Two NFB animated short films make Oscar short list

Canada’s Cordell Barker, two-time Oscar nominee, brings us his fourth film, If I Was God – a gentle yet whimsical tale of an awkward yet eventful day in the life of a 7th grade boy.
(Photo from © 2015 National Film Board of Canada)

LOS ANGELES – Two animated shorts produced by the National Film Board of Canada are advancing in the race for Oscar nominations.

“If I Was God?” by Winnipeg’s Cordell Barker, and “Carface (Autos Portraits)” by Montreal’s Claude Cloutier are among 10 animated shorts chosen from a field of 60 to advance to the next stage for consideration.

The next step will see Academy members select five nominees.

Barker has already been nominated for two Oscars, for 1988’s “The Cat Came Back” and 2001’s “Strange Invaders.” He got his start doing animation for “Sesame Street” while he was still in high school.

“If I Was God?” is described as a “darkly whimsical stop-motion animation memoir about a particularly awkward day in Grade 7.”

Cloutier started out as a comic book artist and cartoonist before making animated films including “Sleeping Betty,” which earned him a Genie Award.

In “Carface,” a 1957 Chevy Bel Air gives a musical performance in what’s described as “a scathing satire of the power of Big Oil.”