“Pachyderm”, a French animated short film about incest, in the running for the Oscars

In addition to “Anatomy of a Fall” by Justine Triet launched in the race for the Oscars with five nominations, another French film, a delicate short film about a stolen childhood, will also be watched during the awards ceremony on March 10.

In the list of nominations announced Tuesday by the Academy of Oscars in view of the ceremony scheduled for March 10, a French animated short film by Stéphanie Clément caught our attention. Ten minutes long, this poignant film with poetic and delicate drawings tells with great elegance a terrible story of incest and stolen childhood.

The short film can be seen on Arte.tv and below until March 31, 2024.

Louise is 9 years old. Like every summer, she is entrusted to her grandparents for the holidays. At home, where everything is clean and well ordered, nothing can happen to him, assures his grandmother. However, the monster is there, very close, lurking in the floorboards. Everything happens quietly, when her grandfather takes her into the forest after dark to listen to the cries of the animals. Metaphors abound, from the horn of the famous pachyderm to the grandfather’s hatred of wilted flowers.

“Pachyderm deals with incest and traumatic amnesia through metaphorical evocation and the poetic force that animation allows to deploy”explains the production (TNZPV Productions & Folimage) of this film, which has already won an award at the Foyle Film Festival. “We hope that this film will join forces with other works, which we consider to be of public interest, to continue to silence silences, raise awareness and free speech,” is added.

A second French animated short film nominated for an Oscar

At the Oscars, Pachyderm is in competition with four other animated short films:
Letter to a Pig by Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter
Ninety-Five Senses by Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess
Our Uniform by Yegane Moghaddam
War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko by Dave Mullins and Brad Booker

Letter to a Pigproduced in France, is also visible on Arte.tv until March 31, 2024. The synopsis? A Holocaust survivor’s traumatic memory leads a young schoolgirl on an inner journey, searching for her own path, as the line between animal and human nature blurs…