Oscar shortlists animation about Iran

The US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences shortlists an animated film about Iran and Persian literature among the 26 titles to be juried this year.

An animation titled ‘Window Horses: The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming’ directed by Ann Marie Fleming is among the features submitted for consideration in the animated feature film category for the 90th Academy Awards.

The animated piece tells the story of Rosie Ming, a young Canadian poet of mixed descent who grew up with her strict Chinese grandparents, believing that her father and mother abandoned her. She has been invited to recite her poem at a festival in Iran, where she finds that what she’d been told as a child may not necessarily be the entire truth.

Fleming has used English adaptation of poems from ‘Golestan’ (Gulistan) in the animation. ‘Golestan’ is a collection of poetry written the Persian poet Sadi from Shiraz in 1258. She has also used poems from ‘Masnavi’ by Iranian poet Rumi.

The other shortlisted nominees for best feature animated film are ‘The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales’, ‘Birdboy: The Forgotten Children’, ‘The Boss Baby’, ‘The Breadwinner’, ‘Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie’, ‘Cars 3’, ‘Cinderella the Cat’, ‘Coco’, ‘Despicable Me 3’, ‘The Emoji Movie’, ‘Ethel & Ernest’, ‘Ferdinand’ and ‘The Girl without Hands’.

The list also includes ‘In This Corner of the World’, ‘The Lego Batman Movie’, ‘The Lego Ninjago Movie’, ‘Loving Vincent’, ‘Mary and the Witch’s Flower’, ‘Moomins and the Winter Wonderland’, ‘My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea’, ‘Napping Princess’, ‘A Silent Voice’, ‘Smurfs: The Lost Village’, ‘The Star’, ‘Sword Art Online: The Movie – Ordinal Scale’.

The US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with the category’s all other qualification rules before they can advance in the voting process.

For the first time, voting for nominations in the Animated Feature Film category is open to the entire eligible voting membership.

The nominated animations at the 90th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2018.

MG/AI