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Joanna Quinn and Les Mills’ Affairs of the Art (Beryl Productions International/National Film Board of Canada) has been nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the Academy Awards.
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“We are absolutely thrilled and delighted to hear that our film has got a nomination—it’s the fulfillment of a dream that we’ve had since we first started making films. We are especially grateful to our Canadian co-producers at the NFB for their unstinting support, professionalism, and expertise throughout the whole production process—a million thanks to them and, of course, to all of our fantastic production crew in Wales.”
—Joanna Quinn and Les Mills
About the nomination
This is the second trip to the Oscars for Quinn, whose animated short Famous Fred (1996) was nominated at the 70th Academy Awards. Mills was the producer of Wife of Bath – The Canterbury Tales, nominated the following year, but it’s his first time as an official Oscar nominee. It’s also the second Oscar-nominated film produced by Michael Fukushima, who retired from the NFB in March 2021 after 23 years at the NFB’s English Program Animation Studio.
Since making her first award-winning film, Girls Night Out (1987), which introduced audiences to working-class heroine Beryl, Joanna Quinn has become one of Britain’s most distinctive animators. Quinn and her writing and producing partner, Les Mills, created three more films about Beryl: Body Beautiful (1990), Dreams and Desires: Family Ties (2006) and now Affairs of the Art, which was produced by Mills (Beryl Productions International) and Michael Fukushima (NFB).
The NFB is bringing all Canadians into the Oscar celebration with free streaming of Affairs of the Art from February 8 to March 27 on NFB.ca. The film can also be streamed for free in Canada and the US on The New Yorker screening room.
This is the 76th nomination for the NFB, which has received more Academy Award nominations than any other film organization based outside of Hollywood. NFB productions and co-productions have won the big prize on 12 occasions.
Quick facts
Affairs of the Art
A film by Joanna Quinn and Les Mills
A co-production between Beryl Productions International Ltd (Les Mills) and the National Film Board of Canada (Michael Fukushima).
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/affairs-of-the-art
Highlights:
- Beryl’s back in Affairs of the Art, which showcases one family’s eccentric yet endearing obsessions with everything from drawing to screw threads and pet taxidermy.
- Affairs of the Art was supported by a stellar Canadian creative crew, including Olivier Calvert, sound designer on Sylvain Bellemare’s team for the Denis Villeneuve film Arrival, which won the Oscar for Sound Editing in 2017, and foley artist Nicolas Gagnon.
- The voice cast features Menna Trussler (Beryl), Brendan Charleson (Ifor and Colin), Joanna Quinn (Beverly) and Mali Ann Rees (Mum and Edie).
- Since its debut at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in January 2021, where it won the Best Animation award, Affairs of the Art has been screened at more than 65 festivals and picked up 27 awards, including:
- the Special Jury Distinction for Direction, Short Film, at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival;
- the Jury Award in the Comedy category at Aspen Shortsfest;
- the Audience Award at the New York City Short Film Festival;
- and the Gold Hugo for Best Animated Short Film at the Chicago International Film Festival.
About the 94th Academy Awards
The 94th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide.