Eishändler

This short about a father and son living in a tiny cabin anchored on the side of an immense and icy mountain-side cliff is totally absorbing. There is no spoken word but the music is great. Father and son eke out their existence by taking ice to the village far below by jumping off their porch and parachuting down, then they come back up using a rope system. Since I am somewhat acrophobic, parts were a little difficult for me to watch (the son sitting on a swing thousands of feet above the ground - oh my!) but the basic colored line drawings were so engaging and gorgeous that one could not finish the film.

At first the ending is somewhat open to interpretation. Watching it a second and third time I picked up the hints scattered along the way as to what was happening that I had not fully grasped on my first viewing. I so appreciate being able to watch it on The New Yorker Screening Room.

Out of all of the Academy Award nominees in the category this year, this film was by far my favorite, and I hope that it takes home the trophy come March.

Not only did it have a beautiful art style a creative premise, but the story itself really affected me.

I'm a sucker for animated projects without any dialogue, and I think this project perfectly exemplifies why. The story was simple yet impactful, and was universal so that anybody- no matter where they're from or what language they speak- could understand and empathize with it.

Ice Merchants to me was the clear winner of the nominees this year, and it's certainly worth fifteen minutes of your time.

Being able to tell such a story through beautifully simple details is amazing. Ice Merchants is a piece of art like the world needs more of.

The visual art and animation are both provoking and original.

The sound is wonderfully crafted.

The story brought me to tears.

A world where a good short animation like this, created with very little funding, wins an Academy Award is a better one. I really hope it wins.

Also interesting is the fact that ice merchants actually existed, a long time ago, even though that is more of a poetic backdrop to the story being told.

I'm looking forward to author's next creations.

Take the drawing style of Ed Gorey, the sensibility of doom of Abner Dean, and the Sysyiphean zeitgeist of, oh, a filmmaker working in Communist-era Eastern Europe, and you'll have an approximate idea of the feel of Ice Merchants.

I'd warn you that any description of the plot would be full of spoilers, but the IMDB tagline itself is full of spoilers! My advice is to watch this cold, without any particular description of the plot, for best effect. You'll get a very deftly done, real sense of jeopardy for the characters, as well as experiencing the strangeness of the whole premise as one is meant to.

It's a parable for loss and recovery, grief and holding on to love, but wordless and without engaging in sentimentality. There's a reasonably nice revelation with a laugh out loud moment as we see something decidedly inexplicable and seemingly extraneous come in at the end. It's really quite touching, and again, if I explained the plot even a little bit, you'd likely lose the emotional sense that this film very adeptly creates.

This was not my first choice among the Oscar nominees for best short animation (we saw them all at one sitting) but it's a credible runner-up. If you're not literally on the edge of your seat watching this, I'd be surprised.

This short is my pick to win the academy award for animated short. The animation and color story in this emotional, and heartfelt. Such a layered story about grief, loss, love, passion, memories, heartache, adoration, hope, moving on, and finding the silver linings in life is absolutely flooring. The entire piece is a gorgeous, impressive, stylish piece of short form animation unlike any other I have ever seen. I watched it on The New Yorker's youtube channel, and honestly the style and vibe of this animation really fits with the outlet to be their home-it's such a perfect collaboration and the correct vibe. I would love love love to see more work from this talented portuguese animator, mr. Joäo Gonzales, and cannot wait to do so in the near future!