SHORT FILMS WIDER DISTRUBUTION STREAMS
A great piece on shorts in today’s LA Times.
By Sam Adams
Special to The Times
February 10, 2008
THANKS to a new generation of viewers more conversant with YouTube than with appointment television, the short subject seems to be making a comeback. “Hotel Chevalier,” Wes Anderson’s 13-minute prequel to “The Darjeeling Limited,” was added to the feature’s theatrical prints after it racked up nearly 500,000 iTunes downloads. Cable channels such as IFC and Sundance regularly feature shorts in their programming. And the Cannes Film Festival has seen a mini-revival of the omnibus film, with “Paris, Je t’aime” and “Chacun son Cinema” allowing the Coen brothers, Alexander Payne and Gus Vant Sant to hone their short-film chops.
But perhaps the most dramatic example of the medium’s resurgent popularity is the success of the Oscar Shorts program, which compiles the nominated live-action and animated films into two feature-length shows. Released via a partnership between the London-based Shorts International and Magnolia Pictures, the program has grown exponentially in the three years of its existence. In 2006, the Oscar Shorts programs were released in five theaters nationwide. This year, according to Tom Quinn, Magnolia’s senior vice president of acquisitions, they expect to open in upward of 70 theaters on Friday.
“We always joke that our odds are way better than any distributor out there,” Quinn says. “Two awards guaranteed. If you wanted to rig the system, this is the way to do it.”
For short films, any kind of theatrical exposure is critical, but the value of a cinematic roll-out, coupled with the Oscar endorsement, is off the charts.
“It actually makes a big difference,” says Marcy Page, who has produced four nominated shorts for the National Film Board of Canada, including this year’s “Madame Tutli-Putli.” “It’s surprising how much, even in Canada, they defer to the academy to give the stamp of approval.”
A week after the theatrical release — the series opens in Los Angeles Friday — the Oscar-nominated shorts will be available individually on iTunes at a cost of $1.99. Carter Pilcher of Shorts International says comedies and animation sell reliably, as do the eventual winners. When a film is both, like last year’s winner, “West Bank Story,” sales can surpass 50,000.
Like everyone else, Quinn and Pilcher are in the dark as to the program’s content until the nominations are announced, which means they have a little over three weeks to acquire the rights for all 10 films and procure the necessary materials. “You’re buying 10 movies in such a short amount of time that you have to be extraordinarily flexible and creative,” Quinn says. Full story here latimes.com.
View the Oscar-nominated short film “Madame Tutli-Putli” trailer below.
