SHORT #8
OF 15
95TH ACADEMY AWARDS | 2023 OSCARS CHALLENGE
“ICE MERCHANTS”
FEBRUARY 21, 2023
YOUTUBE
DAY 29
OF 48
Best Animated Short Film
João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano
“Ice Merchants,” a short animated film with no dialogue, caught me off guard and had me feeling more in 14 minutes than some features can make me feel in 90. The animation style resembles colored pencils on construction paper, but the grittiness of it works. The story follows a boy and his father, who live on an exceptionally tall mountain where they freeze water and make ice. Each day they skydive down to the town below to sell the ice, losing their hats and returning to sip warm drinks and swing on the swingset at nighttime. And the next day, they do it all over again. However, their routine is interrupted by nature, and suddenly, their backstory reveals itself in one of the most touching moments in a short film I’ve ever experienced. While “The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse” doles out sweet and not often-heard life advice, it pails in comparison to the lessons on loss and moving on in “Ice Merchants.”
PREVIOUS NOMINATIONS
João Gonzalez
| First-time nominee |
Bruno Caetano
| First-time nominee |
Every day, a father and his son jump with a parachute from their vertiginous cold house, attached to a cliff, to go to the village on the ground, far away where they sell the ice they produce daily.
Directed by João Gonzalez
COLA Animation + Wildstream + Royal College of Art
October 20, 2022
14 minutes
ACCOLADES
Annie Awards — Best Animated Short Subject (Nominee)
BendFilm Festival — Best Animated Short [Winner]
Black Movie Film Festival — Black Movie for Kids Payot Prize [Winner]
Bosphorus Film Festival — Ahmet Uluçay Grand Prize [Winner]
Cannes Film Festival — Leitz Cine Discovery Prize [Winner]
Chicago Intl Children’s Film Festival — Best Animated Short [Winner]
Chicago Intl Film Festival — Best Animated Short [Winner]
Clermont-Ferrand Intl Short Film Festival — Intl Competition (Nominee)
Denver Intl Film Festival — Best Short Film [Winner]
European Film Awards — European Short Film (Nominee)
London Intl Animation Festival — Audience Award/Long Shorts [Winner]
Motovun Film Festival — Best Short Film/Intl Competition [Winner]
Philadelphia Film Festival — Best Short Film (Nominee)
Stockholm Film Festival — Best Short Film (Nominee)
SXSW Film Festival — Animated Short (Nominee)
Toronto Intl Film Festival — Short Cuts Award for Best Film (Nominee)
Valladolid Intl Film Festival — Green Spike/Special Mention [Winner]
Valladolid Intl Film Festival — Silver Spike/Best Short Film [Winner]
Valladolid Intl Film Festival — Golden Spike/Best Short Film (Nominee)
Vila do Conde Intl Short Film Festival — Audience Award [Winner]
Vila do Conde Intl Short Film Festival — National Competition: Best Film [Winner]
Vista Curta Awards — Best Film/National Competition [Winner]
EXPERT PREDICTIONS
1. “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse”
2. “My Year of Dicks”
3. “An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It”
4. “The Flying Sailor”
5. “Ice Merchants”
PERSONAL PREDICTIONS
1. “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse”
2. “Ice Merchants”
3. “The Flying Sailor”
4. “My Year of Dicks”
5. “An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It”
