A record five films from The New Yorker Studios have been nominated for the 95th Academy Awards

 

A record five films from The New Yorker Studios have been nominated for the 95th Academy Awards, joining a list of nominees announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this morning. Every shorts category is represented: “Stranger at the Gate” and “Haulout” were nominated in the Documentary Short Film category; “Ice Merchants” and “The Flying Sailor” were nominated in the Animated Short Film category; and “Night Ride” was nominated in the Live Action Short Film category.

To date, fifteen New Yorker films have been nominated for an Oscar. The Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 12th, in Los Angeles.

“We are delighted that The New Yorker Studios has been recognized with a record five nominations,” Agnes Chu, the President of Condé Nast Entertainment, said. “Congratulations to these illuminating filmmakers who embody the creative excellence of The New Yorker’s journalism and who connect and unite us through the storytelling power of cinema.”

“It’s thrilling to see our films receive an unprecedented five nominations in shorts categories,” David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, added. “We’re proud to support these talented filmmakers whose work challenges, informs, and entertains. I’m grateful to the Academy for recognizing their artistry and craft, and to all of my colleagues on the video team who have expanded the ways we tell stories at The New Yorker.”

Details about the five films follow, and the filmmakers are available for interviews. Press stills are available for each title.

Documentary Short Film

“Stranger at the Gate,” by Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones, tells the story of Richard (Mac) McKinney, a former Marine who returns to his Indiana hometown after tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Struggling with P.T.S.D. and driven by Islamophobia, McKinney plans to attack a local mosque—but, when he starts spending time there, encounters a faith community that welcomes and profoundly changes him.

“Haulout,” directed by the sister-and-brother filmmaking team Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev, follows a marine biologist living in the Siberian Arctic as he chronicles the planet’s largest walrus haulout. The gathering of thousands of these marine mammals is a consequence of climate change; warming seas have forced the walruses to congregate on land, where stampedes and trampling can result in fatalities.

Animated Short Film

In João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano’s “Ice Merchants,” a father and son share a cozy but vulnerable home, precariously situated at the top of an icy cliff. What seems at first to be a whimsical portrait of parachuting ice harvesters ultimately tells a much deeper story—one revealed without dialogue, using only music and animation.

For “The Flying Sailor,” the filmmakers Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby drew inspiration from the Halifax Explosion, in 1917, in which a steamship loaded with explosives detonated following a collision. The film depicts a sailor who is ripped from his perfectly normal day and launched into the sky, making it an exhilarating meditation on the wonder and fragility of being. 

Live Action Short Film

In “Night Ride, by Eirik Tveiten and Gaute Lid Larssen, Ebba finds herself driving a purloined tram. As the tram makes its rounds, passengers come aboard, and a distressing scene begins to unfold. When it seems easier to mind her own business and look the other way, Ebba is challenged to speak up in an uncomfortable situation.

The films are presented by The New Yorker Studios, and for nine consecutive years, The New Yorker has had an Academy-nominated film in distribution. The documentary shorts are part of the award-winning New Yorker Documentary series, which showcases innovative short films from around the world. Produced by both emerging and renowned filmmakers, the films depict uncommon perspectives on issues that matter. The short docs in the series have garnered numerous honors, including Edward R. Murrow Awards, National Magazine Awards, SPD Awards, and an Emmy Award. The scripted films are part of the “Screening Room” series, which features fictional films that will make you laugh, cry, and challenge your view of the mundane and the extraordinary.