TWO IRISH directors have made the shortlist of 10 live action shorts that will be considered for nominations in the upcoming Oscars.
Shoe, directed by Nick Kelly and produced by Séamus Byrne (Zanita Films), and The Crush, directed by Michael Creagh (Purdy Pictures), have made the list of films announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Seventy-six pictures had originally qualified in the category. Members of the academy will now choose three to five nominees, to be revealed on January 25th, 2011, with the other Oscar nominations.
Shoe, filmed last July, is a darkly comic film that relates the story of Vince (Peter Coonan) who is set to take his own life but for the intervention of a beggar (Pat Kinevane).
In April 2009, Kelly’s script secured first prize in the Short Screenplay Competition at the Vail Film Festival in Colorado.
The film-maker is also well-known as a singer and musician, with a current musical alter ago Alien Envoy and a past as lead man with The Fat Lady Sings.
Kelly said he received the “exciting and amazing” news in an e-mail from the academy.
“I’m very proud of the film, and I really felt the two central performances were great from the shoot. I couldn’t have asked for more from that.” He added that Coonan and Kinevane “gave a fantastically generous performance that radiated out to the rest of us”.
“It’s an amazing thing to happen. Obviously it would be brilliant to get to the next stage, to be actually nominated and go out to Los Angeles, but I’ll still have a glass of wine . . . to be honest, even this is a great affirmation, as it’s my third short film and I’m relatively inexperienced.”
Kelly also wrote the soundtrack. He has completed another film script for a work called Incognita and is working on another, with the intention of moving into directing full-length films.
The Crush is a 15-minute film written and directed by Creagh in 2009. The film tells the tale of an eight-year-old schoolboy Ardal (played by the director’s son, Oran), who falls in love with his teacher Ms Purdy (Olga Wehrly) and later challenges the teachers fiance to a duel to the death.
The work was Best Irish Short at the Foyle Film Festival, which qualified it for Academy Award consideration.
A “thrilled” Creagh said his film was initially turned down by the academy after it was held up in Memphis due to confusion over paperwork. However, after an exchange of e-mails, the academy was “very accommodating” and agreed to include The Crush, said the director, who also works in advertising.
“I’d be happy if it never got anywhere else, I’d be happy with this,” said Creagh, who is working on a number of other scripts and treatments.
The 83rd Academy Awards will be held on February 27th at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.
JASON MICHAEL