2023 Oscar Shorts: Animation

February 17, 2023 – March 12, 2023

Single Program Tickets $12 Oscar Festival Passes $25 Not sure where our theaters are? Purchase Tickets Any other Questions? Send an email to editor@TheRyder.com

Four of the five animated films this year are appropriate for children (although one of the four, The Flying Sailor, features brief nudity, but it’s harmless, and it’s a charming film) The 5th film, My Year of Dicks, might be inappropriate for some younger viewers (see below).

The five nominated short films add up to 94 minutes.

An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It (Lachlan Pendragon) A young office worker uncovers the flaws in his stop-motion universe with the help of a mysterious talking ostrich (Australia/12 minutes)

The Mole, the Fox, and the Horse (Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud) Four unlikely friends come together in search of a young boy’s home. Both cast and crew are high profile as the film features Tom Hollander, Idris Elba, and Gabriel Byrne (as the mole, the fox, and the horse respectively) and is produced by J.J. Abrams and his company, Bad Robot. (UK/33 minutes)

The Flying Sailor (Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis) Based on the true story of a sailor who survived an explosion in Halifax Harbor in 1917. This is the third nomination for filmmakers Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis. We mentioned above that this film contains fleeting nudity (although it’s hardly worth mentioning). Some of you will be more disconcerted by the cause of the explosion. (Canada/8 minutes)

Ice Merchants (João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano) Every day, a father and his son jump with a parachute from their vertiginous cold house, attached to a cliff, to go to the village on the ground, far away where they sell the ice they produce daily. There is no spoken dialogue in this absorbing, beautifully animated story of family love. (Portugal, France/15 minutes)

My Year of Dicks (Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon) An imaginative fifteen-year-old is determined to lose her virginity despite the pathetic pickings in the outskirts of Houston in the early 90’s. My Year of Dicks is a hilarious, genre-mashing film, directed by Sara Gunnarsdóttir and created by Pamela Ribon from her critically-acclaimed memoir. (USA/26 minutes) This film will be the last one shown and a parental warning will appear on the screen before it begins, giving patrons a chance to flee the theater. There is no nudity. (The film’s title refers to the guys that she dates (and we’re using “dates” here in a loose sense)). But the film does feature heavy petting and more or less everything else you can do in intimate situations with your clothes on.

Some of you will see My Year of Dicks as a learning opportunity that will spark interesting conversations around the dinner table. But some will feel uncomfortable with what their children are watching. (And some children might also feel uncomfortable.) We’ve offered similar warnings about individual films in the past and have been informed by parents afterwards that we’d overreacted. “My kids have seen far worse in the average Marvel movie.” That said, you know your kids better than we do. Parents should feel free to email us (editor@theryder.com) with questions about the appropriateness of films for younger viewers. And younger viewers should also feel free to email us about the appropriateness of films for their parents.