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Ahead of the Academy Awards, we’ve reviewed every short film in each category: Animation, Documentary, and Live Action.

Animation

Burrow | USA | 6 Mins

I said it two years ago with Kitbull and will say it again now: it’s weird to watch a Pixar production utilizing a two-dimensional, hand-drawn style after so many years of computer animation. Madeline Sharafian’s Burrow continues that trend within the Disney+ Sparkshorts series and her tale of a young rabbit looking to dig out her dream home in the dirt. There’s a Little Golden Books appeal that hit me with a ton of nostalgia as her unwavering joy is shattered by not one, but two neighbors popping their heads through the walls separating her from their more ambitious abodes. One look at what they’ve each created sends her enthusiasm levels down to zero—her blueprints of a single room habitat a pale comparison conjuring only embarrassment instead.

Alice Pol, Eddy Mitchell, Miou-Miou, Pablo Pauly, Gustave Kervern, Sarah Stern, Pascale Arbillot and Zabou Breitman star in Nicolas Pleskof’s first feature, a Kazak production sold by Bac Films. Nicolas Pleskof has been shooting his first feature film Murder Party since 26 November. A comedy thriller, the filmmaker’s debut work boasts a cast composed of Alice Pol, Eddy Mitchell, Miou-Miou, Pablo Pauly (nominated for the Best New Hope César as well as the Lumières Revelation award in 2018 for Step by Step; touring French cinemas next year in Garder ton nom), Gustave Kervern (at his best...

Chokri’s debut feature A Brother’s Love premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2019.

Bac Films International is launching sales on Canadian actress/filmmaker Monia Chokri’s #MeToo-era comedy drama Babysitter at next week’s AFM.

The film successfully wrapped in Quebec in October, just as the Canadian province went into partial lockdown due to a second wave of Covid-19 cases.

It is Chokri’s second feature after A Brother’s Love, which opened Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2019 and shared the jury’s Coup de Coeur prize with The Climb.

Patrick Hivon, who also co-starred in A Brother’s Love, plays...

The Hauts-de-France region will also back films in production Soumission by Guillaume Nicloux, Saint-Omer by Alice Diop and Murder Party by Nicolas Pleskof. Three feature films have been earmarked for production support during the latest funding session held by Pictanovo, the Hauts-de-France’s regional agency dedicated to film and audiovisual creation. Shining bright among them is Tom, which will be Fabienne Berthaud’s 5th full-length work following Frankie (2006), Lily Sometimes (Directors’ Fortnight 2010), Sky (Toronto’s Platform competition in 2015) and A Bigger World (Venice Days in the Venice Film Festival 2019). Written by the director alongside Gladys Marciano and Pascal Arnold, the screenplay is an adaptation of Barbara Constantine’s novel Tom petit Tom tout petit homme Tom. The story revolves around 11-year-old Tom who lives in an old mobile home with his young mother, Joss. With her love for parties and weekends away with friends, Tom often finds himself alone, and.