by “Ice Merchants”, the first Portuguese film to be nominated for an Oscar, in the category of Best Animated Short Film, can be played at home on the day of the ceremony.
Distributor Cinemundo announced today that João Gonzalez’s film will be available on all national Video on Demand operators on Sunday, March 12 (the ceremony starts at 1 a.m. on Monday Mainland Portugal time).
The Filmin platform and the Cinemundo website will also have the film that won best short film at the Annie Awards on February 25, the most important for animated cinema in the US.
At the same time, ‘Ice-Merchants continues to be shown in more than 20 Portuguese cinemas, where it has already been seen by over 7,500 viewers in three weeks.
Joao Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano
Credits: Patrick Hadjadj
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Father and son live aloft, in a house perched on top of a cliff, and work in the ice trade, which they sell to a village on the plain far below. How do they get there? They are launched into the air, by parachute, in a way that is both reckless and visually stunning: from this simple but graphically very daring starting point, making full use of vertigo and the most extreme perspectives, “Ice Merchants”, completely without dialogue, manages to captivate audiences around the world in a powerful and universal metaphor for family, loss and reconciliation.
At just 14 minutes, it became one of the rare Portuguese animated shorts to have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival (after 1994’s ‘Os Salteadores’ at Critics’ Week, ‘Estória do Gato e da Lua’ in 1995, in the Official Selection in Competition, and “Água Mole”, already in 2017, in the Directors’ Fortnight) and the first to be awarded there, with the Leitz Cine Discovery trophy, reserved for the best short film in competition. .
It was the beginning of a period full of awards around the world, culminating in the first Oscar nomination for a Portuguese film.
The film is the first film made professionally by João Gonzalez, a 27-year-old director with classical piano training and animation studies at London’s Royal College of Art, where he made the two previous films, “The Voyage” and The “Nestor”, both already in strong festival circulation.
The production belonged to the cooperative Cola Animation, produced by the versatile Bruno Caetano, 43, also a comic editor and himself the director of stop-motion animation films such as the multi-award-winning “O Peculiar Caso do Senhor Jacinto.” and charming music videos like “Cinegirasol” and “Fundo de Garrafa” for Azeitonas.
“ICE MERCHANTS” TRAILER.
