Wes Anderson’s ‘The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar’ In Oscar-Nominated Shorts; Rob Reiner’s ‘God & Country’ Calls Out Christian Nationalism – Specialty Preview
16.02.2024 - 20:15
/ deadline.com
There exist three Oscar categories where it’s possible to watch all nominated films in one shot – that’s shorts, Animated, Live Action and Documentary. Packaged into three feature length films presented by ShortsTV, the Oscar Nominated Short Films open in theaters today for a four-week run on about 650 screens in the U.S. and Canada.
It’s 19-year tradition popular with audiences and theaters. Each film is also “an event. Then you can go argue about who you think should win,” says ShortsTV founder and CEO Carter Pilcher.
Theater owners can screen any or all of the three compilations however and whenever they want from a traditional run to a one-week marathon before the Academy Awards on March 10.
Pilcher says the animated bundle tends to do the best historically, although the 2023 short called My Year Of Dicks nudged out some of the family audiences that love animation, giving Live Action the win. The trio grossed $3.05 million last year as it pushes back towards $3.8 million pre-Covid.
The highest profile of the group is Wes Anderson’s live action The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar, based the Roald Dahl story. It made an appearance at Sundance in January, screening alongside Anderson’s first short film debut Bottle Rocket, which premiered at the fest 31 years ago. It’s also a Netflix film as Pilcher notes an uptick of studio interest in short film.
Should the shorts have ducked from Dune: Part Two? “It’s a different audience,” Pilcher says. And the box office has been welcoming to range of indie and event films since last fall. So, “They’ll say, ‘Oh, we should see it tomorrow.’”
The short film categories are levelers, said he said. There is no other category where you have quite this range: young directors, women