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Ice Merchants

  • 2022
  • 14m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
3.2K
YOUR RATING
Ice Merchants (2022)
AnimationDramaFantasyShort

Every day, a father and his son jump with a parachute from their vertiginous cold house, attached to a cliff, to go to the village on the ground, far away where they sell the ice they produc... Read allEvery day, a father and his son jump with a parachute from their vertiginous cold house, attached to a cliff, to go to the village on the ground, far away where they sell the ice they produce daily.Every day, a father and his son jump with a parachute from their vertiginous cold house, attached to a cliff, to go to the village on the ground, far away where they sell the ice they produce daily.

  • Director
    • João Gonzalez
  • Writer
    • João Gonzalez
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.6/10
    3.2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • João Gonzalez
    • Writer
      • João Gonzalez
    • 15User reviews
    • 13Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 30 wins & 22 nominations total

    Photos10

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    User reviews15

    7.63.1K
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    Featured reviews

    10leonardo-vcid

    Beautiful, simple, surprising.

    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.
    8jack_o_hasanov_imdb

    Hats

    So simple, so beautiful and so meaningful. When I saw their house hanging on the mountain, I thought something would happen to them. Obviously, the man's wife, the child's mother is not alive. It doesn't show it with flashback. Very simple. A yellow glass and an empty side of the bed. Very meaningful and simple. I was expecting a bad ending. But the ending of the movie and the way it was finished impressed me a lot. It was so sweet. Among the ones I've watched (I've only watched 3 nomines yet), this is what I liked and was most impressed with. Also the music was very good. The shooting style is again like hand-drawn. I think it was fashion and style to be nominated for an Oscar. I criticized it. Also, a live action version of it can be shot. We can watch beautiful landscapes.
    9rodryfily

    Slow pace, yet sublime and heart warming

    It's incredible how a 14 minute movie without a single word can move you this much.

    With just simple and repeated scenes, the director manages to get you to know the characters. For that purpose, this movie makes use of color in a simple way that just makes sense. The slow pace just makes it feel natural and there is no rush to achieve the end of the story.

    I also loved the soundtrack, every second of it adds to the story and, in the absence of words, acts as a good way to show feelings from the characters.

    Loved this movie, and it's good to see it get this much attention, specially the Oscar nomination.
    7wall17

    Angstful Parable with a sweet ending

    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.
    8Moviemaniac30

    Beautiful and touching

    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.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      First Portuguese film nominated for the Oscars.
    • Connections
      Featured in 2023 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Animation (2023)

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • February 16, 2023 (Portugal)
    • Countries of origin
      • Portugal
      • United Kingdom
      • France
    • Official site
      • Distributor webpage
    • Language
      • None
    • Also known as
      • Торговці льодом
    • Production companies
      • Cola Animation
      • Royal College of Art
      • Wild Stream
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 14m
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.89 : 1

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