Those who didn’t get a chance to catch this year’s Oscar-nominated short films on the festival circuit will get another opportunity when they come to U.S. theaters on Feb. 15. This is the third year Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International have joined forces to distribute the nominees theatrically prior to the Academy Awards ceremony.
This year’s noiminees in the Best Animated Short category are Josh Raskin’s I Met the Walrus, Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski’s Madam Tutli-Putli, Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse’s Meme Les Pigeons Vont Au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven), Alexander Petrov’s Moya Lyubov (My Love) and Suzie Templeton’s Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. I Met the Walrus, Madam Tutli-Putli and Peter and the Wolf all did well at various festivals, but other fest faves including Luis Cook’s The Pearce Sisters from Aardman Animations, Claude Cloutier’s Sleeping Betty and Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers’ Disney short, How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, were shut out.
The toon shorts will be presented along with this year’s nominated live-action short films. Employing RAIN Network’s digital distribution system, the program will initially be beamed to theaters in 50 U.S. cities before widening.
