Not Likely Coming to a Theater Near You!

Tonight we attended one of our must-see events of the year - the Oscar-Nominated Animated Short Films, shown at our local art theater, the Loft Cinema. Now celebrating its tenth anniversary of the collected nominations, the last few years they've also expanded to include the live-action shorts and documentary short subjects. One normally doesn't get to see these little gems of the film maker's art unless shown before Pixar movies, as often happens with their short features. Live-action and other animators are rarely seen except for these annual collections. Fortunately for us here in Tucson, the Loft excels in showing all that is not mainstream, as the marquee out front demonstrates. Besides the animated shorts, they are concentrating on Oscar nominations, including Boyhood (nominated for 6 Oscars), which was released way back in August! Two Days One Night got a nomination for Marion Cotillard for Best Actress, Whiplash (3 nominations), Inherent Vice (2 nominations), and Timbuktu, nominated for best foreign-language film.  Other than Boyhood, many are still on our list, as we like to see the critically acclaimed movies before the Oscars, but as our blog attests, we've been busy this Winter season...

Anyway, tonight's 5 animated shorts were great, and it was a sellout at about the biggest theater in town (500 seats)! We all have our favorites of the nominations, and since these were actually short (some as little as 2 minutes!) they rounded out the collection with 4 more "with merit", making the total running time 78 minutes. The Loft runs a contest where all get to vote on which they think will win (not necessarily their favorite!), the winners receiving loft memberships. My favorite was "Me and My Moulton", about the middle daughter of a trio, growing up in Norway wanting a bicycle and to be like everyone else, and things in the real world turning out differently.

While I've been going to the Loft for 35 years (since it was in an upstairs space on 6th Street, thus the name), I've never sprung for membership where you get discounts, invites to special events (including meeting film VIPs), and perhaps most importantly, free popcorn, we do go regularly and events like this one is why we hope they continue forever. Whether the shorts collections, film festivals, essential film showings for free, and special showings during the week (mondo Mondays for offbeat films, for example) it is always a great idea to grab a monthly guide or keep an eye on the papers to see what amazing offerings they have. If you have an "art house" in town, be sure to give them your support!