Tributes pour in as Kilkenny’s Cartoon Saloon makes Oscars’ shortlist again
KILKENNY’S world famous Cartoon Saloon team has done it again.
The local animation company’s new short film ‘Late Afternoon’ is in the running for another Oscar nomination after it made a shortlist of 10 chosen from around the world.
It is just the latest success story for the Kilkenny-based studio, whose first feature, ‘The Secret of Kells’, received an Oscar nomination. The company, which now employs over 200 people in Kilkenny, and their work has received Academy, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Emmy Nominations.
The short was written and directed by Louise Bagnall and produced by Nuria González Blanco for Cartoon Saloon.
It tells the story of an elderly woman, voiced by actress Fionnula Flanagan, as she drifts back through her memories, existing between two states – the past and the present.
The stunning cartoon is now in the running to make the final nominations for Best Animated Short at the Academy Awards, which will be announced in January.
Congratulating the Cartoon Saloon team, James Hickey, chief executive of Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland said: “I’m really delighted to see Louise and the ‘Late Afternoon’ team make it through to this stage of the Academy Awards process.
“This film tells a universal story which has appealed to international audiences around the world and particularly in North America. We wish them the best of luck in getting through to the final line-up of nominees in January,” he said.
The film had its New York premiere at Tribeca earlier this year, where it was awarded Best Animated Short, and was screened as part of a programme curated by Whoopi Goldberg.
It also won Best Animated Sequence in a Short Film at the Galway Film Fleadh last year and the Ifta for Best Animated Short.
Ms Bagnall is an animation graduate of the National Film School at IADT Dún Laoghaire and is creative director at Cartoon Saloon.
She previously worked on the studio’s Oscar-nominated feature films ‘Song of the Sea’ and ‘The Breadwinner’.
Culture Minister Josepha Madigan also offered her congratulations, adding: “Again Irish excellence is being recognised on a global scale.”
