The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today its short-list of the 10 animated short films that will vie for nomination slots for this years Academy Awards. Thirty-seven shorts had originally qualified in this category and were screened last weekend for members of the shorts branch. The short-list includes Nick Park’s latest Wallace and Gromit short, Pixar’s Partly Cloudy and Cordell Barker’s Runaway.

The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company and a link to their website:

The Cat Piano - Eddie White and Ari Gibson, directors (The People’s Republic of Animation). A Cat Writer tells about a fiendish piano made of cats. When the keyboard is struck, spikes go through the cats’s tales, making them “sing”.

French Roast - Fabrice O. Joubert, director (Pumpkin Factory/Bibo Films). A man in a French Restaurant loses his wallet. He sits at the table drinking coffee after coffee until a homeless man kindly pays his check. There is a subplot about a bank robber who is really an old lady wearing a mask.

Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty - Nicky Phelan, director, and Darragh O’Connell, producer (Brown Bag Films) - see clip above! An old lady tells her frightened grand daughter of not being invited to Sleeping Beauty’s christening party.

The Kinematograph - Tomek Baginski, director-producer (Platige Image). The “inventor” of cinema has his own camera made of wood, stereo sound with two Victrolas, and a two-layer color process before the Lumiere brothers experiments, however, his beloved wife dies of consumption and he abandons his apparatus, just as the Lumiere’s breakthrough is being announced in the street by newsboys.

The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte) - Javier Recio Gracia, director (Kandor Graphics and Green Moon). The Grim Reaper keeps trying to collect the soul of an old woman. She is brought back to the living numerous times by her well-meaning young doctor. The old woman really wants to die and join her beloved husband however, so she electrocutes herself towards the end of the film.

Logorama - Nicolas Schmerkin, producer (Autour de Minuit). Mo-Cap. Imagine a world made up entirely of advertising characters, such as the Michelin tire guys, Bob’s Big Boy, Esso Oil Drop and an evil Ronald MacDonald who shoots everybody with a machine gun.

A Matter of Loaf and Death - Nick Park, director (Aardman Animations Ltd.) Wallace, the baker, meets his dream girl, the Lite Dough Girl, who has put on a bit of weight since her days as an advertising model for flour. She has killed twelve baker husbands and wants to make Wallace the 13th. Of course Gromit sees through her flirtatious act and manages to stop her from killing Wallace. Gromit has a romance with the Dough Girl’s French Poodle into the bargain.

Partly Cloudy - Peter Sohn, director (Pixar Animation Studios). Clouds make the babies out of bits of water vapor and give the infants to embattled storks who deliver the kids to their parents. One cloud gets stuck with making the “prickly” critters, such as crocks, porcupines, sharks, etc.

Runaway - Cordell Barker, director (National Film Board of Canada). A passenger train has a hard time scaling a mountain and runs out of coal, the passengers throw all their clothes in the firebox and half the passenger cars to get steam up.

Variete - Roelof van den Bergh, director (il Luster Productions). A man juggles plates on poles with the various elements of his life on top of the plates, such as girlfriend, school teacher, best buds, parents, wife, children, etc. Eventually he can’t sustain the numerous spinning plates and all collapse, clearing the way for the next generation.

First a few quick snaps:

Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells) and Donnachada Daly

Lou Romano (center) gives a young artist some advice.

Craig McCracken (right) and his wife Lauren Faust (left) look over some of their notes.

For a Friday afternoon of an inaugural event it was pretty spectacular. This was supposed to be the “slow day”, but the first day of the CTN-Expo in Burbank was a overwhelming success due to the large amount of attendees and the incredible array of artist exhibitors. In addition to the large exhibitor room, there are two rooms of informative panels which are seemingly filled at all times. An interview with Mike Mignola (Hellboy) and a seminar on Crafting the Pitch were particularly popular. The day concluded with a VIP Party which ran from 6pm to midnight.

Day two starts today at 10am. If you want to be in the industry, want to be inspired by other artists, or simply want to hang out with a who’s who of current cartoon making, check out the CTN-Expo today or tomorrow. If you were there yesterday (or today) let us know what you think of the Expo in the Comments section below.

