Our stunning 11 1/2″ 24K custom gold statuette is manufactured by R.S. Owens, the same company that manufactures the Oscar. The winner of our Best Short Film category will receive this award at no cost to them, while winners in other categories will be given the option to acquire it. Additional awards and prizes may be Read More ...
Title: The Adventures of Father Bear and his midlife crisis
Runtime: 12 min
Country: Australia
Director: Matt Bolin
Placement: Honorable Mention
Competition: December, 2020
OR: What was the inspiration for your film?
MB: Growing up I was a big fan of Looney tunes episodes, It was during the 90’s looney tunes was experiencing a return to popularity on Television and in Australia at the time on television they would air weekly. At a young age I really loved their quirky slapstick humour they used and inspired me to write my own surreal short animation films. Old school Nickelodeon cartoons were another big inspiration to me at such a young age especially Rocco’s modern life and Rugrats where anything could happen.
OR: When did you conceive the idea for your film and how long did it take before it was realized?
MB: I first came up with the concept of a three bears parody where father bear was going through a midlife crisis around 2012 the same time as my previous animation The adventures of Wolfdogg and the three little pig’s in my head. It was the sort of thing were it just came to me but due to lack of experience and knowledge at the time was unable come up with the appropriate way to adapt it to screen. It wasn’t until 2017 when I really started to re visit both concepts and figure out exactly how I could be able to make it work. The answer animation. First was The Adventures of Wolfdogg and The three little pig’s and after I completed that I began to work on The Adventures of Father bear and his midlife crisis. Finally now both are finished.
OR: What was the most challenging aspect of working in a short film format?
MB: I would say making a short film format was actually the easiest form of producing personally over feature length. Anything with Animation is always going to be time consuming and costly so doing it in a short film format was the most practical option for me both financially and experience wise in the industry. Both myself and the animator I worked with again are both in our 20’s and trying to learn as much as possible on a journey through the industry.
OR: What was the most challenging aspect of your production?
MB: It would have to be making it happen during the thick of lockdown, Although because it was animation production wasn’t as stalled as some of the live action projects I am currently at work on it still made me have to be nimble when arranging things as the situation (virus outbreaks) around us could of escalated at short notice creating a bunch of new restrictions etc. Fortunately the animator was able to animate most of it at home and all the voice recordings were finished before the outbreak. If it wasn’t for the virus though it probably would of been finished earlier thus released earlier but such is life basically.
OR: Do you have any advice for first-time filmmakers?
MB: Go for it, If you are passionate about it and have an idea follow you’re dreams. People might be sceptical at first about your career choice but eventually after you’ve made a couple of films and they notice it entertains people they’ll get it.
