The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced its short lists for several categories on Tuesday, and White Eye, a film by Israeli director Tomer Shushan, made the short list in the Best Live-Action Short category.
White Eye won the Oscar-qualifying Grand Jury Award at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival in 2020. The film, which was shot in one take, is about an Israeli who searches for his stolen bike and meets foreign workers in the course of his journey.
White Eye has been screened at many film festivals around the world, including Nashville, Palm Springs ShortFest, Encounters Film Festival and Show Me Shorts. Additionally, it won the 2020 Best International Short Fiction Award at the Galway Film Fleadh and 2020 Best Short Film Award at the Haifa International Film Festival.
Palestinian-British director Farah Nabulsi’s short film The Present, starring Saleh Bakri, best known for The Band’s Visit, was also short-listed in the Best Live-Action Short category.
The winner of this year’s Ophir Award, Ruthy Pribar’s Asia, which stars Shira Haas, was not among the 15 films short-listed in the Best International Feature Film category, which used to be called the Best Foreign Language Film category.
The short list included Sun Children from Iran and The Man Who Sold His Skin, a Tunisian film. Last year, for the first time, a foreign film, Parasite, from Korea, won the Oscar for Best Picture, as well as Best International Feature, so this is a closely watched category. However, it is not expected that any of the short-listed films in this category will go on to win Best Picture this year. Ninety-three countries submitted movies in the category this year.
The Oscar nominations will be announced on March 15, and the ceremony is scheduled to take place on April 25. Normally, the short lists are revealed in late December or early January, and the nominations come out in mid-January, ahead of a ceremony that takes place in February. But due to the pandemic, this is no ordinary year.