SA film Revolting Rhymes nominated for an Oscar

Banker Pig in Revolting Rhymes. Image supplied.

Directed by Jakob Schuh (Oscar-nominated for The Gruffalo) and Jan Lachauer (Oscar-nominated for Room on the Broom) and co-directed by Bin Han To, produced by Martin Pope and Michael Rose, Revolting Rhymes is an adaptation of Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake’s classic book of surprising fairy tales.

African short films on Oscar shortlist

22 Jan 2018

Produced by Magic Light Pictures, Revolting Rhymes was animated at Magic Light’s Berlin studio and Cape Town’s Triggerfish. It’s voiced by a stellar cast that includes Dominic West (The Affair) as The Wolf; Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones) as Red Riding Hood; and Gemma Chan (Humans) as Snow White.

Labour of love

“We’re beside ourselves right now, and just incredibly happy," say Schuh and Lachauer. "Happy for the film and happy for all our fantastic collaborators here in Berlin, our producers at Magic Light, as well as our wonderful team in South Africa. It’s a pretty unreal feeling to find your labour of love has been recognised in this way. We’re deeply grateful to the Academy for this nomination. This was a hard film to make. What always steered us forward was the level of love our team had for this story – and the blessings we received from Luke Kelly, Roald Dahl’s grandson, and from the great Quentin Blake. So, for everyone's work to receive such love in return today, it's the most beautiful reward."

Revolting Rhymes has already won nine major international awards: the Cristal at Annecy in France, the world’s premiere animation festival; Best Animation at the Bafta Children’s Awards; two awards at the European Animation Awards; Best Animated Short at TIFF Kids; Best Animation at the World Banff Media Festival in Canada; Best Storytelling at Shanghai International Film and TV Festival in China; the Children’s Jury prize at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival and the Audience Award at Filmfest Munchen.

Inspire Africans to enter animation industry

Revolting Rhymes is also nominated for a prestigious Annie Award on 3 February 2018 in Los Angeles; a British Animation Award on 15 March in London; and an International Emmy Kids Award, which will be presented in April 2018.

"Congrats to Jakob, Jan, Bin and the amazing team at Magic Light; it was such an honour to watch and learn from them," says Mike Buckland, head of production at Triggerfish. "We also feel immense gratitude towards our insanely hard-working, generous and talented crew, who fully deserve this recognition that their work stands up there with the best in the world. We're hoping Revolting Rhymes' success will inspire many more Africans to enter the animation industry, which is growing rapidly here but still not fast enough to keep up with demand. And we can't wait for South African audiences to finally be able to see Revolting Rhymes when it comes to Showmax in the near future."

The full list of nominees for the 90th Academy Awards follows below:

Best Picture

• Call Me by Your Name
• Darkest Hour
• Dunkirk
• Get Out
• Lady Bird
• Phantom Thread
• The Post
• The Shape of Water
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Lead Actor

• Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name
• Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
• Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
• Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
• Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Lead Actress

• Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
• Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
• Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
• Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
• Meryl Streep, The Post

Supporting Actor

• Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
• Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
• Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water
• Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World
• Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Supporting Actress

• Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
• Allison Janney, I, Tonya
• Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread
• Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
• Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water

Director

• Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan
• Get Out, Jordan Peele
• Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig
• Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson
• The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro

Animated Feature

• The Boss Baby, Tom McGrath, Ramsey Ann Naito
• The Breadwinner, Nora Twomey, Anthony Leo
• Coco, Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson
• Ferdinand, Carlos Saldanha
• Loving Vincent, Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, Sean Bobbitt, Ivan Mactaggart, Hugh Welchman

Animated Short

• Dear Basketball, Glen Keane, Kobe Bryant
• Garden Party, Victor Caire, Gabriel Grapperon
• Lou, Dave Mullins, Dana Murray
• Negative Space, Max Porter, Ru Kuwahata
• Revolting Rhymes, Jakob Schuh, Jan Lachauer

Adapted Screenplay

• Call Me by Your Name, James Ivory
• The Disaster Artist, Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
• Logan, Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green
• Molly’s Game, Aaron Sorkin
• Mudbound, Virgil Williams and Dee Rees

