The portmanteau genre remains stubbornly alive, if only because awards season keeps on bringing us enjoyable anthologised releases of short films up for prizes. And so it proves again as British-based Shorts TV is releasing all the shorts up for Oscars this Sunday. These are in three categories – live action, animation and documentary – and it is in the first of these I have to say we find something mildly controversial which I have heard discussed by British industry professionals with pursed-lipped disapproval.
Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, his 40-minute Roald Dahl adaptation for Netflix starring Benedict Cumberbatch, is up for a live-action short film Oscar. Anderson is entitled to be nominated of course. But … erm … aren’t the short film categories for new film-makers, emerging talents, the up-and-comers who need an early boost? Not for the established honchos who may see a tempting path to their first Oscar win? Isn’t Anderson a little like Seinfeld’s Kramer, who takes up karate and is allowed to brutally dominate a class of little kids because they are technically at the same skill-level as him?
