Jan 11, 2024

Interview with Oscar nominees: directors Gabriel Augerai, Romain Augier and Yannick Jacquin discuss their favorite shots from "Boom".

We invited the makers of the 15 films nominated for this year's Academy Awards for Best Animated Short to share their favorite shots from their films and why. Each film is listed in the order the materials were received. Voting for the nominations will take place from today, January 11, through January 16.

In this piece, directors Gabriel Augeray, Romain Auger, and Yannick Jacan discuss their film "Boom," which already set the Academy's gold standard when it won the Student Academy Award last September. The trio's film was produced at the Ecole des Nouvelles Immages in Avignon, France, and was the school's first student Academy Award winner.

In this funny and charming film, brightly colored, two dumb birds try their best to save their eggs from a volcanic eruption. Boom has the wit and youthful energy of a student film, but the sophistication and high stakes of a big-budget action movie. We look forward to seeing more from these filmmakers in the future.

Below, Auger, Auger, and Jacquin share their favorite scenes from this short film and tell us what they mean:

This shot was the very first picture Romain drew when he presented his idea to the education team. [Auger's first drawing can be seen here, along with early artwork for all 15 finalists.]

We wrote, storyboarded, and threw a lot of gags throughout the production, but the original gags stayed and stayed until the final cut.

Read other entries in the series so far: