Photo credit: Joy Asico
“Our chairman and CEO Chris Dodd is in Los Angeles, so I’m speaking on his behalf,” said advisor for diversity and multi-culture outreach John Gibson at an MPAA reception and screening for two Oscar nominated Shorts: Day One and Chau, Beyond the Lines. “So I want to thank Carter Pilcher and our friends at Shorts HD for helping to make that happen. This is the third year that we’ve put on this event with Carter and his people and it’s always a highlight of the year. We are also honored to be joined by the creative talents behind 2 of the Short films (Hank Hughes and Courtney Marsh) who will share their insights and knowledge about creating Short films with all of us.”
“Short films might not receive the same level of attention as the ones competing in the bigger categories like Best Picture,” Gibson added, “but they’re always some of the most creative, innovative, and just plain enjoyable films being made. The animated, live-action, and documentary Shorts that we’re going to show tonight are just a sampling of the remarkable Short films being produced every day. If you haven’t experienced this unique form of artistry before now, you newbies are going to have a really good time. You’re going to be singing the praises of Short films going forward.”
John Gibson
“Another reason I am so excited for tonight’s event, beyond the incredible creativity in their films, is their inherent diversity,” Gibson explained. “Whether it’s the stories they are telling in the short time span, the characters seen on screen, or the creators themselves who develop and shape these films, the world of Short films is just incredibly diverse. At a time when a great deal of attention is rightly being paid to diversity within the film and television industry, these movies are a great reflection of what diverse storytelling can achieve.” He went on to introduce Carter Pilcher, the founder and CEO of Shorts International with a catalog of more than 3000 Short films representing every genre. “Carter and his company are leading the Short movie entertainment industry and are the ones responsible for bringing Oscar nominated Short films to theaters across the US and Canada every year.”
Ivory Zorich and Carter Pilcher
Pilcher heads a Shorts TV company headquartered in London and their business is only Short films. “We do nothing long, we only do things that are short. If you want a long feature film, that’s not what we do. We have a television network here in the United States, called Shorts HD that is carried on Direct TV, and on AT&T. It’s a cable channel,” Pilcher told an attentive audience. “We have a cable channel in Europe that’s carried all across Europe. If you hadn’t had a chance really to watch Short films, it’s kind of a fun adventure. I’m a banker and a lawyer originally, that’s how I was trained. I worked here on Capitol Hill for a bit, and once you learn and see Short films, and you kind of start getting into what they are, it becomes at least for me, a bit of an addiction, and they are really fabulous. We started eleven years ago, showing Short movies that were nominated for an Oscar.”
Courtney Marsh and Hank Hughes
Pilcher is a member of the British Academy and the Academy of Motion Pictures. Every year both nominate twenty-four different categories for an Oscar. “The Academy of Motion Pictures is divided into branches,” Pilcher noted while explaining the Oscar process. “There’s a branch for the actors, there’s a branch for the Short films and feature animations, a branch for directors, a branch for producers, branch for publicists – there are lots of branches. Each branch is responsible for its own awards. There are three awards in our branch. The two live action and animated Short Oscars and a feature animation Oscar – the long one. We staff the nomination process, we watch all the qualified films during the year and decide each year which ones we’re going to recommend to the rest of the academies to nominate. Once each branch has completed their nominations, they’re finally announced in January, and the voting starts this year on the 12th of February and we all vote on each others nominations.” He went on to emphasis that Shorts was kind of like a big mystery. “Eleven years ago, we started working with Magnolia Pictures, which is a theatrical distributor, to collect all the Shorts and create feature length movies, compilations from each category.Then we do all the documentaries. The maximum that a Short film can be is forty minutes. Most documentary film makers give us thirty-nine minutes and thirty-seconds,” he joked.
Carter Pilcher, Courtney Marsh and Hank Hughes
“We’re particularly proud this year of where diversity stands in terms of Short films. We are by far the most diverse branch in the academy. More than 25% of our nominees are female filmmakers for instance. In all of the other directors of feature films, there are zero female filmmakers. Last year, we nominated directors, female directors, as many in Short films as had been nominated in the entire history of the academy in feature films. It’s a really great place to be. Your going to see different view points, different ideas, things that probably you wouldn’t see in a feature film – things that wouldn’t quite make it there. That’s part of the excitement, part of the addiction for Short films.”
Hollywood on the Potomac sat down with the Courtney Marsh and Hank Hughes to explore their Shorts and to understand their choices.
Chau, Beyond the Lines will leave you sad, uplifted, inspired, shocked and amazed. Chau, a 16-year-old boy living in a Vietnamese peace camp for kids disabled by Agent Orange, battles with the reality of his dream to one day become a professional clothing designer.
One on One with Courtney Marsh:
Hank Hughes’ Day One: On her first day in Afghanistan, an interpreter for the US Army is forced to deliver the child of an enemy bomb-maker. It makes you wonder why we have wars and appreciate those that show humanity under the worst of circumstances.
One on One with Hank Hughes:
