“Robot Dreams,” “They Shot the Pianist” and “Unicorn Wars” are on the first list of 33 animated films for the Oscars

The films of Pablo Berger, Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal and Alberto Vázquez ensure that Spanish animation cinema reaches this far at the Hollywood Academy Awards for the first time in history.

A dog in love, a robot forgotten on the beach, some mistakenly adorable bears at war with some beautiful and innocent unicorns and the story – sad, too long forgotten and now essential – of the pianist Tenrio Jnior. These are some of the protagonists of a perhaps childish but historic event. Everything that happens for the first time is historical because it is extraordinary. And it is historic that three films from a country without consolidated animation studios and without history in the genre have placed up to three productions in the finals on the way to the Oscars.

“Robot Dreams” by Pablo Berger; They shot the pianistby Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, and ‘Unicorn Wars, by Alberto Vázquez, was included on Thursday in the list of 33 films voted on by the scholars of the Animation subcategory and those of the other sections, which allow a minimum number of films viewed. From there, the five nominees will be announced.

It is true that there are only three out of 33, but it is also no less true that it is the first time something like this has happened. Yes, last year “The windshield wiper”, the animated short film by Alberto Mielgo, won the Oscar, but again it was the exception rather than the rule. And it was short. In the long run, the only candidates Spain had were “Chico and Rita’, the previous production of the pair Trueba and Mariscal from 2011 and “Klaus‘, by Sergio Ramos in 2019.

The three are three completely different projects, but in a way they have something in common: their rare and amazing exceptionality. Only “Unicorn Wars‘ It’s the work of a full-time animator. Director of “Psychonauts, the forgotten children” (2015) has shaped its own world for more than a decade (the first short film dates back to 2010), in which the fable takes on the raw and somewhat bloody tone of a story that is both tender and deeply dark. The now nominated film was shown at the Annecy Festival, where it was named the great reference for Spanish independent animated films.

In case of ‘They shot the pianist It’s as strange as its directors. Both in his acclaimed previous film and in this one, the advantage lies in the mix and the impossibility of using a single genre to define a film that alternates between documentary, drama, classic cinema and, of course, animation. Both the drawing and the narrative body unmistakably bear the signature of authors who are simultaneously, together or individually, filmmakers, illustrators, graphic artists and even tireless conversation partners. First the Toronto Festival and then the San Sebastin Festival experienced a premiere that seemed like a revelation. And event.

robot dreams, The film has just been released and the miracle proposed by Pablo Berger can be seen in theaters. Once again, and as I put it in’Snow White‘, the idea is to leave the word free of word noise (it makes sense). And this happens in a beautiful poem about friendship, loneliness, forgetfulness and forgiveness. As in the previous case, the director comes to the animated film with fresh eyes and is ready to go from there to create a world as indebted to Miyazaki as it is to Murnau. It is the cinema that transforms before the eyes of the viewer into tragedy, comedy, musical and dream. Its stylish premiere at the Cannes Festival gives it a privileged position.

Among the others highlighted in this first list and thus competitors of the three Spaniards are masterpieces such as “The Boy and the Heron” the babbling and anarchic farewell of the master Miyazaki; the umpteenth suggestion from Pixar “Elementary”, by Peter Sohn; the French delicacy of “The Journey of Ernest and Clestine,” by Jean-Christophe Roger and Julien Chheng; the display of talent, ingenuity and multiverse of Spider-Man: Crossing the Multiverse by Jaoquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin Thompson; the virguera between the animated and the carnal “In the name of the country”, from Poland’s DK Welchman; the anime prodigy that is’Suzume‘, by Makoto Shinkai, or the blockbuster “Super Mario Bros.: The Movie,” by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic.

It is indeed historic to see so many (three) (33) now.