I just found out that as part of its monthly Monday Nights With Oscar film series in New York, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present eight 35mm UPA shorts, including Academy Award winners Gerald McBoing Boing (1950) and Mister Magoo’s Puddle Jumper (1956), in a program selected and hosted by Oscar-winning animator and animation historian John Canemaker.

The screening will take place on Monday, December 14, at 7:00 pm (EST). Location is the Academy Theater at Lighthouse International (111 E. 59th Street, NYC). Tickets are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students w/ID. Advanced tickets must be purchased online or at the theater box office on the night of the event (pending availability). New Yorkers, check this out.

Last night I attended the opening of the Tim Burton exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, and quite simply, it’s terrific! I’ll be writing more about it soon, but if you are in the NY area anytime between now and next April, make a point of checking out this show.

We got in a bit earlier than most folks last night, and while we were looking at the exhibit, Tim Burton walked into the room. If you can forgive the shaky phone video, here’s a sweet little moment I caught between Burton and actor Geoffrey Holder:

A new museum of animation, cartoon and comic art has opened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It’s called ToonSeum and it just had its grand opening last weekend. Reportedly it’s not a huge space, but is nicely done. Their first exhibit focuses on animation art:

“Enchanted Drawings: A Century of Animation.” The exhibit will feature original art from Gertie the Dinosaur to Spongebob and more. On display will be rare artifacts, including an original Disney animation director’s desk from the early Hyperion studio.

It’s quite an achievement to establish a cartoon museum in such a sports oriented city — I wish it luck. The ToonSeum is located on the first floor of the Bruno Building at 945 Liberty Avenue. The Enchanted Drawings exhibit runs through Jan. 3, 2010.

(Thanks, Rebecca Yasick)

The CTN-EXPO has given us a prize package to give away to one of our lucky readers. The third correct answer received below (in our comments section) to the trivia question below will win. The first and second place winners will receive an animated DVD (of our choice).

The Big Prize: A FREE 2-night stay at the Burbank Marriott Hotel (Friday and Saturday), a Free 3-Day Pass to the CTN Animation Expo, and a Saturday morning Breakfast with the Pros.

The Easy Question: Don Bluth is a special guest of the CTN-Expo this weekend. What was the name of the first feature film Don directed? HINT: Released in 1982. The Contest is now Closed!

The Fine Print: Do not enter this contest unless you can actually use the CTN prize package. Let me repeat, do not enter this contest unless you can be in Burbank this weekend to attend the CTN-X. If the 3rd place respondant cannot attend the weekend, the prize will be offered to the next contestant (5th, 6th, 7th, and so on) until a winner can be determined.

The Contest is now Closed! The Grand Prize winner is Robert Palmer. The other prizes went to George Colon and Rick Ridgway. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all who entered. Hope to see everyone at CTN-EXPO this weekend!

Guess who’s going to have a booth at the CTN Expo this weekend? Nickelodeon, Disney, Dreamworks, Don Bluth, Cal Arts, Sony Pictures Animation, Warner Bros. Animation, Animboom, Stuart Ng and about 50 others - including studio recruiters, artists with sketchbooks and me (Jerry Beck), where I’ll be selling old stuff like toys, comic books, maybe a few 16mm cartoons, DVDs, and fun stuff like that. Here’s a partial list of vendors.

Everyone who reads Cartoon Brew in Southern California should plan to drop in for a day or two. To help out, tomorrow morning (Wednesday), 10am, right here, we’ll have a contest. I’ll ask a few trivia questions and the prizes will be free VIP passes to this weekend’s animation event — the CTN ANIMATION EXPO in Burbank.

Tonight in Glendale, Joe Bev will be doing a live taping of his radio show at the Glendale Library Auditorium with special guests June Foray, Bill Marx (son of Harpo); Mark Evanier; Earl Kress; Gregg Berger,and more. Tonight at 7:00 pm at 222 E. Harvard St. in Glendale, California. Admission is FREE. No reservations are required. Autographed books by the participants will be on sale - Proceeds from the sale of books to benefit the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archives.