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He’s done it again. Nick Park – once again – has bagged an Oscar Nomination. A Matter of Loaf and Death has made it to the final five in the Academy Award for Short Animation Film 2010. This makes a sixth Oscar nomination for Nick Park in his history of film making, and the only nomination that he lost – for ‘A Grand Day Out’ – was beaten by himself for Creature Comforts!
But A Matter of Loaf and Death has probably had the most difficult journey to the red carpet of all films. As we reported in 2008 the film was premiered too late to be eligible for the 2009 awards, and yet was too early for the 2010 awards because it was to be premiered at Christmas. It therefore looked unlikely that Aardman could put another award statue in its reception (see the latest Aardmag for more on their reception!).
The only way around it would be to delay the US release of the film, and Aardman did this by releasing the DVD to tie in with Wallace and Gromit’s 20th Birthday celebrations last autumn. In November it got down to the shortlist of finalists for the category and today made it to the final nominee list.
What does Nick Park make of this? Well I’m sure he’s thrilled, but then perhaps not as much as some would be. He always maintains that he makes films only because he enjoys the process, and before he was nominated for ‘A Grand Day Out’ and ‘Creature Comforts’ he didn’t even know there was an award for best short animation! When the news broke in 2008 that the film wouldn’t be eligible for an award Nick Park responded with relief more than anything, because it took pressure off the film. Admittedly the story was slightly different with ‘Curse of the Were-Rabbit’, when the pressure was really on it to win the Best Animated Feature award, though I expect this was fanned by Dreamwork’s somewhat.
It is nominated against ‘French Roast’, ‘Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty’, ‘The Lady and the Reaper’ and ‘Logorama’. With the immense popularity of Wallace and Gromit, and the detail and technical achievements of ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’, I will be very surprised if one award statue doesn’t walk away with one of Nick Park’s mini bowties adorning it. However we mustn’t count our chickens so all eyes are on Sunday March 7th for the award ceremony, and we’ll be reporting live on how it does! I wonder who Nick Park will take with him?
At any rate a nomination is still a huge honour and the entire Aardman team must be really proud of themselves. Congratulations and good luck!
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