This is for today only, it ends at midnight. They're showing five of the shorts nominated for Oscars. I think this kicks ass because I never see any of the short films nominated, so at least this year I'll have some idea of which one deserves to win. BTW, you have to sit through an ad to get access to the site. Salon.com

Very cool, thanks for the link.

Wow, the Ryan animated one is amazing.

wow, cool! Thanks for the link!

The page wont load...

It has an interstitial ad, which might not load in some browsers. Here is a link directly to the page.

http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/200...rts/index.html

I agree. Ryan is utterly stunning. If there's any justice it should win Best Animated Short.

Thanks for the link!

What, you don't think Gopher Broke has enough artistic merit? I kid, I agree...Ryan should win the award. All were entertaining on at least some level. The animated shorts got better as they went on...and I think 7:35am is the best of the two live-action shorts. Like I said, all were pretty good. Right now Ryan and 7:35 would have my votes.

Oh, and thanks to the OP for the heads up.

-JP

Yea, I am still not getting it to load. Anyone know of any other sites that are showing the shorts?

I voted for Gopher Broke today in a office pool. I liked the name of it. Guess I should of gone with Ryan...

Is the video not loading or the page itself? If it is the video, you have to wait for it to buffer and start loading.

http://www.nfb.ca/oscars2005/nfbpop2.html

There's "Ryan." That's the site that Salon.com links us to (the only one of the 5 shorts that is hosted on a separate website), and it's getting the most acclaim in our humble little thread...so I guess that means you've lucked out. The others are entertaining in their own right, but you're not missing anything groundbreaking by not seeing them. Here's hoping you get them to work, though..

-JP

It's the page that is not loading.

Thanks. Atleast I'll get to see what everyone seems to agree is the best of the five.

I hope Bill Plympton wins.

Guard Dog was my favorite as well, although they all have merit.

Thanks for the link, it's a rare treat to see some of these before the awards.

A damn, time's up. I hope I still get a chance to see these somewhere.

At what occasion do these short films generally get shown? Where would anyone see them normally?

Well I can now officially yell out during an Oscar telecast that "I've seen one of those!"

I enjoyed 7:35.

Again, thanks for the link!

I only got around to watching the first three animated shorts unfortunately, but they were great. Guard Dog was hilarious but my favorite was easily Ryan. It was amazing.

For those having trouble gettig Ryan... here is the link for a direct download. Right click save target as.
mms://winmedser.nfb.ca/oscar/ryan_hv.wmv

thanks! I can see why it won. Done without the use of live action, motion capture or rotoscoping. Amazing.

Actually I could have yelled that out about Ryan had I known, or if they had shown clips durings the freakin' telecast (the look is fairly distinctive as you've seen). One of the lead artists working on it had a guest lecture in one of my classes about a year ago, talking about some of the techniques they used in the movie, and they showed it at the end of the class. I need to find some old e-mails...