The animated program includes: Lavatory - Lovestory from Russia; Oktapodi from France; Le Maison en Petits Cubes from Japan; Smith and Foulkes' This Way Up from England; and the best known of the bunch Pixar's Presto that was released theatrically as the opener for last year's Wall-E.
Pixar's Presto is the only short that was widely seen in theaters since it was included with Wall-E (Disney/Pixar)
Rounding out the collection are some recent animated shorts: Varmints (UK) featuring music by J & oacute;hann J & oacute;hannsson; John and Karen (UK); Gopher Broke (USA); Skhizein (France); and Bill Pympton's Hot Dog (USA).
The New Boy, one of the live action shorts nominated this year. (Zanzibar Films)
The live action collection features: New Boy (Ireland); Auf Der Strecke ( On the Line ) (Germany/Switzerland); Spielzeugland ( Toyland ) (Germany); Grisen ( The Pig ) (Denmark); and Manon Sur Le Bitume ( Manon on the Asphalt ) (France).
The Pig is another Oscar-nominated live short in the omnibus program playing at Landmark's Ken Cinema (M&M Productions)
Sadly this is probably the only opportunity you'll get to see these films in theaters since there is no real distribution network for getting short films into theaters. But more opportunities are beginning to arise with the web, downloads, and cable. But shorts remain an underappreciated format with filmmakers often using them as calling cards to move on to something bigger and better. So take advantage of this opportunity to see the works of some talented filmmakers.
