Continuing our coverage of the forthcoming IFTA Film & Drama Awards, we take a peek at the eclectic projects peppering the exciting Animated Short category.
The four nominated projects for this year are ‘An Ode To Love’, ‘Fresh Cut Grass’, ‘Somewhere Down The Line’ and ‘The Ledge End Of Phil (From Accounting)’.
‘An Ode To Love’ tells the story of a man on a desert island who falls in love with a stick. The film was written and directed by Matthew Darragh, who has previously directed episodes of the successful Brown Bag Films animated series ‘Henry Hugglemonster’ as well as the animated short ‘Pilgrim’ (which was nominated for an IFTA in 2007).
The film is a Brown Bag Films Production and prospered over 348 short film scripts in 2012 to secure funding under the Filmbase/RTÉ Short Film Awards scheme. Stefan French composed the score for the film which was produced by Suzie Belton & Danielle Considine.
A 10 minute animation chronicling a little dog’s search for his’ sister in a big city -‘Fresh Cut Grass’ is a Boulder Media Production that is written and directed by Robert Cullen and produced by Anne Tweedy (who was previously nominated for a 2012 IFTA for the children’s television series ‘The Amazing World Of Gumball’).
The short has so far received an Honourable Mention at the 2014 Dublin Animation Film Festival as well as securing a nomination for Best Animated Short at the first ever Irish Animation Awards, held earlier this year in Dingle.
Denis Clohessy composed the theme for the short with many of the team behind ‘The Amazing World Of Gumball’ in the Animation Department for this project also.
A very good year for Cartoon Saloon (which has seen ‘Song of the Sea’ garnering Oscar and IFTA nominations) continues here with two projects shortlisted in the Animated Short category.
Written and directed by Julien Regnard and produced by Jonathan Clarke, ‘Somewhere Down The Line’ examines a man's life, loves and losses which are shown through the exchanges he has with the passengers in his car.
The film was made using a combination of 2D and 3D animation effects and music was supplied by Matthew Nolan, Cameron Doyle and Lioba Petrie of Dublin-based collective 3epkano. It has so far won the Best Animation Award at Clermont-Ferrand as well as picking up a nomination for a prestigious Pulcinella Award in Italy.
Cartoon Saloon’s other nominated project ‘The Ledge End Of Phil (From Accounting)’ centres on the titular Phil who, stuck outside looking in, is forced to face the world he's been ignoring and now must take a leap of faith or be trapped forever.
Directed by Paul O'Muiris, produced by Pearse Cullinane and edited by Richie Cody, ‘Phil’ has so far won Best Irish Short Film at the 2014 Dublin Animation Film Festival and was also chosen to represent Ireland at the One Country One Film Apchat International Film Festival.
The IFTA Film & Drama Awards will take place on Sunday, May 24 – check out the full list of nominees here.
