[1] I am very excited for Sunday, February 24. This is Oscars night – the Academy Awards ceremony. It is silliness, you say, and you are right: it is. But it's exciting. It's fun – especially since four years ago when I implemented the Academy Awards Drinking Game in my household. The rules are simple: each category is given a point value, and each point value corresponds to a drinking amount. (For example, the technical categories are worth 1 point, a drink of beer; screenplays, supporting actors, short films, etc. are 3 points, half a shot; lead actors, director, etc. are 5 points, a full shot; best picture is 10 points, a double shot.) All the participants make their predictions prior to the show, and these are recorded on a large board. Every correct guess is recorded with the appropriate point value, and wrong guesses are punished with the corresponding drink value.
I always prepare by watching as many of the nominated films as possible, but one of the difficult categories to predict are the shorts: Best Animated Short, Best Live Action Short, Best Documentary Short. These are three points apiece, with a half-shot penalty for wrong guesses. However, they are not necessarily as accessible as the rest of the nominees.
Luckily, this year, the Louisville Exclusives series at Village 8 is showcasing all the nominated animated and live action short films, in two separate programs. There are some fantastic and interesting films involved, including, in the animated sector, a Simpsons short and the beautiful Paperman (which screened in theaters prior to Wreck-It Ralph), and in live action, films from around the world, including Afghanistan, South Africa, and Belgium.
Information about all the Oscar nominated shorts can be found at the category's official website [3].
Village 8 is located at 4014 Dutchmans Lane. Complete theater information and showtimes can be found at the Village 8 website [4].
Image: Internet Movie Database [5]