Film: 2012 Oscar Nominated Shorts: Live Action and Animation

The Smith Opera House, 82 Seneca Street, Geneva

Animated – total running time approx. 80 minutes

 Sunday/Dimanche– 10 minutes – English – Patrick Doyon  Every Sunday, it's the same old routine! The train clatters through the village and almost shakes the pictures off the wall. In the church, Dad dreams about his toolbox. And of course later Grandma will get a visit and the animals will meet their fate.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore– 15 minutes – No Dialogue – William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg Inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation) award winning author/illustrator William Joyce and co-director Brandon Oldenburg present a hybrid style of animation that harkens back to silent films and MGM Technicolor musicals. Morris Lessmore is old fashioned and cutting edge at the same time.

La Luna– 7 minutes – English – Enrico Casaroasa A fable of a young boy who is coming of age in the most peculiar of circumstances. Tonight is the very first time his Papa and Grandpa are taking him to work. In an old wooden boat they row far out to sea, and with no land in sight, they stop and wait. A big surprise awaits the little boy as he discovers his family's most unusual line of work.

A Morning Stroll– 7 minutes – No Dialogue – Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe   When a New Yorker walks past a chicken on his morning stroll, we're left to wonder which one is the real city slicker.

Wild Life – 13 minutes – English – Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby  Calgary, 1909: an Englishman moves to the Canadian frontier, but is singularly unsuited to it. His letters home are much sunnier than the reality. Intertitles compare his fate to that of a comet.

Live Action – total running time approx. 110 minutes

Pentecost– 11 minutes – English – Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane When Damian is forced to serve as an altar boy at an important mass in his local parish, he faces a difficult choice: conform to the status quo, or serve an extended ban from his life’s passion – football.

Raju– 24 minutes – English/German – Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren Director Max Zaehle, together with his Director of Photography Sin Huh, and wonderful actors Wotan Wilke Möhring and Julia Richter, succeed at making the moral dilemma faced by couples wishing to adopt emotionally palpable.

The Shore– 31 minutes – English/Gaelic – Terry George and Oorlagh George  After 25 years in exile, Jim Mahon (Ciaran Hinds) returns to Ireland to show his American daughter Patty (Kerry Condon) his Belfast roots. But things don’t go as planned when she learns of a secret love triangle and a long lost best friend, Paddy (Conleth Hill). Their reconciliation leads to hilarious confusion. Directed by two time Oscar nominee Terry George, The Shore won Best Director and Best Actor at the Rhode Island Film Festival, and is nominated for an Irish Film and Television Award.

Time Freak– 11 minutes – English – Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey  A neurotic inventor creates a time machine, only to get caught up travelling around yesterday.

Tuba Atlantic– 25 minutes – Norwegian – Hallvar Witzø  Everybody is going to die one day. Oskar, 70, is going to die in 6 days. He is now ready to forgive his brother for a disagreement years ago. Will he reach his brother, who he believes live on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, before it’s too late?

$10 both films