishman moves to the Canadian frontier, but is singularly unsuited to it. His letters home are much sunnier than the reality. Intertitles compare his fate to that of a comet.
Live Action
Title: PENTECOST [IRELAND]
Los Angeles Release Date: February 10, 2012
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Drama
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 11 minutes
Language: English
Writer/Director: Peter McDonald
Producer: Eimear O’Kane
Cast: Andrew Bennett, Scott Graham and Eamonn Hunt
Synopsis:
When Damian is forced to serve as an altar boy at an important mass in his local parish he faces a difficult choice: conform to the status quo or serve an extended ban from his passion in life, football.
Title: RAJU [GERMANY/INDIA]
Los Angeles Release Date: February 10, 2012
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Drama
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 24 minutes
Language: English/German
Writer: Max Zähle, Florian Kuhn
Director: Max Zähle
Producer: Stefan Gieren
Cast: Wotan Wilke Möhring, Julia Richter, Krish Gupta
Synopsis:
A German couple adopts in Kolkata an Indian orphan. Their child suddenly disappears and they realize that they are part of the problem.
Title: THE SHORE [NORTHERN IRELAND]
Los Angeles Release Date: February 10, 2012
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 30 minutes
Language: English
Writer/Director: Terry George
Producer: Oorlagh George
Cast: Ciarán Hinds, Kerry Condon, Conleth Hill, Maggie Cronin
Synopsis: THE SHORE is the uplifting story of two boyhood best friends – Joe (Ciarán Hinds) and Paddy (Conleth Hill) divided for 25 years by the tumult of “The Troubles”. When Joe returns home to Northern Ireland, his daughter Patricia brings the two men together for a reunion, with unexpected results. What happened all those years ago? Can old wounds be healed? The answer is both hilarious and moving. THE SHORE is about one of the small personal reconciliations that coincide with a national reconciliation.
Title: TIME FREAK [USA]
Los Angeles Release Date: February 10, 2012
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Comedy
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 11 minutes
Language: English
Writer: Andrew Bowler
Director: Andrew Bowler
Producer: Gigi Causey
Cast: John Conor Brooke, Michael Nathanson, Emilea Wilson
Synopsis:
A neurotic inventor creates a time machine, only to get caught up traveling around yesterday.
Title: TUBA ATLANTIC [NORWAY]
Los Angeles Release Date: February 10, 2012
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Drama
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 25 minutes
Language: Norwegian
Writer: Linn-Jeanethe Kyed
Director: Hallvar Witzø
Producer: Gudrun Austli
Cast: Edvard Hægstad, Terje Ranes, Ingrid Viken
Synopsis:
When seventy-year-old Oskar is told that he has only six days left to live, he wants to put things right with his brother who lives in New Jersey. Inger, a public “death angel” is sent out to help Oscar through his remaining days. A huge horn stands at the edge of the sea, built by the brothers when they were kids. Will its sound cross the Atlantic?
Documentary
Title: THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM [JAPAN/USA]
Los Angeles Release Date: February 17, 2012
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 39 minutes
Language: Japanese (with English subtitles)
Director: Lucy Walker
Producers: Kira Karstensen, Charleen Manca
Synopsis:
Survivors in the areas hardest hit by Japan’s recent tsunami find the courage to revive and rebuild as cherry blossom season begins.
Title: INCIDENT IN NEW BAGHDAD [USA]
Los Angeles Release Date: February 17, 2012
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 25 minutes
Language: English
Writer: James Spione
Director: James Spione
Producers: James Spione, Mike Altmann
Synopsis:
One of the most notorious incidents of the Iraq War – the July 2007 slayings of two Reuters journalists and a number of other unarmed civilians by US attack helicopters – is recounted in the powerful testimony of an American infantryman whose life was profoundly changed by his experiences on the scene. US Army Specialist Ethan McCord bore witness to the devastating carnage, found and rescued two children caught in the crossfire, and soon turned against the war that he had enthusiastically joined only months before. Denied psychological treatment in Iraq for his PTSD, McCord returned home, struggling for years with anger, confusion, and guilt over the war. When WikiLeaks released the stunning cockpit video of the incident, McCord was finally spurred into action, and began traveling the country, speaking out for the rights of PTSD sufferers against the American wars in the Middle East.
Title: SAVING FACE [PAKISTAN/USA]
Los Angeles Release Date: February 17, 2012
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 40 minutes
Language: Urdu (with English subtitles)
Director: Daniel Junge, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy
Producers: Daniel Junge, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, Alison Greenberg, Davis Coombe, Sabiha Sumar
Synopsis:
Every year hundreds of people — mostly women — are attacked with acid in Pakistan. The HBO Documentary SAVING FACE, which premiers March 8 at 8:30 PM PT, follows several of these survivors, their fight for justice, and a Pakistani plastic surgeon who has returned to his homeland to help them restore their faces and their lives.
Title: THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM: FOOT SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT [USA]
Los Angeles Release Date: February 17, 2012
New York Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 25 minutes
Language: English
Director: Gail Dolgin, Robin Fryday
Producers: Gail Dolgin, Robin Fryday, Judith Helfand
Synopsis:
Mr. James Armstrong is a barber, a “foot soldier” and a dreamer whose barbershop in Birmingham, Alabama has been a hub for haircuts and civil rights since 1955. “The dream” of a promised land, where dignity and the right to vote belongs to everyone is documented in photos, headlines and clippings that cram every inch of wall space (and between the mirrors). 85-years-young, jauntily wearing a bowtie and suspenders, Mr. Armstrong will cut your hair while recounting his experiences as a “foot soldier”, citing the pictures on his wall as he does. In March 1965, civil rights activists began a march from Selma to Montgomery calling for voting rights. Mr. Armstrong, an Army Veteran, was the proud bearer of the American flag in that march, and it’s said that even as state troopers tear-gassed the crowd and beat marchers with billy clubs, he held the flag high. On the annual commemoration of Bloody Sunday he carries that flag. He used his barber chair to educate: “If you want a voice, you have to vote; you can’t complain about nothing if you don’t vote.” Despite threats to his life and home, his two sons were the first to integrate an all white elementary school. “Dying isn’t the worst thing a man can do. The worst thing a man can do is nothing.” No one can accuse Mr. Armstrong of doing nothing; and on the eve of the election of the first African-American president, THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM sees his unimaginable dream come true.