Oscar Shortlist Interviews: Director J.P. Vine Shares His Favorite Shot From ‘Cardboard’ (EXCLUSIVE)

We invited the filmmakers behind each of this year’s 15 Oscar-shortlisted animated shorts to share their favorite shot from their film and explain why it’s special to them.

Nomination voting starts on January 12 and runs through January 16.

Today’s piece is on J.P. Vine’s favorite scene from Cardboard, a sharp-looking CG short turning on a single father struggling to hold things together for his two young piglets. The absence of dialogue underscores Dad’s sense of personal failure. His children, however, interpret their new reality very differently. Armed with only a cardboard box and a pair of squirt guns, they transform their new surroundings into an elaborate science-fiction adventure.

Here’s Vine’s favorite shot from the film, and why it means so much to him:

The moment I’ve chosen is a shot of Dad looking at the picture of his wife with the light shining across his face. While Dad, burdened with his past, feels he’s made a horrible error, his twin children see it as the start of an explosive, imaginative adventure.

As their game escalates into visual spectacle and imaginative leaps, it collides with Dad’s emotional state in reality. For all the visual pop and fun, it was making this very simple shot that stands out as a highlight. Dad has been driven crazy by his kids’ antics, and when left alone in the trailer, has had a bit of a breakdown. Here is the moment where Dad lingers on the picture of his partner before his attention is drawn outside to the kids.

It carries the emotional crux of the movie, and I love working with animators on this kind of shot. The short is full of kinetic, quick and funny intercutting, and this was the moment to let the edit breathe and play out for the audience.

The animator, Oleksiy Popov, has a real sensitivity in his performances, and it was a simple direction from me:  Dad is thinking ‘Why aren’t you here?’ Then, the presence of Mum is revealed in the light through the window, leading his eyes to the kids playing outside. I love it when animators connect with the idea, then immerse themselves in the performance.