Spanish short films on the road to the Oscars

Late yesterday we learned the Oscars shortlist for Live Action Short Film, with two Spanish short films selected, Timecode, by Juanjo Giménez and Graffiti by Lluis Quilez. Few countries have managed to do this in the same year.

This is great news for short films and Spanish cinema.

To fully understand the importance of this news I have analysed the shortlists published over the last four years, since the last time we were selected with That Wasn’t Me.

These are the lists from 2013 to 2016, in which I have included the country, which does not appear in the original news item:

2016 (Oscars 2017)

  1. Bon Voyage, Marc Wilkins, director, and Joël Jent, producer (Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduction) – Germany
  2. Ennemis Intérieurs, Sélim Azzazi, director (Qualia Films) – France
  3. Graffiti, Lluis Quilez, director (Participant Media, Euphoria Productions and Ainur Films) – Spain
  4. La Femme et le TGV, Timo von Gunten, director (arbel gmbh) – Germany
  5. Nocturne in Black, Jimmy Keyrouz, director (Columbia University) – United States
  6. The Rifle, the Jackal, the Wolf and the Boy,” Oualid Mouaness, director (Tricycle Logic) – Lebanon
  7. Silent Nights, Aske Bang, director, and Kim Magnusson, producer (M & M Productions) – Denmark
  8. Sing (Mindenki), Kristof Deák, director (Meteor Filmstudio) – Hungary
  9. Timecode, Juanjo Giménez, director (Nadir Films) – Spain
  10. The Way of Tea (Les Frémissements du Thé), Marc Fouchard, director, and Matthieu Devillers, producer (Existenz, BlackBox and P904) – France

2015 (Oscars 2016)

  1. Ave Maria, Basil Khalil, director, and Eric Dupont, producer (Incognito Films) – France
  2. Bad Hunter, Sahim Omar Kalifa, director, and Dries Phlypo, producer (A Private View) – Belgium
  3. Bis Gleich (Till Then), Benjamin Wolff, director Philippe Brenninkmeyer, producer, and Tara Lynn Orr, writer (avenueROAD Films) – Germany
  4. Contrapelo (Against the Grain), Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, director, and Pin-Chun Liu, producer (Ochenta y Cinco Films) – Mexico
  5. Day One, Henry Hughes, director (American Film Institute) – United States
  6. Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut), Patrick Vollrath, director (Filmakademie Wien) – Austria
  7. The Free Man (Zi You Ren), Quah Boon-Lip, director (Taipei National University of the Arts) – China
  8. Shok, Jamie Donoughue, director (Eagle Eye Films) – Kosovo/United Kingdom
  9. Stutterer, Benjamin Cleary, director (Bare Golly Films) – Ireland
  10. Winter Light, Julian Higgins, director, and Josh Pence, producer (Innerlight Films and Prelude Pictures) – United States

2014 (Oscars 2015)

  1. Aya, Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis, directors (Cassis Films and Divine Productions) – Israel
  2. Baghdad Messi, Sahim Omar Kalifa, director, and Kobe Van Steenberghe, producer (a team productions) – Belgium
  3. Boogaloo and Graham, Michael Lennox, director, and Ronan Blaney, writer (Out of Orbit) – United Kingdom
  4. Butter Lamp (La Lampe Au Beurre De Yak), Hu Wei, director, and Julien Féret, producer (AMA Productions) – France
  5. Carry On, Yatao Li, director (Rochester Institute of Technology) – United States
  6. My Father’s Truck, Maurício Osaki, director (Lupi Filmes) – Vietnam
  7. Parvaneh, Talkhon Hamzavi, director, and Stefan Eichenberger, producer (Zurich University of Arts) – Switzerland
  8. The Phone Call, Mat Kirkby, director, and James Lucas, writer (RSA Films) – United States
  9. SLR, Stephen Fingleton, director, and Matthew James Wilkinson, producer (Stigma Films) – Ireland
  10. Summer Vacation (Chofesh Gadol), Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon, directors (GREENproductions) – Israel

2013 (Oscars 2014)

  1. That Wasn’t Me, Esteban Crespo, director (Producciones Africanauan) – Spain
  2. Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything), Xavier Legrand, director, and Alexandre Gavras, producer (KG Productions) – France
  3. Dva (Two), Mickey Nedimovic, director, and Henner Besuch, director of photography (Filoufilm Dani Barsch) – Croatia
  4. Helium, Anders Walter, director, and Kim Magnusson, producer (M & M Productions) – Denmark
  5. Kush, Shubhashish Bhutiani, director (Red Carpet Moving Pictures) – India
  6. Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?), Selma Vilhunen, director, and Kirsikka Saari, screenwriter (Tuffi Films) – Finland
  7. Record/Play, Jesse Atlas, director, and Thom Fennessey, executive producer (Collaboration Factory) – United States
  8. Throat Song, Miranda de Pencier, director (Northwood Productions) – United States
  9. Tiger Boy, Gabriele Mainetti, director (Goon Films) – Italy
  10. The Voorman Problem, Mark Gill, director, and Baldwin Li, producer (Honlodge Productions) – United Kingdom

Results by country

  1. United States 7
  2. France 5
  3. Germany 3
  4. Spain 3
  5. United Kingdom 3
  6. Denmark 2
  7. Ireland 2
  8. Belgium 2
  9. Israel 2
  10. Lebanon 1
  11. Hungary 1
  12. Mexico 1
  13. Austria 1
  14. China 1
  15. Vietnam 1
  16. Switzerland 1
  17. Croatia 1
  18. India 1
  19. Finland 1
  20. Italy 1
  21. Kosovo 1

This is one of the big pieces of news: we have finally ended a drought that had already lasted three years; all of a sudden we are now among the countries with the most selections, alongside the United Kingdom and Germany. We are now only behind the United States and France.

Now is the time to support these two short films in the promotional campaign to reach the nominations. This process is expensive and complicated, but strong support from institutions is essential; otherwise, we will always be behind these countries, which do support their creators with substantial resources.

We must do everything possible and, for the first time, win an Oscar for a Spanish short film.

We must not let this opportunity slip away.

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