Palm Springs ShortFest qualifies 4 films for Oscar

PanARMENIAN.Net - After five days and more than 300 short films, the Palm Springs International ShortFest has qualified four shorts for Academy Awards consideration, TheWrap said.

The festival, the largest short film festival and market in North America, serves as one of about 70 Oscar-qualifying festivals in the short film categories. Its four top jury award winners become eligible for Academy Awards, provided they meet the Academy's other criteria, including technical specs and release dates.

Only the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival qualifies more winners for the Oscars, and only two other festivals and the Student Academy Awards qualify the same number.

Julio O. Ramos's "Behind the Mirrors", a Peruvian/U.S. co-production about the owner of a brothel, received the Best of Festival Award, and was also named the best student live-action short of 15 minutes or under.

Other winners in the Oscar-qualifying categories were Michael Palmaers's animated film "Nuru," about a zookeeper looking after a giant gorilla, and the live-action shorts "Dura Lex" from Anke Blondé and "The Devil's Ballroom" from Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken.

The former film, which was also named runner-up in the Bridging the Borders category, deals with the subject of illegal immigration in Belgium through the character of a young mother who receives an unexpected visit from a pair of detectives. The latter recreates the frigid world of an expedition to the North Pole.

The winning films received a total of $16,000 in cash awards and more than $100,000 in prizes.

Audience awards went to the live-action short "A Curious Conjunction of Coincidences" from the Netherlands, the Irish animated short "The Boy in the Bubble" and the documentary "Mr. Christmas."