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January/February 2023

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www.postmagazine.com 24 POST JAN/FEB 2023 OSCAR SHORTS Filmmakers share their experience working on award-winning, short-form content BY MARC LOFTUS T he Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences describes a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits." To be eligible for Oscar consideration, the short must have been publicly exhibited for paid admission in a commercial motion-picture theater in one of the six qualifying US metro areas, and run for at least seven consecutive days, with at least one screening a day, prior to public exhibition or distribution by any nontheatrical means. The film must have also won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival. Here, we look at five Oscar-qualifying shorts, three of which have gone on to receive Academy Award nominations (An Irish Goodbye, Ivalu and The Red Suitcase). An Irish Goodbye An Irish Goodbye is in the running for an Academy Award, having been nominated in the Live Action Short category. Written and directed by Ross White and Tom Berkeley, the 22-minute short tells the story of two estranged brothers, who reunite to lay to rest their recently-cremated mother, while also carrying out her last wishes. Seamus O'Hara plays Turlough, the older brother of Lorcan, played by James Martin, who is affected by down syndrome. In spite of his disability, Lorcan wants to remain, alone, at the family's farm and ropes his brother into helping complete their moth- er's bucket list in order to prolong his stay. Michelle Fairley provides the voice of the mother, and Paddy Jenkins serves as the local priest/family friend. An Irish Goodbye was shot in Northern Ireland. According to Berkeley, the production used an Arri Alexa Mini for the shoot, which spanned five days. "Our first film was shot in 4:3," recalls White, noting that for this film, they went in the complete opposite direction, opting to take a wide-screen approach. "With this film, we spoke about the land- scapes and how characters were isolated by rural background. You don't see any other characters or houses. It's as if they are the last two in Ireland. We were decisive with the landscape shots and the bleak opening sequence." Ivalu Anders Walter's Ivalu is based on the graphic novel of the same name, and shares the story of a young girl, who's been deeply impacted by the disappear- ance of her sister. This live-action short was shot in Greenland and is one of five live-action shorts in the running for this year's Academy Award. Anders Walter is an Oscar-winning film director and screenwriter, who was recognized in 2014 for his short film Helium. Additionally, his film 9 Meter was shortlisted for an Oscar in 2013. Ivalu was produced by Rebecca Pruzan and Kim Magnusson, and touches on taboo topics such as incest, rape and suicide. In the short, young Ivalu has disappeared, leaving her sister Pipaluk des- perate to find her. She explores Greenland's icy landscape alone, with a single raven staying close by and seemingly giving her direction. Her father, on the other hand, expresses little concern over Ivalu's disappearance, and viewers ultimately learn of his dark secret. The cast features newcomers Mila Heilmann Kreutzmann (Pipaluk) and Nivi Larsen (Ivalu). Greenlandic actor Angunnguaq Larsens portrays their father. "The structure of Ivalu is quite different from my other films," Walter explains. "The film relies a lot more on tone and mood than my previous works, and editing became quite a challenge, as there were many ways to go about the structure for the film. I have never spent so much time editing a short, trying multiple storylines and insisting on keeping the structure open. I wanted the film to feel like a piece of poetry, where you slowly get sucked into the tone and mood, and less a feeling of a linear story. So much of the poetry depended on Mila's voiceover. It had to feel almost hypnotic, and at the same time, the evolving suspense had to have a strong presence. That balance was ex- tremely difficult, but I believe we cracked the code in the end." An Arriflex camera was used for the 10-day shoot, and vintage Russian prime lenses helped to give the imagery its somewhat distorted and soft feeling. Live-action footage of the ever-present ra- ven was shot separately in the Czech Republic and added later in post. 3D elements of the bird were also used for smaller and distant perspectives. "Nature plays such an important part in the sto- An Irish Goodbye runs 22 minutes. The short was shot using Arri's Alexa Mini. Ivalu was shot in Greenland over 10 days. An Arriflex camera was used for the shoot.

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