Original Screenplay

• The Big Sick, Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani
• Get Out, Jordan Peele
• Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig
• The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Martin McDonagh

Cinematography

• Blade Runner 2049, Roger Deakins
• Darkest Hour, Bruno Delbonnel
• Dunkirk, Hoyte van Hoytema
• Mudbound, Rachel Morrison
• The Shape of Water, Dan Laustsen

Best Documentary Feature

• Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, Steve James, Mark Mitten, Julie Goldman
• Faces Places, JR, Agnès Varda, Rosalie Varda
• Icarus, Bryan Fogel, Dan Cogan
• Last Men in Aleppo, Feras Fayyad, Kareem Abeed, Soren Steen Jepersen
• Strong Island, Yance Ford, Joslyn Barnes

Best Documentary Short Subject

• Edith+Eddie, Laura Checkoway, Thomas Lee Wright
• Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405, Frank Stiefel
• Heroin(e), Elaine McMillion Sheldon, Kerrin Sheldon
• Knife Skills, Thomas Lennon
• Traffic Stop, Kate Davis, David Heilbroner

Best Live Action Short Film

• DeKalb Elementary, Reed Van Dyk
• The Eleven O’Clock, Derin Seale, Josh Lawson
• My Nephew Emmett, Kevin Wilson, Jr.
• The Silent Child, Chris Overton, Rachel Shenton
• Watu Wote/All of Us, Katja Benrath, Tobias Rosen

Best Foreign Language Film

• A Fantastic Woman (Chile)
• The Insult (Lebanon)
• Loveless (Russia)
• On Body and Soul (Hungary)
• The Square (Sweden)

Film Editing

• Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss
• Dunkirk, Lee Smith
• I, Tonya, Tatiana S. Riegel
• The Shape of Water, Sidney Wolinsky
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Jon Gregory

Sound Editing

• Baby Driver, Julian Slater
• Blade Runner 2049, Mark Mangini, Theo Green
• Dunkirk, Alex Gibson, Richard King
• The Shape of Water, Nathan Robitaille, Nelson Ferreira
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Ren Klyce, Matthew Wood

Sound Mixing

• Baby Driver, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin
• Blade Runner 2049, Mac Ruth, Ron Bartlett, Doug Hephill
• Dunkirk, Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo
• The Shape of Water, Glen Gauthier, Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Stuart Wilson, Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick

Production Design

• Beauty and the Beast, Sarah Greenwood; Katie Spencer
• Blade Runner 2049, Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola
• Darkest Hour, Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
• Dunkirk, Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
• The Shape of Water, Paul D. Austerberry, Jeffrey A. Melvin, Shane Vieau

Original Score

• Dunkirk, Hans Zimmer
• Phantom Thread, Jonny Greenwood
• The Shape of Water, Alexandre Desplat
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi, John Williams
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Carter Burwell

Original Song

• Mighty River from Mudbound, Mary J. Blige
• Mystery of Love from Call Me by Your Name, Sufjan Stevens
• Remember Me from Coco, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez
• Stand Up for Something from Marshall, Diane Warren, Common
• This Is Me from The Greatest Showman, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul

Makeup and Hair

• Darkest Hour, Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski, Lucy Sibbick
• Victoria and Abdul, Daniel Phillips and Lou Sheppard
• Wonder, Arjen Tuiten

Costume Design

• Beauty and the Beast, Jacqueline Durran
• Darkest Hour, Jacqueline Durran
• Phantom Thread, Mark Bridges
• The Shape of Water, Luis Sequeira
• Victoria and Abdul, Consolata Boyle

Visual Effects

• Blade Runner 2049, John Nelson, Paul Lambert, Richard R. Hoover, Gerd Nefzer
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Jonathan Fawkner, Dan Sudick
• Kong: Skull Island, Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff White, Scott Benza, Mike Meinardus
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Ben Morris, Mike Mulholland, Chris Corbould, Neal Scanlan
• War for the Planet of the Apes, Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett, Joel Whist