cameras take five

Each November, a committee of Short Films and Features Animation Branch Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences convenes in Los Angeles and in New York to review the qualified short animated films submitted for Academy Award consideration. The daylong voting screenings results are tabulated into a "short list" of up to ten films from which a larger representation of the Branch membership vote for the films that will become the Oscar Nominees for Best Animated Short Film. Often people wonder, "Why did certain films not get nominated?" or "What distinguished one film over another to make it to become the Oscar Winner?" And others wonder, "What are the voting procedures?", "What qualifies a film?" and "What how does someone become an Academy member?"

This program series features four presentations and one workshop special that will entertain, inform, and challenge the viewing audience’s preconceptions as to the lesser known facts about the filmmaking world’s most sought after and respected honor, the Academy Award. Since 1998, Acme Filmworks’ Founder and Executive Producer Ron Diamond has toured annual collections of animated shorts at the major animation studios and top universities to inspire and share the wealth of animated shorts being created around the world. In the 12 editions of the Animation Show of Shows, 21 of the selected films went on to receive Oscar nominations and 6 won the Academy Award. Diamond also organizes and hosts the AWN Oscar Showcase Tour, the ten-day animation industry Red Carpet welcoming of the Animated Short Film Nominees.