Ice Merchants

Ice merchants its a beautifuly animated short about a father and a son who sell ice ultimately dealling with loss and grief and how to continue forward.

Inspired by a french animation Style and with a powerfull soundtrack that gonna make your heart feell every second and the absence of dialogue makes it a movie that everybody from everywhere can absorve independant of the age and country to which i mean its defenitely a must show to Kids and young adults with its message for all.

It is defenitely deserving of the Oscar nomination it has and makes you eager to what this newcomer director can do moving forward.

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.

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.

The first Portuguese production ever nominated for an Academy Award depicts a man and his son who sell ice to make a living. João Gonzalez's "Ice Merchants" is a low-key, unassuming animated short that comes out well done. It just goes to show that animation doesn't need to be fancy, and certainly doesn't need the characters voiced by the celebrities of the moment (to be certain, this one has no dialogue). I found the short on The New Yorker's YouTube channel. I hope that more people get to see it, and that in the coming years more of the animated shorts become available for viewing. Some truly impressive filmmaking here.

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!